What did this man tell his President?

Syngman Rhee and Chung Il-Kwon, during the Korean War (1950-53)

• During the Korean War (1950-53), the Korean army was under the United Nations command, along with the American troops and the army units sent by other countries including the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, etc. The commander of this combined UN force was an American general.

  Syngman Rhee, as the president of his country, did not like the Korean army being controlled by a foreign general.

• One day, Rhee invited all Korean generals (not many at that time) to a lunch. He then asked them who is the head of the Korean army. Everybody mentioned the name of the American general. However, one of them told Rhee that the president of Korea is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the country, according to the Constitution of Korea.

  This man knew what Rhee wanted to hear. It is not difficult to guess who became the army chief next morning. His name was Chung Il-Kwon. He later served as the Korean Ambassador to the United States. He also knew how to talk to Americans.

  Wigner with myself at the University of Maryland (1986).

• Eugene Paul Wigner was known as the most unapproachable person in the world. In spite of his prestige (Nobel 1963), he was totally isolated from the rest of Princeton.

  I was able to talk to him.

  1. I knew what he wanted to hear.

  2. I told the story he wanted to hear.

• In 1963, Wigner received the Nobel prize for his contributions to the symmetry problems in physics. However, the prize was not for his 1939 paper for his little groups dealing with the internal space-time symmetries.

  I told Wigner his 1939 paper alone deserved one full Nobel prize. This was precisely what he wanted to hear. I then gave my reasoning given here. This was how I approached him.

• Wigner was isolated from the rest of Princeton because nobody there was able to tell the stories he wanted to hear. One of Princeton's prominent persons told me "Wigner is gone." In truth, that prominent person is gone.

• Eugene Wigner is alive and well in the history of physics along with Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. I like to be remembered as the person who built the bridge between Bohr and Einstein using the tool built by Wigner. Click here for a story.