  The attempts to find the right (underlying) theory for the nuclear force have
a long and stimulating history. Already in 1953, Hans Bethe stated that "more
man-hours have been given to this problem than to any other scientific question
in the history of mankind". In search for the nature of the nuclear force, the
idea of sub-nuclear particles was created which, eventually, generated the
field of particle physics. I will review this productive history of hope,
error, and desperation. Finally, I will discuss recent ideas which apply the
concept of an effective field theory to low-energy QCD. There are indications
that this concept may provide the right framework to properly understand
nuclear forces.
