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Jerry Wiesner, Scientist, Statesman, Humanist: Memories and Memoirs

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Jerome B. Wiesner is far from being a household name, but he was arguably one of the most significant figures in science and technology in the middle part of the twentieth century. He was the President's Science Advisor during the term of John F. Kennedy, and president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), between 1966 and 1975. He was an outspoken advocate of nuclear arms control, believing it the only way to prevent nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, and was a founding member of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity. During his tenure as presidential science advisor he was involved in the build-up of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to accomplish Project Apollo, the commitment to land Americans on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.

A longstanding faculty member at MIT, Wiesner first made a name for himself in the immediate post-World War II era by assisting national leaders in setting science and technology policy. Two areas, especially, sparked his involvement. The first was nuclear weapons and the deterrence theory then current during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Wiesner favored a strong military capability for the United States, but always argued for efforts limiting the number of nuclear warheads available to both sides. Accordingly, Wiesner participated in the Geneva summit of 1958 and the Pugwash conference of 1960, in both cases making arguments in favor of strategic arms limitations.

The second area where Wiesner played an especially important role was in the Cold War rivalry concerning space flight. At the time of Sputnik in October 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked him to serve on a special science advisory committee charged with revamping the federal government's oversight of critical science and technology development efforts. He advocated the creation of NASA in 1958 and the consolidation of non-military space flight activities under its leadership. When John F. Kennedy was preparing to take office in late 1960, he appointed an ad hoc committee headed by Wiesner to offer suggestions for American efforts in space. Wiesner concluded that the issue of "national prestige" was too great to allow the Soviet Union leadership in space efforts, and therefore the U.S. had to enter the field in a substantive way. Wiesner also emphasized the importance of practical non-military applications of space technology--communications, mapping, and weather satellites among others--and the necessity of keeping up the effort to exploit space for national security through such technologies as ICBMs and reconnaissance satellites. He tended to de-emphasize the human space flight initiative.

After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Wiesner resigned from government service and returned to MIT. He spent the rest of his career there in senior positions, much of it as its president.

This work is a collection of documents and reminiscences by and about Jerry Wiesner and well worth the time to read. Some of the pieces were written by such luminaries as Theodore C. Sorensen, Edward M. Kennedy, and John Kenneth Galbraith. Others are by Wiesner and relate his passion for myriad aspects of science and technology in modern American life.