Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucsfcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!arnold From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Arndt, Galileo, and Physics Message-ID: <443@ucsfcgl.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Feb-85 14:57:14 EST Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.443 Posted: Sat Feb 9 14:57:14 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 05:17:33 EST References: <20274@lanl.ARPA> <279@ihu1m.UUCP> Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Distribution: net Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab Lines: 68 Summary: In article <279@ihu1m.UUCP> gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) writes: >For the record, J Robert Oppenheimer was *NEVER* a member of >the Communist Party. ... > Oppenheimer's alleged communism >was a vicious lie perpetrated by that scum crypto-Nazi, the real >"Dr. Strangelove", Edward Teller, in his lust for power in the >post WW II scientific community. > >ken perlow I am far from being a fan of Teller, but I think this is not correct. I have never heard him call Oppenheimer a Communist. What he did say to the A.E.C. Personnel Security Board was that he though Oppie was a threat to security. ("Robb" is Mr. Robert Robb, one the Board's counsel; "Teller" is Dr. Edward Teller.) Robb: Is it your intention in anything which you are about to testify to, to suggest that Dr. Oppenhiemer is disloyal to the United States? Teller: I do not want to suggest anything of the kind. I know Oppenheimer as an intellectually most alert and a very complicated person, and I think it would be presumptuous and wrong on my part if I would try in any way to analyze his motives. But I have always assumed, and I now assume that he is loyal to the United States. I believe this, and I shall believe it until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite. Robb: Now a question which is the corollary of that. Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk. Teller: In a great number of cases I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer act -- I understood that Dr. Oppenheimer acted -- in a way which for me was exceedingly hard to understand. I thorougly disagreed with him in numerous issues and his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated. To this extent I feel that I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more. [ "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board." U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954 ] This is the line Teller has held to (publicly) ever since. Teller's actions were grievously harmful, since they were primarily a misconstrual of scientific and policy differences as "questionable and hard to understand". They were difficult for him to understand because he could not (and still can't, as far as I can tell) see the world in any light but his own; could not see that honest people can come to different conclusions. This inability of his to see another's point of view led to the scientific and personal destruction of Oppenheimer and his family. It stripped him of not only his security clearance, but his pride, and embittered his final years, which were almost undoubtedly shortened by frustration and anger. This is (I hope obviously) not to defend Teller's actions at the hearing or after, but I don't think it is accurrate to claim he invented or promulgated the idea that Oppenheimer was a Communist. This is simply (as far as I can tell) a common misinterpretation of the accusation (which was made, though not explicitly by Teller) that he was a Communist Sympathizer, which in the McCarthy era, was quite bad enough. -- Ken Arnold ================================================================= Of COURSE we can implement your algorithm. We've got this Turing machine emulator...