Is it true that the phrase that in the fourth world war people will fight stones and sticks belong to Einstein?

The story is widespread that once physics was asked: what weapons will be used in the event of the Third World War. He allegedly answered: "I do not know, but in the fourth - stones and sticks." We checked whether Einstein really was the author of this expression.

The saying attributed to Albert Einstein is found at sites with collections of quotes, and on resourcesdedicated to military topics. In 2018, during the “direct line with Vladimir Putin”, the president of Russia was asked the question: “Will there be the Third World War?” Putin answered: “You know, you can recall Einstein, in my opinion. He said: I don’t know what means of the Third World War will be waged, but the fourth will be waged using stones and sticks. ”

Although Einstein knew exactly about the danger of nuclear weapons, we could not find a reliable confirmation of the fact that he owns the phrase about stones and sticks. In March 1947 in one of the American newspapers appeared Note on a dinner dinner in which the physicist participated. The reporter retells his dialogue with friends in which Einstein says: “I don’t know what weapons can be used in the Third World War, but there is no doubt about which weapons will be used in the fourth.” The scientist replied to the follow -up question of the interlocutor: “Stone Spears”. A similar story Fixed And in the 1948 source, but there Einstein is no longer responding to “stone spears”, but simply “stones”. The same answer of the scientist It appears And in an interview with 1949.

But was Einstein a man who was the first to use this expression in one form or another? In September 1946, reporters on the Bikini Atoll, where nuclear weapons were tested, Communicated With the military who served there. When asked by the journalist about which weapons will use in the next war, the unnamed lieutenant replied: “I do not know. But in the war after the next war - certainly spears! " A month later, journalist Walter Winchell in a slightly altered form Published This dialogue is again. In 1947, also citing an unnamed officer quote Used Arthur Bili, Director of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Uta. True, in his retelling there are no longer spears, but "bows and arrows."

Thus, the famous scientist really used a similar phrase more than once, but sources record different formulations. None of them mentions precisely “stones and sticks”. Moreover, almost identical statements with reference to an unnamed American military are found in the sources of 1946, while the earliest mention in connection with Einstein appeared only the next year. Apparently, the phrase about how contrasting the weapon used in possible world wars in the future could be, was quite common among American society in the second half of the 1940s. Einstein is attributed to her as the most famous person who pronounced her. At the same time, the scientist spoke about stone spears and stones, but the wording with “stones and sticks” probably appeared later.

Photo: Lucien Aigner / Stringer / Getty Images

Half truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/einstein-world-war-iv-sticks-stones/
2. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/16/future-weapons/