A Scientist Fighting Nuclear Armageddon Hid a 50-Year Secret

Summary

After that, as much as ever, he raced ahead. The polymath lectured and wrote papers on space weapons, land mines, terrorism, pandemics, submarines, science advising, food aid programs, automatic teller machines, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the nation’s electrical grid, the disposal of radioactive waste, catastrophic risks and nuclear disarmament. The last entry in his comprehensive archive is dated early this year.Around that time, I decided that the elder statesman of nuclear arms control, like Teller, was probably not going to live forever. He was 96. I had some questions.During that interview, to my surprise, Dr. Garwin said Fermi had emphasized the wrong danger in once calling the H-bomb “an evil thing” because of its unlimited destructiveness.“That’s not the threat,” he said. The great danger, he added, is “so many nuclear weapons,” which raise the risk of theft, missteps, accidents, unauthorized use — and the world falling from mutual deterrence into a thermonuclear abyss.To me, that last visit with Dr. Garwin was another glimpse of a bygone era in which he struggled inconspicuously to counter an existential threat to humankind.I asked if he had ever considered a memoir.“I tried,” said the man known for his blunt honesty. “It’s an impossible job.”