Andrei Sakharovs experience making nuclear weapons has a tremendous impact on his later life, does it not?
DH: There’s a very interesting question of the relationship between [Andrei] Sakharov the weapons scientist, and Sakharov the defender of human rights. You know, some people would say that these are kind of two very different people. But I think there are important connections. And Sakharov himself always believed that there were important connections. That his path towards political activity started with the 1955 thermonuclear test which produced such a big impact on him. He became concerned about these weapons. He then became concerned about the fallout issue. That led him to campaign for, you know, moratoria on nuclear testing. And then he later became involved, you know, played a role in bringing about the partial test ban treaty of 1963. He then got involved in other policy issues about ballistic missile defense and expressed a great concern about these questions, and a great concern that they were not receiving the proper kind of analysis in this society. And that led him to writ
