The only salvation for civilization and the human race lies in the creation of world government. As long as sovereign states continue to have armaments and armaments secrets, new world wars will be inevitable.
These words of Albert Einstein were in response to a reporter's question less than a month after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs. Today, as we have entered the age of nuclear weapons proliferation with nations like North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan who have achieved nuclear weapons technology or are very close to achieving it, how prescient are those words? Albert Einstein spent the remainder of his life opposing the arms race and supporting the formation of an international authority to control nuclear weapons technology.
Albert Einstein is arguably the world's most famous scientist whose general and special theories of relativity helped usher in the Atomic Age. In 1938, he signed and forwarded a letter drafted by Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller to President Franklin Roosevelt. On the basis of that letter and meetings with these physicists, President Roosevelt authorized the Advisory Committee on Uranium. The findings of the committee led to the establishment the Manhattan Engineering District, better known as the Manhattan Project. Thus, Einstein played an integral role in facilitating the process that led to the atomic bomb.
Ironically, Einstein had spent the better part of his life as an avowed pacifist. Contrary to legend, he was fairly bright as a child and actually did well at math. His difficulty in school had more to do with the strict Prussian military disciplinary code that most German schools enforced which became alleviated once his family moved to Italy. He eventually obtained Swiss citizenship to avoid compulsory service in the German military. Those experiences helped to shape his pacifist view of militarism and led to his anti-war activism. He opposed his own native country, Germany, in World War I. After the war, Einstein advocated that young men should refuse military conscription and called for an end to the draft. He also was a prominent proponent of the disarmanent movement prior to World War II.
However, after the Nazis rose to power and began persecuting Jewish people including Einstein and many Jewish scientists like Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein's pacifist views began to change. He called for a security peace force to stop Nazi's atrocities being committed during the 1930s once it became clear that the economic sanctions imposed on Germany were not working. When he immigrated to the United States, Einstein actively supported the US arms trade with European nations like Britain and France and refused to oppose US admission into World War II much to pacifist movement's dismay. He made clear that while he did not like war and the violence and destruction war entailed he believed that there was no other course of action left open to stop Germany's seizing the whole of Europe.
When Hungarian scientists revealed that Germany was actively importing uranium in the late 1930's, Einstein was all too glad to help ensure that the US would pursue nuclear weapons research to counter Germany's own atomic weapons program. He did not believe that the US would use such weapons unless in extreme circumstances. Thus, his anguish over the bombing of two Japanese cities was especially poignant.
Einstein began speaking out against a nuclear arms race and opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb. After the Soviet Union exploded their own atomic bomb in 1949, Einstein spoke these words:
I believe America may totally succumb to the fearful militarization which engulfed Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. There is real danger that political power and the power to influence the minds of people will pass increasingly into the hands of the military, which is used to approaching all political problems from the point of view of military expediency. Because of America's supremacy, the military point of view is forced upon the world.
and even more foreboding words:
In all countries power lies in the hands of ambitious power-hungry men. This is true whether the political system is dictatorial or democratic. Power relies not only on coercion, but on subtle persuasion and deception through the educational system and the media of public information. One can only hope there are enough people the world over who possess the integrity to resist these evil influences. What is important is that individuals have the honesty and courage to stand up for their convictions.
These words, spoken over 60 years ago, haunt the American political landscape today. Albert Einstein accurately foretold what happened in the last eight years. Even worse, because the Bush administration has squandered the nation's economic and military resources in an unnecessary war, the United States ability to deal with the threat of nuclear proliferation has precariously limited and has left the US far more vunerable to attacks with nuclear weapons. The only silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud is the possibilty that US may become more willing to support empowering a international government to deal with nuclear disarmanent.
Sadly, Albert Einstein was ridiculed and derided for his political views which were termed 'naive' and 'dangerous'. He became the target of a smear campaign by the FBI at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover. Einstein was labeled a communist and malcontent by numerous media outlets including Life magazine. Yet, this persecution did not stop him from speaking out or advocating for foramtion of a world government. Though he supported the United Nations charter, he did not believe that the U.N. would have sufficient authority to enforce international arms treaty since the U.N. had no standing military force of its own. And yet again, he was proven right.
So while we sit in our living rooms watching the events unfold like North Korea's nuclear bomb tests and at our desks blogging about Obama's latest nomination, perhaps we should reflect on Einstein's ghostly words and ponder if our nation still has the ability to heed his call.