George Kistiakowsky
Encyclopedia
George Bogdan Kistiakowsky (November 18, 1900 – December 7, 1982) was a Ukrainian-American
chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project
and later served as President Eisenhower's Science Advisor. Born in Kiev
, in the Kiev Governorate
of the Russian Empire
(in present day Ukraine
), he attended private schools in Kiev and Moscow
until the Russian Revolution
broke out in 1917. He then joined the anti-Communist White Army serving in the infantry and tank corps. In 1920 he escaped to Yugoslavia and then on to Germany
.
who specialized in the criminal law
. Oleksandr Fedorovych was born in a family of a priest near Chernihiv
. George's father Bohdan Kistiakovsky was the Ukrainian academician of law and the co-founder of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. His mother was Maria Berendshtam. George's uncle Ihor Kistiakovsky was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian State.
from the University of Berlin. In 1926, he came to the United States and taught at Princeton University
for two years, and then joined the faculty of Harvard University
, an affiliation that continued through his career.
At Harvard, his research interests were in thermodynamics, spectroscopy, and chemical kinetics. He became increasingly involved in consulting to the government and industry. After the start of World War II, he headed the National Defense Research Committee's Explosives Division.
in 1944, replacing Seth Neddermeyer
as head of the implosion department. Under his leadership came the complex explosive lenses needed to compress the plutonium
sphere uniformly to achieve critical mass in Fat Man
, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki
.
In addition to the work on implosion, he contributed to skiing in Los Alamos by using rings of explosives to fell trees for a ski slope - leading to the establishment of Sawyer's Hill Ski Tow Association.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3854/is_200707/ai_n21032540/pg_16
from 1959 to 1961, and was succeeded by Jerome B. Wiesner.
The US introduced the threshold concept to the Soviets at the Geneva arms control conference in January 1960, and the Soviets, in March, responded favorably, suggesting a threshold of a given seismic magnitude. Talks broke down as a result of the U-2 Crisis of 1960
in May.
At the same time as the early nuclear arms control work, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
, GEN Nathan F. Twining, USAF, sent a memorandum, in August 1959, to the Secretary of Defense, Neil McElroy, which suggested that the Strategic Air Command
formally be assigned responsibility to prepare the national nuclear target list, and a single plan for nuclear operations. Up to that point, the Army, Navy, and Air Force had done their own target planning. That had led to individual targets being multiply targeted by the different services. The separate service plans were not mutually supporting, as, for example, by the Navy destroying an air defense facility on the route of an Air Force bomber going to a deeper target. While Twining had sent the memo to McElroy, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
disagreed on the policy during early 1960
. Thomas Gates
, who succeeded McElroy, asked President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
to decide the policy.
Eisenhower said he would not "leave his successor with the monstrosity" of the uncoordinated and un-integrated forces that then existed. He sent Kistiakowsky, in early November 1960, to the SAC Headquarters in Omaha to evaluate the SAC war plans. Initially, Kistiakowsky was not given access, and Eisenhower sent him back, with a much stronger set of orders. The orders gave SAC officers the choice to cooperate with Kistiakowsky, or resign.
Kistiaknowsky's report, presented on November 29, described uncoordinated plans with huge numbers of targets, many of which would be attacked by multiple forces, resulting in overkill. Eisenhower was shocked by the plans, and focused not just on the creation of the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP)
, but on the entire process of picking targets, generating requirements, and planning for nuclear war operations.
From 1962 to 1965, he chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy
(COSEPUP).
In later years he was active in an antiwar organization, the Council for a Livable World. According to the Council biography of Kistiakowsky, "Kistiakowsky became increasingly doubtful about the possibility of changing politics from within the administrative channels in Washington. In 1968, Kistiakowsky severed his connections with the Pentagon to protest US involvement in Vietnam. After retiring from Harvard as professor emeritus in 1972, Kistiakowsky became even more involved in political activism in the areas of de-escalating the arms race and banning nuclear weapons. In 1977, he assumed the chairmanship of the Council for Livable World, campaigning to de-escalate the arms race and reorient the domestic political agenda."
He died in 1982 of cancer.
Ukrainian-American
Ukrainian Americans are citizens and permanent residents of the United States who have recently emigrated to the United States and are of Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2006 there were 961,113 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.33% of the American population...
chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
and later served as President Eisenhower's Science Advisor. Born in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, in the Kiev Governorate
Kiev Governorate
Kiev Governorate , or Government of Kiev, was an administrative division of the Russian Empire.The governorate was established in 1708 along with seven other governorates and was transformed into a viceroyalty in 1781...
of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(in present day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), he attended private schools in Kiev and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
until the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
broke out in 1917. He then joined the anti-Communist White Army serving in the infantry and tank corps. In 1920 he escaped to Yugoslavia and then on to Germany
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
.
Ancestry
George's grandfather Oleksandr Fedorovych Kistiakovsky was a professor of law and an attorney of the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
who specialized in the criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
. Oleksandr Fedorovych was born in a family of a priest near Chernihiv
Chernihiv
Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...
. George's father Bohdan Kistiakovsky was the Ukrainian academician of law and the co-founder of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. His mother was Maria Berendshtam. George's uncle Ihor Kistiakovsky was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian State.
Early career
In 1925, he earned his PhD in Physical chemistryPhysical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic, atomic, subatomic, and particulate phenomena in chemical systems in terms of physical laws and concepts...
from the University of Berlin. In 1926, he came to the United States and taught at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
for two years, and then joined the faculty of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, an affiliation that continued through his career.
At Harvard, his research interests were in thermodynamics, spectroscopy, and chemical kinetics. He became increasingly involved in consulting to the government and industry. After the start of World War II, he headed the National Defense Research Committee's Explosives Division.
Manhattan Project
He joined the Manhattan ProjectManhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
in 1944, replacing Seth Neddermeyer
Seth Neddermeyer
Seth Henry Neddermeyer was an American physicist who co-discovered the muon, and later championed the implosion design of the plutonium atomic bomb, at the Manhattan Project....
as head of the implosion department. Under his leadership came the complex explosive lenses needed to compress the plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
sphere uniformly to achieve critical mass in Fat Man
Fat Man
"Fat Man" is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date , and its detonation caused the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more...
, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
.
In addition to the work on implosion, he contributed to skiing in Los Alamos by using rings of explosives to fell trees for a ski slope - leading to the establishment of Sawyer's Hill Ski Tow Association.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3854/is_200707/ai_n21032540/pg_16
White House Service
During the Eisenhower Administration served on the President's Science Advisory committee for several years, becoming the Science Advisor to the President in 1959. After the Kennedy Inauguration, he was still consulted. He directed the Office of Science and Technology PolicyOffice of Science and Technology Policy
The Office of Science and Technology Policy is an office in the Executive Office of the President , established by Congress on May 11, 1976, with a broad mandate to advise the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs.The director of this office is...
from 1959 to 1961, and was succeeded by Jerome B. Wiesner.
Eisenhower Administration
In 1958, Kistiakowsky suggested to President Eisenhower that inspection of foreign military facilities was not sufficient to control their nuclear weapons. He cited the difficulty in monitoring missile submarines, and proposed that the arms control strategy focus on disarmament rather than inspections. Subsequently as part of arms control planning and negotiation, he suggested, in January 1960, the "threshold concept". Under this proposal, all nuclear tests above the level of seismic detection technology would be forbidden. After that agreement, the US and USSR would work jointly to improve detection technology, revising the permissible test yield downward as techniques improved. This example of the "national means of technical verification", a euphemism for sensitive intelligence collection used in arms control, would provide safeguards, without raising the on-site inspection requirement to a level unacceptable to the Soviets.The US introduced the threshold concept to the Soviets at the Geneva arms control conference in January 1960, and the Soviets, in March, responded favorably, suggesting a threshold of a given seismic magnitude. Talks broke down as a result of the U-2 Crisis of 1960
U-2 Crisis of 1960
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union.The United States government at...
in May.
At the same time as the early nuclear arms control work, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
, GEN Nathan F. Twining, USAF, sent a memorandum, in August 1959, to the Secretary of Defense, Neil McElroy, which suggested that the Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
formally be assigned responsibility to prepare the national nuclear target list, and a single plan for nuclear operations. Up to that point, the Army, Navy, and Air Force had done their own target planning. That had led to individual targets being multiply targeted by the different services. The separate service plans were not mutually supporting, as, for example, by the Navy destroying an air defense facility on the route of an Air Force bomber going to a deeper target. While Twining had sent the memo to McElroy, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...
disagreed on the policy during early 1960
. Thomas Gates
Thomas Gates
Thomas Gates may refer to:*Sir Thomas Gates , of the Virginia Company, an early leader and governor of the Colony of Virginia*Thomas Sovereign Gates , U.S. educator, first president of the University of Pennsylvania...
, who succeeded McElroy, asked President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
to decide the policy.
Eisenhower said he would not "leave his successor with the monstrosity" of the uncoordinated and un-integrated forces that then existed. He sent Kistiakowsky, in early November 1960, to the SAC Headquarters in Omaha to evaluate the SAC war plans. Initially, Kistiakowsky was not given access, and Eisenhower sent him back, with a much stronger set of orders. The orders gave SAC officers the choice to cooperate with Kistiakowsky, or resign.
Kistiaknowsky's report, presented on November 29, described uncoordinated plans with huge numbers of targets, many of which would be attacked by multiple forces, resulting in overkill. Eisenhower was shocked by the plans, and focused not just on the creation of the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP)
SIOP
SIOP may refer to:*International Society of Paediatric Oncology*Sales Inventory Operations Planning, an integrated business management process...
, but on the entire process of picking targets, generating requirements, and planning for nuclear war operations.
Kennedy Administration
In the Kennedy Administration, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy wrote to John F. Kennedy, on January 31, 1961, that there needed to be a "review of basic military policy. What is our view of the kind of strategic force we need, the kinds of limited-war forces, the kind of defense for the continental U.S., and the strategy of NATO?" Bundy proposed that Kistiakowsky conduct scientific evaluation of Air Force nuclear plans, which Bundy suggested that Air Force planning is based on very doubtful technical judgments on the damage that will be done by given weapons exploded on given targets.He proposed Kistiakowsky do this study, "and the result might show that we need much less expensive plans than we now have."Later career
After the Manhattan Project, and then after his White House service, he was a professor of physical chemistry at Harvard for the rest of his career.From 1962 to 1965, he chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy
The Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy is a committee of the United States National Academy of Sciences , the National Academy of Engineering , and the Institute of Medicine...
(COSEPUP).
In later years he was active in an antiwar organization, the Council for a Livable World. According to the Council biography of Kistiakowsky, "Kistiakowsky became increasingly doubtful about the possibility of changing politics from within the administrative channels in Washington. In 1968, Kistiakowsky severed his connections with the Pentagon to protest US involvement in Vietnam. After retiring from Harvard as professor emeritus in 1972, Kistiakowsky became even more involved in political activism in the areas of de-escalating the arms race and banning nuclear weapons. In 1977, he assumed the chairmanship of the Council for Livable World, campaigning to de-escalate the arms race and reorient the domestic political agenda."
He died in 1982 of cancer.
Awards
- Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Priestley MedalPriestley MedalThe Priestley Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of chemistry. Established in 1922, the award is named after Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen who immigrated to the United States of America in 1794...
of the American Chemical Society. - Franklin MedalFranklin MedalThe Franklin Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, PA, USA.-Laureates:*1915 - Thomas Alva Edison *1915 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes *1916 - John J...
(1972)
See also
- Lawrence Badash, J.O. Hirschfelder, H.P. Broida, eds., Reminiscences of Los Alamos 1943-1945 (Studies in the History of Modern Science), Springer, 1980, ISBN 9027710988.
- Confessions of a Weaponeer, PBS Nova, with Carl Sagan pbs.org
External links
- Diary of George B. Kistiakowsky, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
- Records of the White House Office of the Special Assistant for Science and Technology, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
- Annotated bibliography for George Kistiakowsky from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Online biography from Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Kistiakowsky, George B. (George Bogdan), 1900- Papers of George B. Kistiakowsky: an inventory. Harvard University Archives