Offence or Defence?

My Scientific Career in the Cold War

The war in Ukraine is bringing up difficult financial, political and ethical questions for Canadians as we respond to the Russian invasion.

When I completed my PhD in physics in 1971, the Cold War was still a dominating concern. I was looking for a career in science and wanted a job that brought adventure and travel as well as research. I felt very fortunate to get a job with the Canadian Department of National Defence at their Victoria laboratory.

One of the top missions of the laboratory concerned the defence of Canada from Soviet nuclear attack. I joined a team of scientists making field trips to the Canadian Arctic to develop new sensors for detecting Soviet missile submarines infiltrating Canadian waters. The classified research was added to Canada’s inventory of defence capability.

By the 1980’s the Cold War thawed when the USSR dissolved and imminent threat of nuclear war seemed to disappear. I moved on to do research in other areas of defence concern.

In retrospect the Cold War seemed like ‘paranoia’ and an over reaction to political rhetoric. But nuclear weapons are real. I would never want to go back to the fear and sense of impending doom that coloured politics during those decades.

Ethical Issues

To be honest I have an ethical unease with my career as a defence scientist. I was contributing to the arsenal of military systems. I justified my work by saying I was developing sensors not weapons. They were for defence and not offence. But I have no control over what our leaders do with the military systems that are stockpiled.

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

from the Bhagavad Gita quoted by the physicist Robert Oppenheimer on the first test of the Atomic Bomb ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer)

Inevitably when war comes, it’s the innocent people who suffer the most. Even though my family were mainly not involved in the fighting of WW2, there were long lasting consequences that are being felt for decades. That is another story.

The Ukraine conflict is giving Canadians difficult choices.

• Are we going to risk escalation and wideing of warfare to support Ukraine?
• How do we contain or stop aggression?
• When do we stand by or when do we intervene?

In the background is the threat of nuclear war. We would all lose.

“We had to destroy the town in order to save it”.

What motivates us to want war? For some, belief trumps all. “Better dead than red”. Give me liberty or give me death”. Is war justified in certain instances? Is it analogous to saying we bombarded your body with radiation to kill off the cancer? The cure justifies the collateral damage. Fighting may seem justified, if we are struggling for our own survival, but its not so clear when other lives are at stake. Isn’t love of humankind a higher calling?

I have no answers for myself on these ethical problems. They are no longer just abstract questions, they will demand a response and action. Even inaction is an action that will have consequences.

Leadership

I hope we have picked leaders who are people with moral courage and compassion. Leaders who see a bigger picture, willing to make difficult choices on our behalf and share in the challenges that arise.