Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam by John Wheeler

Author:John Wheeler [Wheeler, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-24T19:51:44+00:00

Smyth posed a terribly difficult dilemma for me. I agreed

that the Soviet threat was real and that the United

States needed to react to it. I felt an obligation to help.

But it had been only four years since I had left war work

to return to academia. I was enjoying a wonderful,

productive year with my family in Paris. There was no

end of exciting physics that I wanted to work on. I had

students to guide. I had a commitment to the

Guggenheim Foundation. Many other physicists to whom

the same invitation was issued in 1949 and 1950 simply

said no. That was not so easy for me. I shared the fears

of my Hungarian friends. I felt a patriotic duty to

respond when my country asked for my service. So, in

that first conversation with Smyth, I didn't say no. I said

maybe. I would think about it. I would consult with

family and friends.

I must have received other calls in the pension, from

Smyth again and from Teller, and I must have been

visibly troubled. My children still remember my inner

struggle, which I could not hide. I agonized over the

decision with Janette. I remember a long conversation

on the pros and cons that we had one evening in our

bedroom, with the children dropping in now and then.

When I went off for a second visit to Copenhagen in mid-

January, I had still not decided, although I couldn't help

thinking of Europe as a house of cards that would

collapse when the first strong wind blew from the east.

Over breakfast with Bohr one morning, I told him what

was on my mind and how divided I felt. He no doubt

sensed which direction I was leaning. "Do you imagine

for one moment," he said, "that Europe would now be

free of Soviet control if it were not for the Western

atomic bomb?" His words stayed with me. When I got

back to Paris at the end of January, Janette and I

decided that I should go.

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