Strangelove is such a potent character -- twisted, coldly rational, his
mechanical arm likely to spring into a SEIG HEIL at the slightest
provocation -- that many people have speculated on who Strangelove might
be "based" on.
At one point in the film, Turgidson asks if "Strangelove" is a "Kraut"
name. Stains, Muffley's assistant, reports that it had been changed from
"Merkwerdichliebe." I checked the syllables against a German dictionary
back in high school, and came out with "strange-love" (merwerdich-
liebe).
Nelson reports that the name is actually "Merkwuerdigichliebe," which
translates into "cherished fate."
Several critics have found similarities to Strangelove in the character
Rotwang in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS. Rotwang is a mad scientist with a
mechanical hand who brings down ruin on nearly everyone. Kubrick has
disavowed any intentional similarities.
But anyway, there are several major guesses as to who provided the basis
for Strangelove. The favorite seems to be Henry Kissinger, a former
Harvard professor who served as Secretary of State for Presidents Nixon
and Ford. At the time of STRANGELOVE's production, Kissinger was at
Harvard, and had written at least two books on nuclear war by 1960. (One
was published by the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a Book-of-
the-Month selection.) In his books, Kissinger argued for various
"strategies," including limited nuclear war, tactical nuclear weapons,
etc.
The case FOR Kissinger: he's German by birth, and the accent is very
similar, which seems to be the main reason for linking Kissinger with
Strangelove. Kissinger's subsequent career -- which journalist
Christopher Hitchens compared to the pathology of a serial killer --
certainly matches Strangelove's ruthlessness. (Suggested reading:
Seymour Hersh's THE PRICE OF POWER.) And given Kissinger's minor
prominence and Kubrick's thorough research, one could argue it's likely
that Kubrick thought of Kissinger.
The case AGAINST Kissinger: Frankly, he was far too obscure a figure to
be "parodied." One would want to parody a widely-known personage, and at
the time, Kissinger was one of many theorists of the unthinkable.
The second favorite is clearly Werner von Braun, the former Nazi rocket
scientist who quickly turned his services (and those of his underlings)
to the U.S. after the war. In the Cold War, von Braun's expertise in
rocketry was more important to the U.S. than prosecuting him for
administrating slave labor at Peenemunde and Nordhausen. His books were
written with a view to the future (I AIM FOR THE STARS), but it was a
theme in humor at the time to note Von Braun's earlier work (cf. Tom
Lehrer's song about him, Mort Sahl's subtitle to his book ". . . but
Sometimes I Hit London.")
The case FOR Von Braun: He was famous. He was German. He had been a
faithful Nazi. He promoted a self-image of coldly rational theorization
of pragmatic scientific realities, untempered by such human issues as
compassion, morals, or values.
The case AGAINST Von Braun: Very little, apart from the fact that he
wasn't a nuclear scientist, nor a theorist of nuclear deterrence.
A third runner-up is Edward Teller, the Hungarian physicist who worked
on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, and whose theoretical work was
instrumental in developing the H-bomb. Teller was also willing to
denounce Robert Oppenheimer as a security risk, thus ensuring his
reputation among liberals as a scoundrel. He was also the man who
convinced Ronald Reagan that the Strategic Defense Initiative was a
workable concept. Even historian William Manchester, in the Oppenheimer
passages in THE GLORY AND THE DREAM, said that, eventually, Teller would
be savagely parodied as DR. STRANGELOVE.
The case FOR Teller; His role in the Oppenheimer affair. His promotion
of the development of the H-bomb. His continued role in promoting
nuclear weapons development (he was the head of Lawrence Livermore labs
for many years). He had a foreign accent that, to an untrained ear,
might sound German.
The case AGAINST Teller; Teller was Hungarian (as well as Jewish), and FLED the Nazis when
they overran his country.
I think the best case can be made that Herman Kahn was the best source
for Strangelove. Kahn was one of the earliest employees at the RAND
corporation, which had been set by by Gen. "Hap" Arnold to study nuclear
war. According to THE WIZARDS OF ARMAGEDDON by Fred Kaplan, Kahn was
notable for developing the linguistic trick of referring to potential
casualties with the "only" word, as in "only two million kiled."
"Alluding almost casually to 'only' two million dead was part of the
image Kahn was fashioning himself, the living portrait of the ultimate
defense intellectual, cool and fearless, asking the questions everyone
else ignored, thinking about the unthinkable." Indeed, his book ON
THERMONUCLEAR WAR (1960), SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN reviewed it as "a moral
tract on mass murder; how to plan it, how to commit it, how to get away
with it, how to justify it."
The case FOR Kahn: Dr. Strangelove himself refers to a study he
commissioned from the "Bland Corporation," a clear play on Kahn's old
haunts. The similarity to Kahn's own ideas in Strangelove's
pronouncements -- including the mine-shaft and ten-females-to-each-male
stuff -- is uncannily similar to Kahn's brand of futurism. And since
Kahn was the most famous nuclear war theorist at the time, Kubrick must
have been thinking of his work.
The case AGAINST Kahn: Kahn, despite his name, was American-born, and
was never a Nazi. Kahn was once asked about STRANGELOVE, and his reply
was: "Dr. Strangelove would not have lasted three weeks at the
Pentagon.. he was too creative."
My Best Guess is that Kubrick wanted to satirize the works of nuclear
intellectuals such as Herman Kahn. Kahn was clearly the most famous,
though it is not inconceivable that Kubrick was aware of Kissinger's
work in the field. In order to give an extra spin on the ultrarational,
"pragmatic" pose, Kubrick added allusions to Von Braun's Nazi past. The
wheelchair and the physical infirmities were added to give Strangelove a
bizarre, grotesque appearance. But personally, I believe that Herman
Kahn was the single greatest influence on the creation of Dr.
Strangelove.
(B.S.)
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