The game theory of John von Neumann transformed the 20th century
I for one am tired of the endless hagiography surrounding JvN, who while certainly a brilliant mathematician was also a certifiable wannabe architect of genocide on a massive scale.  This was fairly well known a few decades ago, for example (1992):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.americanheritage.com&#x2F;prisoners-dilemma" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.americanheritage.com&#x2F;prisoners-dilemma</a><p>&gt; &quot;In 1950 Life magazine quoted the great Hungarian-American physicist John Von Neumann, co-father of both the atom bomb and the digital computer, advocating immediate pre-emptive nuclear war against Russia: “If you say why not bomb them tomorrow, I say why not today? If you say today at 5 o’clock, I say why not one o’clock?” He was hardly alone. Generals and members of Congress were making the same arguments...&quot;<p>The fact that all this is getting swept under the rug in this article, as well as in the obviously habiographic bibliographical treatment that it references, doesn&#x27;t bode well for the future of scholarly historical research in the USA.  Past treatments were far more balanced.