Word: napalming
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...early January of 1942, in the Gill Laboratory building at Harvard, Louis F. Fieser, Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus, perfected a jelled incendiary for military use and gave it the name napalm...
After trying out many combinations of elements, Fieser hit on a combination of naphthanate and palmatate, which was seven times as effective as thermite. He shortened the name to napalm so that it could be easily pronounced...
Fieser received a reply the next month from Edward E. David Jr., Nixon's science advisor. David wrote that the uses of napalm by the U.S. army in Indochina were "difficult to predict or control," but assured Fieser that "your suggestion will be given very careful attention...
...brush-off from Nixon," Fieser says. But he still doesn't regret having invented napalm; the United State's use of it to burn people, rather than buildings, is what bothers him. "When we were developing napalm," he says, "we never thought of any anti-personnel use. We were thinking in terms of wooden structures, factories...
...program for academic freedom at Harvard and the use of private universities to enhance the prestige of the military. Most important, a poll could initiate a reexamination of the relationship, in general, between Harvard and the U.S. government--a relationship which, in the past, led to the development of napalm in Harvard labs and other technological "advances" to increase U.S. killing power around the world...