Richard Latter (20 February 1923 – 2 December 1999) was a theoretical physicist, who was famous for his political involvement in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, where he warned against MIRVs developed in Soviet Russia, by which arms-reduction treaties could be evaded.

Life

Richard Latter was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1923. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

. He studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

graduated from the California Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1942, and received a doctorate in theoretical physics in 1949. After graduation, he started working for RAND in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where he became head of the physics department in 1956. In 1960 his brother, physicist

Albert L. Latter Albert Louis Latter (October 17, 1921, Kokomo, Indiana – June 8, 1997, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles) was an American nuclear physicist and leading expert on nuclear weapons. Biography Latter graduated from the University of California, Los A ...

, took his place, and he joined the RAND Research Council. In 1971, he founded RDA (

R&D Associates Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

) with other physicists (his brother among them). Latter was married twice, and had three sons from his first marriage—one of them, Richard James Latter, died in 1990—and a daughter from his second marriage. By the end of his life, he lived in

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...

, where he died in 1999 of lung cancer.

Notable Achievements

In the early 1960s, Latter had the idea of

Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is almost invariably associated with in ...

s (MIRVs) which, as he later realized, was already thought of—and put into use—in Soviet Russia. By alerting the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, the US soon developed its own MIRVs, and balance was retained. He was a member of the US delegation to the Conference for the Discontinuance of Nuclear Weapons Tests on Geneva and a science adviser to the

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of ta ...

(SALT). Latter also helped work with Soviet scientists at the Geneva conference to develop what would later become a treaty against testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere (1964).

Publications

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References

* * 20th-century American physicists California Institute of Technology alumni 1923 births 1999 deaths United States Navy personnel of World War II {{US-physicist-stub