The speaker is Edward Teller and this is possibly the most blunt interview he ever conducted. It was recorded after President Ronald Reagan proposed Star Wars as a technology to protect America from a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller were both prominent physicists who played significant roles in the development of atomic and nuclear weapons during the mid-20th century, particularly during the Manhattan Project which led to the creation of the atomic bomb. Their professional interactions were complex, marked by both collaboration and tension.
Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Los Alamos laboratory, where the first atomic bombs were developed, while Teller was one of the many prominent scientists working under him.
Teller soon became focused on the potential for a more powerful weapon, the hydrogen bomb (or thermonuclear bomb), which was many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer, after witnessing the devastation caused by the atomic bombs, was more cautious about pursuing a new, even more powerful weapon.
Their personal relations soured over time. Teller was often at odds with the majority of the scientific community at Los Alamos, which included Oppenheimer. Their differing personalities and visions for the future of nuclear weapons contributed to the tensions.
After World War II, during the McCarthy era and its fervor over potential communist sympathies and affiliations, Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked in 1954 after a controversial hearing. One of the factors that contributed to this decision was Teller's testimony, in which he did not directly accuse Oppenheimer of disloyalty but insinuated that he might be a security risk. This testimony effectively ended Oppenheimer's role in official nuclear policy-making and drove a further wedge between him and many in the scientific community, including Teller.
Over time Oppenheimer came to be seen as a tragic figure, a brilliant scientist who contributed to the creation of a devastating weapon and later had regrets, while Teller was often portrayed as a hawkish advocate for nuclear armament, earning him the unofficial title "father of the hydrogen bomb."
Dr. Edward Teller was a pivotal figure in the history of nuclear physics and the development of nuclear weapons. While he's best known for his work on the hydrogen bomb (or thermonuclear bomb), he is also a controversial figure for several reasons.
Teller was closely aligned with conservative elements in the U.S. government and was seen as an advocate for a strong military and aggressive nuclear stance during the Cold War. His relationships with figures like Lewis Strauss (a member of the Atomic Energy Commission) placed him at the center of several political battles within the U.S. nuclear establishment.
Even after the primary years of nuclear weapons development, Teller continued to advocate for nuclear energy - initiatives that were sometimes considered controversial. For example, he was a supporter of the Strategic Defense Initiative (often colloquially known as "Star Wars") under President Ronald Reagan.
The term "Star Wars" colloquially refers to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983. The main goal of SDI was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system that could prevent nuclear missiles from striking the U.S. This would be achieved by using ground-based and space-based systems to intercept and destroy incoming ballistic missiles.
President Reagan's primary motivation was to provide a defense against the substantial nuclear arsenal of the Soviet Union, thereby rendering nuclear weapons obsolete and ensuring that no city or territory in the U.S. would be vulnerable to a missile attack.
The envisioned system was futuristic, proposing the use of ground and space-based missile systems like Israel's Iron Dome, advanced radars, and even concepts like particle beams and laser systems launched from space or ground installations.
The cost of developing and deploying a complete SDI system was astronomical. Estimates varied, but many believed the program could cost hundreds of billions to over a trillion dollars.
Some military and strategic experts believed that SDI could upset the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), the idea that the certainty of mutual destruction in a nuclear war would prevent any rational actor from initiating such a conflict. If one side believed it could defend itself effectively against a nuclear strike, it might be more likely to use nuclear weapons first.
After the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the urgency behind SDI diminished. The program was restructured under subsequent administrations and eventually evolved into today's more limited missile defense efforts, like the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system.