The Khrushchev Détente and Emerging Internationalism in Particle Physics

JAN 01, 1990

Nikito Khrushchev initiated a period of growing Soviet‐American cooperation in particle physics, rudely interrupted by the 1960 spy‐plane incident.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881236

Robert E. Marshak

Mikhail Gorbachev’s program of glasnost and perestroika—now in its fifth year—has wrought striking changes inside the Soviet Union, and even more spectacular metamorphoses outside its borders. Among the positive repercussions of the Gorbachev program on the international scene, we have seen major improvements in international scientific cooperation. In particle physics the improvement during the years of the Gorbachev détente appears less dramatic than it does in space science, for example. But that’s largely because the opportunity to solidify East‐West cooperation in particle physics had been seized much earlier—during the Khrushchev détente of 1956–60, a time when this field, with its large and expensive accelerators, stood alone as the epitome of “big science.”

References

1. English translation given in Khrushchev Speaks, U. Michigan P., Ann Arbor (1963), p. 207.
2. A. Sakharov, Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom, Deutsch, London (1968).
3. Robert E. Marshak papers, library archives of Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State U.; microfiche copies available at the AIP Niels Bohr Library in New York, U. of Rochester library and CERN library.
4. J. Mehra, The Solvay Conferences on Physics, Reidel, Boston (1975).
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6. R. E. Marshak, in Proc. Int. Conf. on Restructuring of Physical Sciences in Europe and United States 1945–60, M. DeMaria, M. Grilli, eds., U. of Rome (1988).
7. R. E. Marshak, Bull. At. Sci., June 1970, p. 92.
8. E. B. Skolnikoff, memo to R. E. Marshak, 4 May 1960, in ref. 3.
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10. From notes of R. E. Marshak on “Informal meeting organized by J. Adams at his home on 5 June 1961,” attended by E. Amaldi, D. Blokhintsev and R. E. Marshak, in ref. 3.
11. E. L. Goldwasser, in Proc. 19th Int. Conf. on High Energy Physics, S. Hommay, M. Kawaguchi, H. Miyazawa, eds., Physical Society of Japan, Tokyo (1979), p. 961. Y. Yamaguchi, in Proc. 1985 Int. Symp. on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies at High Energies, M. Konuma, K. Takahashi, eds., Nissha, Kyoto (1986), p. 826.
12. W. O. Lock, Europhys. News, April 1989, p. 54.

More about the Authors

Robert E. Marshak. State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.