I also just started watching this TED video about Simons, in which, interestingly, near the start, he says he was fired by General Maxwell Taylor, when he was at the Institute for Defence Analysis, for writing an article opposing Taylor's views on the Vietnam War. Taylor was in favor of it, and Simons was against it, because he thought it was a "stupid war" (for the US to be engaged in, I guess).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_D._Taylor
The Criticisms section of the Wikipedia article about Taylor is interesting.
Related to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42187323 , which I also posted.