|
Items in cart [0] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 71
71
first with the Pugwash meetings and then with a committee operated
by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and this academy
during the 1960s and 1970s, in which we carried out a number of
initiatives with the Soviets.
.
I think, for example, that even the negotiators on both sides
would say that we were an important link in the chain that led to
the SALT ~ agreements, as an example of our efforts.
In this work, one has to deal with the people on the other side
who have access to their governments or with people who are in the
governments. Among this large number of Soviets that ~ have had
to deal with, ~ have made many friends, despite the adherence that
many of them have to government policy.
On the other hand, there are other contacts that have been
anything but a labor of love. ~ cannot help but remember times
when, breaking bread with officials of the academy of sciences or with
members of the Central Committee, that ~ was probably talking with
the same people who aided in putting Yuri OrIov in the camps. This
is not a very pleasant business, and when ~ come home from each
trip, and ~ will go next month for my 50th trip to Moscow, ~ always
think of what ~ forgot to say at the right time, whose case ~ did not
bring up.
So, it is a mixed bag and ~ do not wish to deny it, but it is a labor
In which not only I, myself, but also many others in the academy,
have put in an enormous effort. ~ think, while the results are not
quantifiable and cannot be measured, we are all glad that we spent
our time that way.
So, I will stop there and hope that we can have this conversation
with Yuri more extensively some other time. Thank you.
COMMENTS
Lipman Bere
Ladies and gentlemen, it is late, and I will be very short. I
essentially agree with most of what we have heard. In particular, I
fully agree with OrIov that, in first approximation, and ~ would say
even in second approximation, the struggle for nuclear disarmament
and peace and the struggle for human rights are rather independent
of each other.
~ want to mention briefly a few disagreements that ~ may have
with all the speakers. ~ am somewhat less optimistic. I do not believe
OCR for page 72
72
that the changes in Russia, which ~ consider very important, which
~ applaud and from which ~ expect great things, that these changes
were brought about by the international scientific community. We
could have helped a little, but ~ do not think that a superpower
changes its basic policies as a result of pressure from abroad.
~ do not think that every meeting between a Soviet scientist and
an American scientist (or a Soviet school child and an American
school child) by itself lessens the danger of war because it gives the
citizens of the two countries the opportunity of knowing each other.
Knowing each other never prevented people from going to war. World
War ~ started when all European countries except for Russia were
democracies. They knew each other very well. Among the most cruel
wars in the history of humanity were civil wars, where the warring
sides knew each other very well, indeed.
~ do not believe that the interests of peace require that we pretend
that things are better than they are and avoid public mention of
unpleasant facts. After all, nuclear war is to be avoided not because
the Soviet government, or ours, for that matter, consists of nice guys;
it is to be avoided because it will certainly lead to the destruction of
our civilization and may lead to the extinction of our species.
We all share the hope that nuclear weapons will never or, more
precisely, never again be used. This hope ~ based on fear of these
weapons, a fear which we hope is shared by those who have the power
of decision. The history of the past 40 years shows that a peace based
on fear is not necessarily unstable.
The main contribution scientists can make to the avoidance of
war may be in explaining to their own governments and to their
own people how well founded this fear of nuclear weapons is. In the
United States, this must include a blunt criticism of the "Star Wars"
project.
One word about scientific exchanges. ~ think the time has come
when we may insist that the Russians adhere to certain generally
accepted rules of scientific intercourse. More precisely, we may de-
mand that at international scientific conferences invited speakers be
permitted to come, no matter whether the authorities like them or
not.
This is still not being done. At the last International Congress of
Mathematicians in Berkeley, about half of the invited Soviet speakers
showed up. In view of Gorbachev's enlightened and courageous policy
it may be the right time to say that on this we really insist.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
international scientific
