Man of the Hour
Page 67
31 Harvard was shocked by the news he was resigning to become president-elect Eisenhower’s high commissioner for Germany, but Conant was eager for one last big challenge.
32 A newspaper cartoon spoofing President Eisenhower’s decision to turn to the warrior educator to find a solution to the problem of a divided Germany.
33 The new U.S. envoy to West Germany meeting his wife at Frankfurt airport before traveling to their official residence in the new capital of Bonn.
34 President Eisenhower, Conant, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer at a White House meeting to discuss the huge numbers of refugees escaping from the Communist East.
35 CBS news correspondent Edward R. Murrow’s interview with Conant in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate was disrupted by a group of Communist protesters from the Soviet-controlled Eastern zone.
36 Conant (far right) clashed with Senator Joseph McCarthy (left) during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing in 1953, and refused to be bullied into impugning the loyalty of several Foreign Service officers on his staff.
37 Conant believed the best way to beat the Soviets was to show that democracy was better than dictatorship, and a strong, educated citizenry required a public school system that enabled all Americans to advance.
38 Hoping to be remembered for his contributions to education not weaponry, Conant served on President John F. Kennedy’s committee on youth unemployment to address the problems facing the next generation.
39 Conant’s public school reforms landed him back on the cover of Time. A fourth appearance, the editors noted, was “a rare record” for someone never elected to public office.
40 In later life, Conant relished the role of grandpa, shown here with the author.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
I am greatly indebted to my parents, Ellen and Theodore R. Conant, for giving me access to all of my grandparents’ private papers, correspondence, diaries, journals, scrapbooks, and photographs. They were enormously generous with their time, patiently sitting for countless interviews and fielding endless probing, sometimes painful, questions. My father’s passing midway through the process, at age 89 in October 2015, made his contribution all the more precious. I would also thank my brother, Jim, for his forbearance as usual. And I must acknowledge my cousin, Clark Conant, a psychologist, for her kindness in helping me to shine a light on the dark corners of our family history and contribute to the story of how far we have come in understanding bipolar disorder, and how far we still have to go.
I am grateful to numerous historians and scholars in various fields whose works helped me in the writing of this book: James B. Conant’s autobiography, My Several Lives: Memoirs of a Social Inventor, which in turn was informed by the investigations of two graduate students in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, Charles Biebel and William M. Tuttle Jr., who wrote their doctoral theses about different aspects of Conant’s career, and had the benefit of his assistance. A third thesis, by Jeanne Amster at Harvard’s School of Education, was also very helpful. An undergraduate thesis by James Hershberg for Harvard College which grew into a massive study of cold war atomic policy, James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age, was also an invaluable resource. Over the last twenty years, and three books on the Manhattan Project, I have been the recipient of wisdom and guidance from many of my grandfather’s friends and fellow scientists, all of whom took the time to share their memories—both good and bad—and spoke with touching confidence and candor. I must single out for special thanks George and Elaine Kistiakowsky for first helping me to find my way, and Philip Morrison for his inexhaustible humor and insight. They are sorely missed.
A book of this kind requires a tremendous amount of archival research, and I was helped immeasurably by my wonderful and dedicated colleague Ruth Tenenbaum, who was with me every step of the way over this long, arduous journey. Her ability to unearth the unexpected and track down the most obscure documents and scraps of information never ceases to amaze me. Her encouragement in low moments will never be forgotten. I also benefitted from a very able researcher in Christopher Edling, a Columbia University MFA student, who ransacked hundreds of hours of oral histories. I must also recognize the research staff at Harvard’s Pusey Library for their unstinting efforts in plumbing Conant’s extensive archive. I would also like to acknowledge all the able people connected with the Atomic Heritage Foundation, especially Nathaniel Weisenberg. For his scientific expertise, and for taking the time to scrutinize my creaky chemistry, I must thank the brilliant Charles Sawyers. Ann Daly’s assistance at CBS was above and beyond the call of duty.
My thanks as always to Alice Mayhew, who has been the driving force behind all five of my books. I count myself fortunate to have the support of Jonathan Karp and the entire S&S team, with a special nod to Stuart Roberts for staying on top of so many loose ends. My literary agent, Kristine Dahl, has been a rock for more than twenty-five years. On the home front, Cavelle Sukhai provided what my grandfather liked to call the necessary “logistical support” without which our troop would surely have floundered. Dear friends have provided support of every other kind. A shout-out to all those who went over the final draft of the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb. Above all, I must thank my husband and son for enduring yet another World War II book. You were cheerful and willing participants, listened to my stories again and again, and you have my love and gratitude.
ABBREVIATIONS
* * *
Frequently cited people and sources are identified by the following abbreviations.
AM
Atlantic Monthly
BDG
Boston Daily Globe
BG
Boston Globe
BH
Boston Herald
BL
Bancroft Library, University of California
BMB
Bernard M. Baruch
CCR
Carnegie Corporation Records
CFP
Conant Family Papers
CUOH
Columbia University Oral History
DDE
Dwight D. Eisenhower
DDEL
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library
EOL
Ernest O. Lawrence
GRC
Grace “Patty” Richards Conant
GTR
Greenough Thayer Richards
HC
Harvard Crimson
HLS
Henry L. Stimson
HST
Harry S. Truman
HUA
Harvard University Archives
JBC
James Bryant Conant
JBCPP
James Bryant Conant Personal Papers
JBCPRESP
James Bryant Conant Presidential Papers
JFD
John Foster Dulles
JRO
J. Robert Oppenheimer
LRG
Leslie R. Groves
LOC
Library of Congress
MSL
My Several Lives by James B. Conant
MTR
Miriam Thayer Richards
NA
National Archives
NDRC
National Defense Research Committee
NY
New Yorker
NYHT
New York Herald Tribune
NYT
New York Times
OSRD
Office of Scientific Research and Development
PUOH
Princeton University Oral History
TFAR
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report by James B. Conant
TRC
Theodore “Ted” Richards Conant
TU
Tufts University
TWR
Theodore William Richards
VB
Vannevar Bush
WL
Walter Lippm
ann
WP
Washington Post
WTR
William “Bill” Theodore Richards
YU
Yale University
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Jennet Conant is the author of four bestselling books about World War II: A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS; The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington; 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos; and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. She was a general editor of Newsweek magazine, and has written for Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire, and the New York Times. She lives with her husband and son in New York City and Sag Harbor.
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NOTES
* * *
CHAPTER 1: ATOMIC PIONEER
“Here sits a man . . .”: JBC’s descriptions of the Moscow mission and Christmas Eve dinner at the Kremlin in Moscow are taken from his handwritten seventeen-page diary covering the events from December 10 to December 29, 1945, JBCPP, HUA. There are numerous firsthand accounts of Molotov’s famous toast at the Kremlin dinner on December 24, 1945: JBC’s memoir, My Several Lives; Charles E. Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969; James F. Byrnes, All in One Lifetime and Speaking Frankly; George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 1925–1950.
“There is no foolishness . . .”: JBC Moscow diary, December 20, 1945, JBCPP.
“anxious to speak to him . . .”: MSL, 476.
“If we fail to approach them . . .”: Robert L. Messer, The Making of a Cold Warrior, 138.
“only trying to be pleasant”: Byrnes, Speaking Frankly, 267.
“speak of secret matters,” “Here sits a man . . .”: JBC Moscow diary, December 24, 1945. Also see “Conant: Werk eines Mannes,” Der Spiegel, March 25, 1953.
“Comrade Molotov . . . ,” “Here’s to Professor Conant”: JBC Moscow diary, December 24, 1945.
“humorous remarks,” “But I can say . . .”: Ibid.
“a shrewd but kindly . . . ,” “Those were fine words . . .”: Ibid.
“There in the banquet hall . . .”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 249.
“pinned their hopes”: MSL, 483.
“crass nationalistic movie . . .”: JBC Moscow diary, December 25, 1945.
“unfavorable evidence”: MSL, 483.
“time, but not too much . . . ,” “There is no defense . . .”: DBG, December 12, 1945, MSL, 488–89.
“One thing has been as clear . . .”: Ibid.
“social inventor”: Ibid., xv.
“potentialities for destruction”: Ibid, 304.
“The verdict of history . . .”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 2: A DORCHESTER BOY
“He is manly . . .”: D. O. S. Lowell to J. G. Hart, May 4, 1910, JBC file, Office of the Registrar, HUA.
“proper Bostonian”: MSL, 3; JBC, “A Guide to Public Education for the Conscientious Citizen,” unpublished manuscript, foreword, 2, CCR.
“missed the boat”: Author recollection.
“I’m studying . . .”: Kermit Roosevelt, “Harvard’s Prize Kibitzer,” pt. 1, Saturday Evening Post, April 23, 1949, 72.
“He had a chip on his shoulder . . .”: Interview with Martha “Muffy” Henderson Coolidge.
“best people”: John P. Marquand, The Late George Apley, 215–19.
“Ever since he was eight . . .”: Boston Sunday Post, May 1, 1933.
“Dorchester Boy . . .”: BG, May 20, 1933.
“may as well have been . . .”: Interview with John B. Fox Jr., a historian, former senior advisor to the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard College, and author of an unpublished history, The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, 1686–1933.
“only the most intrepid . . . ,” “country seats,” “streetcar suburbs”: Douglass Shand-Tucci, Ashmont, 12.
“a Boston man . . .”: Boston Sunday Post, May 14, 1933.
“The Lowells speak . . .”: Roosevelt, “Harvard’s Prize Kibitzer,” 39.
“a single Harvard sheepskin,” “For Harvard to ‘marry’ . . .”: Boston Sunday Post, May 14, 1933.
“boiling”: Ibid.
“color” pieces: Roosevelt, “Harvard’s Prize Kibitzer,” 39.
“ ‘Skid’ and ‘Spike’ ”: BDG, May 15, 1933.
“intimate details,” “You may be sure . . .”: Esther Conant to JBC, June 19, 1933, CFP.
“Science and Puritanism . . .”: George Kistiakowsky, eulogy of JBC, 1978, 1, CFP.
“No matter what . . .”: John W. Gardner, “Reminiscences,” Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2, 1998, CCR.
“natural aristocracy”: Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, October 28, 1813, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, edited by Lester J. Cappon, Vol. 1 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, 1959).
“pioneer life”: MSL, 3.
Salters’ Company: Clifford K. Shipton, Roger Conant, 10. Includes detailed account of early Conant family history and launching of the Puritan commonwealth at Salem.
Naumkeag: Ibid., 59.
“prudent moderation,” “city of peace”: William Hubbard, A General History of New England, from the discovery to MDCLXXX (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1923), 110–13.
cordwainer: BG, May 20, 1933.
“The family was poor . . . ,” “not pleasant,” “one bright spot”: MSL, 7.
“the grand but simple lady . . .”: Ibid.
“Made on the Massachusetts South Shore”: BDG, May 22, 1933.
“special faith,” “Here was to be found . . .”: MSL, 9–10, and descriptions of early family life, 7–12.
“a regiment of women”: MSL, 8–11.
“Trinitarian doctrines”: Ibid.
“What my mother approved . . .”: Ibid.
disliked the dull curriculum: Charles DeWayne Biebel, “Politics, Pedagogues and Statesmanship,” 12.
“possible threats”: JBC, “A Guide to Public Education.”
“built for bi
cycles,” “horse-and buggy age”: MSL, 6, 4.
“full swing”: MSL, 7.
“scourge of the community”: Interview with John B. Fox Jr.
“Our own homes . . .”: JBC, “A Guide to Public Education,” 2–3.
“I must have breathed . . .”: Ibid.
“Of this, I was quite certain . . .”: MSL, 5.
“marvel,” “standard equipment,” “monkeying”: MSL, 14.
“It may be that my love . . .”: JBC, “A Guide to Public Education.”
“an applied chemist”: MSL, 15.
“cold winter afternoons . . .”: JBC Diary, JBCPP.
“Young Edison . . .”: NY, June 3, 1933.
“silent and nose-holding awe”: Biebel, “Politics, Pedagogues and Statesmanship,” 16.
“out batting a baseball . . . ,” “pedant”: BG, May 14, 1933.
“Sintific”: JBC to James Scott Conant, July 10, 1904, CFP.