Historians have not always been kind to Edward. Part of this has been, well, historical. Scientists after the war - or at least the most famous ones - were of liberal bent, and during the 1960's of the flower power era it became very unfashionable to have pushed for the H-bomb. Edward, on the other hand, been pictured as a man who had an almost rabid obsession with formenting the East/West arms race. Still, a lot of scientists of international reputation - such as Ernest O. Lawrence and Luis Alvarez - also advocated strong defense. But if anyone remembers Ernest it's as the man who built the first atom -smasher and Luis is known as the man who, with his son, Walter, first decided the dinosaurs were wiped out by a comet crashing into the earth. So why do so many people have a problem with Edward?

What did irreparable harm to Edward's standing was his testimony at the Congressional hearings that were being held to determine if J. Robert Oppenheimer should keep his security clearance. Oppie had been the scientific director of the Manhattan Project during World War II which developed the A-bomb. But Oppie's former associations with left wing organizations, communist sympathizers, and actual card-carrying communists had made him suspect in the government echelons. He had, though, convinced his boss, General Leslie Groves, that he had put his left wings associations behind him. So after the war, Oppie found himself a hero and arguably the most famous man in the world. He immediately assummed a leading role in advising the US Government on the nuclear program. Oppie, though, had begun to have misgivings about his role in the A-Bomb project, misgivings which Edward couldn't understand and he found himself actively opposing Oppie's recommendations.

Actually Edward's and Oppie's differences went back to the early days of the atomic bomb research. In 1943 Edward joined the team Oppie had assembled at Los Alamos. Supposedly Edward thought he would be in charge of the theoretical physics divison, but instead Oppie gave the head job to Cornell physicist, Hans Bethe. But when Oppie and Hans tried to get Edward to help out on the A-bomb, they found he just wanted to work on the tangential project of whether deuterium or tritium - that is heavier forms of hydrogen - could be fused to make helium and subsequently the biggest blast on earth. Since it was clear Edward was going to do what he wanted anyway, Oppie let Edward keep working on the "Super" as they called it.

The situation at Los Alamos has given armchair psychologists a field day with Edward, saying it explains his resentment and future opposition to Oppie. Certainly from that time on, whatever Oppie was in favor of, Edward seemed against. So when the war was over, Oppie began to talk about things like disarmament, banning nuclear weapons, cooperation with the Russians, and such stuff, Edward thought his former boss had gone off the beam. Edward, who as a young man had seen first hand the worst side of Communism, did not trust the Russians and thought the only way to handle them to offer a stick big enough to annihilate a major metropolitan area.

Eventually, Oppie's loyalty and suitability to be privy of the US nuclear secrets were questioned (President Truman even called him a "crybaby" for expressing remorse about developing the atomic bomb.). Now Oppie himself admitted in his early days he had been a "fellow traveler" and had friends (and relatives) who were card carrying Communists. During the war, the FBI had shadowed him and once waited outside the door of his girlfriend's apartment while Oppie stayed the night. They also opened his mail and bugged his phone and office. Soon Oppie found he had plenty of enemies in the government who didn't want him around.

Eventually, Lewis Strauss, one of the commissioners of the Atomic Energy Commission, told Oppie they would be investigating him because of "derogatory" information in his file. After discussions various options with Strauss (pronounced "Straws") and not knowing he was being set up, Oppie decided to ask for a hearing to clear his name. A lot of Oppie's colleagues were called to testify and many - included General Groves - defended him. But when Edward took the stand, he said he found Oppie's views confused and contradictory, and he would personally prefer that the security clearance not be renewed. Oppie's security clearance was not renewed.

It's unlikely that Edward's testimony was critical or even that important in Oppie losing his clearance. Instead, what hurt Oppie the most was the so-called "Chevalier Incident". As best as we can tell - or at least in one version of the story - Oppie had been back home in Berkeley and had some friends over. When he went to the kitchen, his friend and fellow faculty member, Haakon Chevalier (known as "Hoke" to his friends), followed. When they were alone, Haakon said he had been approached by a third party concerning "sharing" nuclear secrets with the Russians. Oppie put an end to the conversation in short order, but felt he had to say something to the the security chief of the Manhattan Project.

Naturally, the idea that someone was trying to weasel information directly from Los Alamos workers was a big concern. The head of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, asked Oppie what had gone on. Oppie said that three members of the Manhattan project had been approached by someone trying to obtain atomic secrets. He did not personally know the person who tried to make the contact, he said, and did not want to divulge the name of the three workers or the person who approached him. At first General Groves did not press the matter. Later though the security officers go so concerned that Groves asked Oppie for more details, including the names of everyone involved.

Well, Opie said, the man who approached him was his friend Hoke. He made up the "cock and bull" story of three workers. He was the only one Hoke spoke to. He did not believe Hoke was acting in any clandestine manner and was just passing on a suggestion about legitimate collaboration. General Groves decided not to take the matter further.

Well, Oppie's congressional hearing was in 1954, not 1945, the Joe McCarthy a year earlier had pegged Oppie as a Communist. The congressmen listening to Oppie and the others finally decided that Oppie either covered up and misled the security head of the Manhattan project, or he lied to General Groves, or he was lying to them. In any case, they said, Oppie was unreliable and shouldn't be privy to important state secrets. So in the end, for whatever reason, Edward got his wish. Oppie was never involved in nuclear work for the government again.

In the past Oppie has been painted as the persecuted martyr to freedom, hounded by fanatical paranoiacs. That may be true as far as it goes, but when Oppie appeared before HUAC in 1949 - at a time when he was still held in the highest esteem by almost everyone - he was certainly a most welcome and cooperating witness. In answer to the various questions, he named names as communists, fellow travelers, and leftists a number of his soon to be former friends and students.

Among the strangest of his testimony was regarding Bernard Peters, who had fled Nazi Germany before studying physics at Berkeley with Oppie. Oppie told the committee that Bernard was a Red. He couldn't be trusted. Bernard may have criticized Communists, yes, but because the Commies didn't advocate enough violence. Bernard, Oppie added, took part in street fights. Well, yes the street fights were against the Nazis but that still shows how dangerous and violent Bernard was. Why, when Bernard was arrested and taken to the Dachau concentration camp, he had used his "guile" to escape. How could you trust a man like that?

Edward wasn't the only person who found Oppie's statements confused and contradictory. Bernard certainly did particularly when he lost his job as a direct result of Oppie's testimony. Understandably miffed, he wrote Oppie, demanding an explanation. He had never, he said, ever taken part in street fights against the Nazi's, although he wished he had. But he had never been a member of the Communist Party, as Oppie knew full well. So how could Oppie have made up and testified to such drivel? Oppie had no really satisfactory answer because there really wasn't one.

For the rest of his long life, Edward found himself repeatedly asked about his testimony in the matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Even in old age, he usually answered with patience, pointing out that he was giving testimony under oath, and an oath put limits on the way he could testify. At the same time, on other topics, Edward could be a bit testy and once he walked out of an interview with 60 minutes host, Mike Wallace.

People still debate whether Edward's arguments for a strong defense was why in the more than 60 years since the first been borne out by the fact that the only wartime use of nuclear weapons was by the United States in 1945. Against a rational opponent, they argue, beginning a war that would result in complete annihilation of both sides is indeed a deterrent against starting the war.

That's a rational opponent.

References

Edward Teller: The Real Dr. Strangelove, Peter Goodchild, Harvard Univesity Press (2005). The only real biogrpahy of Edward to date. He does, though, feature prominantly in many other books about the history of the A- and H-bombs.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes, Simon and Schuster, (1986) The most comprehensive history of the history of the Atomic Bomb but with much about Edward's interest in what was then called the "Super".

Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Richard Rhodes, Simon and Schuster, (1996). What it says, the history of the making of the hydrogen bomb. A more convoluted tale since the Russians were also making their own bomb but this details Edward's and Stan's collaboration - and competition.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Knopf (2006). A good book about Oppie and also tells of his dealings - often difficult - with Edward.

In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Security Clearance Hearing, Richard Polenberg, Cornell University Press (2002). A number of books about Oppie use the basic title hear as it was the ominous introduction in one of the security committee's minutes.

"Predictions of Molecular Geometries and Electronic Spectra of Complex Unsaturated Molecules from MC-LCAO-MO Method. II. 1,3-Butadiene and Cyclobutadiene", Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, 49 (6), pp 1502-1507 (1976). One of a number of papers that show cyclobutadiene is not as simple Huckel theory states and which specifically cites the Jahn-Teller effect.