When talking about the cold war greats of game theory, don’t forget von Neumann and Morgenstern! Thomas C. Schelling’s work builds on their research and book on game theory ["Very Cool" 10/11/2005].

John von Neumann was possibly the greatest mathematician of the 20th century and a key member of the Manhattan Project. Some have speculated that von Neumann (he was in a wheelchair at the end of his life) was the inspiration for the character Dr. Strangelove (Henry Kissinger and Werner von Braun are also often mentioned). If that is true, the producers of that film had very little knowledge of this complex man of massive intellect who made contributions to many areas of science, engineering, mathematics, and our national defense. For example the architecture of all computers in common use today is still the von Neumann architecture.

I have read that von Neumann once said something like: “You can never make a bomb that is too big.” I think he had determined from his work on game theory that the probability was infinitesimally small that an entire society including its politicians (especially including them) would be inclined to commit suicide.
The following is my favorite quote about von Neumann:
“Perhaps the consciousness of animals is more shadowy than ours and perhaps their perceptions are always dreamlike. On the opposite side, whenever I talked with the sharpest intellect whom I have known – with von Neumann – I always had the impression that only he was fully awake, that I was halfway in a dream.”

Eugene Wigner (1963 Nobel Prize in Physics)
There is an excellent book about game theory and von Neumann by William Poundstone called Prisoner's Dilemma.

George Mitchell