Defense Work Is Physicists’ Tradition

Rarely does a scientist speak out as a citizen with the moral force that animated Robert K. Adair’s low-key letter (September 2001, page 78 ) on the subject of his military service in World War II. I wonder how many men who had occupational deferments gave them up as Adair did to volunteer for military service in that war. Surely it was that kind of moral commitment, as much as our armaments, that defeated Adolf Hitler and the threat he represented to all that is best in modern civilization.

Perhaps not all our wars have been waged for ends as incontestably admirable as World War II, but those who take a pacifist stance today should read Adair’s letter, review the history of that war, and rethink their position.

It is simply an ugly, continuing fact of life that there are people in the world who do evil, vicious things. There are likely to be times in the lives of all of us when we must be willing to deal with such people with all the force at our command, as citizens in our private lives, and to avoid combat is to surrender to evil.

[Editor’s note: The preceding letter arrived in the offices of Physics Today on 10 September 2001.]