These informal discussions, in which a man would listen and then respond with a frown or a smile without having to say anything, were—to me—more revealing than the public sessions. The Pugwash meeting was the first international meeting of scientists where it was possible for us to explore in this manner each other's mind.
When I arrived at Pugwash, I was somewhat apprehensive that when we got into the discussion of highly controversial issues—as indeed we must if we wished to come to grips with the real issues—our Russian colleagues might give forth the Russian government's publicly stated views, in which case the American delegates would have almost no choice but to present the views which [the] American government has publicly stated. If that happened the meeting would have lost its usefulness. For this reason it seemed to me that it would be very important to start off on the ...
