Sunday Bookchat « The Opinion Mill

≥If that offer sounds crazy now, it sounded even crazier in 1958 when physicist Edward Teller, who had practically trademarked “Father of the H-Bomb” for his own use, went to Alaska to promote “Project Chariot,” a plan that would have used Teller’s explosive children to create a deep-water harbor on the coast of northwestern Alaska. The locals didn’t want it, and despite government pressure, a well-orchestrated media blitz that had the Alaskan newspapers in Teller’s pocket, they developed into an organized group that managed to halt the project, though not before biologist Les Viereck lost his university position because he provided data supporting the opposition.

My father has never said what the cause of the falling out was. Knowing him, this didn’t sit too well with him