Physicists in times of war

Abstract

Though the majority of physicists would probably not support preemptive wars, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction would not exist without their contributions. Einstein's anti-militaristic position has been well-documented and the present essay recalls the role of some contemporary and past physicists on this issue. The idea that the rationality of scientific thought is a reliable antidote against supporting wars in order to achieve political or ideological aims was neither correct in the past nor is it presently valid. In the physics community there always existed a minority of supporters of wars of conquest of territory, domination of people beyond the borders or regime change. The ``preemptive'' war for the US hegemony in the middle east has given the problem of ``physicists in times of war'' new actuality, especially on the third anniversary of its start, with Iraq slipping every day more into civil, war and the main culprit still talk about a victory for democracy and freedom. One of the most perplexing appologists of the agressive war of Nazi-Germany against ``the Bolshevist peril'' has been the physicist Pascual Jordan whose interesting scientific and controversial political biography is the main issue of this essay.