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Lown Lecture

Text-Only Version

Dr. Bernard Lown '42, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize Winner: "How do we solve this problem? I took heart, later, from the words of Nelson Mandela, who said, 'To make peace with the enemy, one must work with the enemy, and that enemy becomes one's partner.'

"We, as doctors, were well-equipped for that because during the height of the Cold War we were collaborating with Russian physicians. Do you know what we helped wipe out? Anybody? I'm a teacher, so I pose questions. You are students. What did we help wipe out during the Cold War? Smallpox! Smallpox. We worked together with the Soviets and it couldn't have been done by the United States alone, nor by the Russians alone, so we were collaborating with them.

Now my collaboration with them in cardiology helped us think through, and I suggested to Chazov, why don't we start an organization of doctors to humanize one another to our respective populations--simple as that. So we can then coerce the political process not to find an excuse--"we can't trust the Russians and we can't trust the Americans"--and in 1985, this was recognized with the receipt of the Nobel Prize. And this is Chazov and myself. But it was not all smooth sailing, because never has any group been as reviled as this group of doctors here in this country."