The history of the so-called "Teller-letter"

Dátum: 2003-09-24 14:44:00, eredeti URL: http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=15035
KCMDB-be feltöltve: 2024-05-04 18:51:10.598922, Feltöltő: fidesz_hu_scraper_v2

On 15 September 2003, five days after Mr Edward Teller's passing away, Népszabadság published a letter on its front page attributed to the late professor. The letter, lacking signature and written in bad English, addressed strong and exclusive criticism to Fidesz on several issues of current domestic politics, accusing the current opposition of anti-democratic behaviour. Its rhetoric being in remarkable resemblance with socialist rhetoric on the issues concerned, the authenticity of the "Telller-letter" seemed unconvinving from the beginning. With good reason, because all of Mr Teller's assistants, as well as the Lawrence Livermoore National Laboratory in Stanford, immediately denied authenticity, expressing that it was in no connection with Mr Teller and it did not reflect the professor's personal convictions.

The real author turned out to have been a retired reporter at the Hungarian Public Radio, Mr László Zeley, who had been trying for weeks to persuade Mr Teller to write a letter for publication in Népszabadság, which would condemn Fidesz. He even provided "guidelines" with concrete examples from Hungarian domestic politics in a note sent to Mr Teller. Moreover, he wrote the letter itself on the professor's behalf, on the basis of his own "guidelines", and sent it to the Laboratory. In vain, because Mr Zeley's last attempt on 4 September, just five days before the professor's death, resulted in Mr Teller dictating a letter to his Hungarian assistant on 5 September, in which he definitely rejected the request. (This letter was never put in printed format, as the professor fell into a coma next day.)

Following Mr Teller's death and in spite of lacking his approval, Mr Zeley made one of the professor's colleagues at the Laboratory fax the unsigned "Teller-letter", his own fabrication, to Népszabadság, convincing him that it indeed enjoyed the late professor's approval. Mr Zeley himself sent a visit card with Mr Teller's signature on it, as he said, as a "sign of authentication".

Népszabadság immediately published the so-called "Teller-letter", without ever verifying its origin. As the forgery became apparent, chief editor Pál Eötvös had to apologise for the "mistake" two days after the publication, saying that they were indeed "in no possession of a signed Teller-letter".

Hungary's largest circulation political daily contributed to forgery, a disgraceful abuse with the late professor's name, who has never made secret of its anti-communist feelings. By contributing to the socialist smear campaign against Fidesz, Népszabadság openly rushed to the help of the socialist government struggling with a rapidly falling popularity rate due to its corruption scandals and the recently announced economic austerity measures.

24 September 2003