Von Braun in the News

[rich]

Hi Monte--

I am only focusing on Dyson's review which I thought wasn't a very
good one.  I have read many of his reviews in the NYRB. Considering
what has been discussed here about the Mittelwerk and Dora, his
glossing over of some rather nasty details borders on the glib--but in
this review. He may have misgivngs about the VB legacy and what we
gain/lose w/r/t to technology but one doesn't get that sense from the
review.

Regarding your second point--a rather low blow, Monte. again, his
statements in the review about the V-2 and its effects came across to
me as glib as well--oh, it didn't kill that many people, they should
have built more fighter planes and I surely felt OK in London at the
time is hardly the reaction of many others.

3rd point--from the review, the reader would gain the sense that he
hasn't thought much about the legacy of the V-2 even if, which may be
true, that he is a sensitive scholar (of which I've gathered from
reading his reviews in that same magazine)

I am only going by what we wrote about Neufeld's book--i don't make
claims on any other clues so to speak

Rich

On Dec 31, 2007 4:12 PM, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> > I realize Dyson is a physicist by trade and his opinions may
> > be clouded...
>
> You might try reading his _Weapons and Hope_, or the opening chapters of
> _The Starship and the Canoe_. As an operations analyst for Bomber Command
> late in WWII... a colleague of Bethe, Feynman and other Los Alamos veterans
> immediately after the war... and (to my personal knowledge over the last 30
> years) a profoundly thoughtful and sensitive man, he might surprise you.
> Occasionally even a mere physicist can aspire to the broad vision of a
> P-lister.
>
> > Dyson argues that the V-2 was ineffectual and not all that
> > "disturbing". Dyson I think loses all sense of context like
> > the psychological effects on ordinary people of such weapons
> > not only in London but in Antwerp...
>
> Well, of course he was merely living in the UK while they were landing, anc
> couldn't possibly have your insight.
>
> > not to mention what the V-2 eventually lead to--time-efficient nuclear
> weapon
> > global delivery systems.
>
> No, Freeman Dyson's never given *them* a moment's thought.
>
> Rich, you really haven't a clue, have you?.
>
>