Talk:Edward Teller

Development

What remains to be done with this article? It seems quite developed to me. Russell D. Jones 01:15, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

One note: it was less that the third-generation weapons and X-ray lasers were impractical, as that treaties, such as demilitarization of space, prevented any testing. --Howard C. Berkowitz 02:05, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, but that didn't matter to Teller. But Brown and May make no reference about the political infeasibility, only that it was "technically unworkable." Russell D. Jones 02:31, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thus Brown and May don't really know if it was technically unworkable or not. You can't find out if an X-ray laser works without a nuclear explosion in space. --Howard C. Berkowitz 03:19, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Approval?

[Text copied from discussion page of Paul Wormer]:

Paul, what is lacking with Edward Teller that we would prevent it from being approved? Russell D. Jones 01:11, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Not much, maybe a few more references? On the other hand, as I stated several times on the Forum, once it is approved, it is hard to change it. And who knows, you or I may read something interesting in the future that then will be hard to add. --Paul Wormer 13:09, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Another thing: WP has a section about Teller and the Israel A- and H-bombs. Teller doesn't say anything about this in his Memoirs. The WP section is based on one book only (that I haven't seen and I don't know its trustworthiness). Since the fact whether or not Israel possesses nuclear weapons is formally top-secret, I decided not to chase after that book and to skip the topic altogether. Any opinion anyone? --Paul Wormer 14:04, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

As time permits in the next few days, I'll try to get more on the Israeli nuclear program and Teller, although the best use of time may simply be wikilink Israeli nuclear program and explore Teller's role there. Anyone have Mordechai Vanunu's or Avner Cohen's books at hand?

I can add some text about how Teller definitely was involved in establishing the United States intelligence community assumptions about the Israeli program. He contended that they would never do a full test, since that would be detectable and obviously end their policy of "strategic ambiguity".--Howard C. Berkowitz 18:08, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Article organization

Right now, the "Biography" heading is superfluous, because there are no other headings at the same level. Either it could go and the subordinate headings promoted, or there could be major headings along the lines of "Scientific contributions" and "Policy involvement". --Howard C. Berkowitz 18:15, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Teller/Israel

The assumption that Teller had knowledge of the Israeli nuclear program (in the middle of the 1960s) raises a number of questions.

Israel would have informed Teller only about their program if Teller at the time was assisting Israel in constructing nuclear weapons, otherwise Israel would have had no reason to tell Teller about their top-secret endeavor. However, if Teller assisted Israel without consent of the Johnson Administration, he would have committed treason of the kind that brought the Rosenbergs to the electric chair. The conclusion must be that the US government agreed in Teller assisting Israel. This raises the first question: why didn't the CIA know this? Second question: why was Teller the person to inform the CIA when high-placed government officials (maybe even cabinet ministers) knew about it?

Alternatively, let's make the unlikely assumption Teller was informed about the Israeli nuclear program without the US government knowing about the program (and Teller not committing treason). Then, surely, Teller must have told the Israel government that he was going to inform the CIA about it. This means that Israel decided that it was time that their closest and most powerful ally (the US) was to be enlightened about their nuclear program. But then again, Teller was an unlikely means of communication. One would expect either foreign ministers or high ranking secret service officials informing each other about this.

Finally, neither the Israeli nor the US government are in a position (even now after 45 years) to admit that the US helped Israel—through Teller—in developing nuclear weapons. Such an admission would be devastating for the US/Muslim-World relations. Hence, authors writing about the relationship between Teller and the Israel nuclear weapons program are necessarily guessing. If CZ wants to write about it, CZ must (i) mention the authors who make the guesses and (ii) make clear that the quoted authors make indeed educated guesses.

--Paul Wormer 13:00, 1 February 2010 (UTC)