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S.E.S.P.A. Is Nauseated to Present Its Second* Annual Dr. Strangelove Award to Edward Teller

by Britta Fischer & C.M.

‘Science for the People’ Vol. 3, No. 1,  February 1971, p. 10

In recognition of his ceaseless efforts to follow in the footsteps of the great Peter Sellers. Dr. Teller, not content to rest on his laurels as “Father of the H-Bomb”, has ceaselessly promoted the rapid development of all feasible systems of nuclear destruction.

He has argued for the indefinite continuation of atmospheric nuclear tests.

He has fought for the development and production of the ABM and MIRV weapons systems.

He has consistently espoused the practical use of nuclear weapons, most strikingly in his contention that “we must prepare for limited warfare—limited in scope, limited in objectives, but not limited in weapons. A localized limited nuclear war.”

He has sought to create an atmosphere in which nuclear war would be possible by pubicly belittling the effects of such weapons, as for example, in his statement, “The great majority of our citizens could survive a nuclear attack.”

The name Edward Teller is recognized everywhere as a symbol of science in the service of warmakers. Nothing better exemplifies the absurdity of a “disinterested search for truth” funded by the DoD than his own philosophy:

The duty of scientists, specifically, is to explore and to explain. This duty led to the invention of the principles that made the hydrogen bomb a practical reality. In the whole development I claim credit in one respect only: I believed in the possibility of developing the thermonuclear bomb. My scientific duty demanded exploration of that possibility.

*NOTE: presentation of First Annual Award to M. M. May of Livermore is reported in “Report from Berkeley SESPA,” Science for the People vol. II, No. 2, Aug. 1970, p. 12.

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