Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech

 Alphabetical index (text)

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London, Wednesday September 10, 2003

‘Father of H-bomb’ dies, aged 95

Edward Teller, the ‘father of the H-bomb’ has died aged 95. Teller, a pioneer in molecular physics, was given his nickname for his role in the early development of nuclear weapons.

Elaine Ray, a spokeswoman for the Stanford University news service, said that Teller had suffered a stroke earlier in the week and died at his home on the university campus yesterday.

Teller, born in Hungary, was a key member of a group of top scientists who fled Hitler’s Germany and ended up working on the Manhattan Project, the secret program that developed the atomic bomb. After the war, Teller pressed the case for a continued strong national defense, persuading President Harry Truman of the need for the far more powerful hydrogen bomb.

The United States detonated the first H-bomb on the Pacific atoll of Eniwetok in November 1952. It was 2,500 times more powerful than the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which prompted Japan’s surrender and brought the Second World War to an end.

 David Irving: “The Virus House” (free book download)

 David Lappa comments “The Good Die Young

 David Irving interviewed Teller in 1980