Aside from the academic world, during all these years, George Hammond, "made many public speeches on controversial themes, both political (e.g., the invasion of Cambodia, delivered in 1971 at a public rally on Caltechs Olive Walk) and scientific (e.g., the future of chemistry)" Many of these controversial speeches affected his career negatively. For example, after his speech at Olive Walk, president Richard Nixons administration removed his name from nomination for a major NSF post. Nevertheless, he did not back down and continued to criticize the government, and not limiting to delivering speeches, he wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper saying: “A June 30 front-page article describes the potential bonanza in arms sales to new members as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expands. I was favorably inclined toward expansion because of my naive assumption that bringing most of the nations of Europe and North America together as a cooperating group would decrease the likelihood of war. I cannot believe this will be the case if a prerequisite for entry is that countries buy new armaments from present members. At whom will the guns be aimed? Russia? Then we will probably re-create the cold war." The way this excerpt was written says many things about George Hammond, starting with his passionate character. Hammond fought for everything he believed in. He cared about his nation and he was also a little reckless about the consequences he could suffer for defying the government. Also, in the excerpt, a sarcastic side of Hammond can be perceived, a man of strong character with the ability to recognize when he is wrong.