“listened intently . . .”: GRC to MTR, September 26, 1939, CFP.
“so inimical . . . ,” “tasks at home,” “Gigantic steps in preparedness . . .”: JBC, “Humanity’s Experiment with Free Institutions.”
“I hope you are making progress . . .”: Hershberg, Harvard to Hiroshima, 116.
“We were all drawn together . . .”: POTA, 33.
“a highly technical struggle”: Ibid.
“We all agreed . . .”: MSL, 224.
“get in and help,” “No, be realistic”: JBC diary, May 17, 1940, JBCPP.
“bad point of view . . .”: JBC diary, July 9, 1940.
“immediate aid,” “rearm at once,” “I shall mince no words . . .”: JBC, “Immediate Aid to the Allies.” WP, May 30, 1940.
“not an easy one to uphold”: HC, June 12, 1940.
“From that moment . . .”: Douglass, Six upon the World, 372.
“Let your voice be heard”: JBC, “Immediate Aid to the Allies.”
“Venture to wire . . .”: MSL, 218.
“Was semi-officially assured . . .”: Tuttle, “James B. Conant,” 111.
“thinking along these lines”: FDR to JBC, June 8, 1940, JBCPRESP, HUA.
“very favorable . . .”: JBC diary, June 1, 1940, JBCPP.
“coming out for FDR . . .”: Smith, The Harvard Century, 141.
“sneers,” “barrage of dead cats ,” “I am getting used to the volleys . . .”: JBC to Archibald MacLeish, May 30, 1940, JBCPP.
“intellectual leadership”: NYT, June 13, 1940.
“fifth best-dressed man . . .”: JBC diary, February 13, 1940. DBG, February 13, 1940.
“common touch . . .”: HC, February 13, 1940.
“colds in Cambridge . . .”: BH, February 13, 1940.
“the opponents of force . . .”: NYT, June 11, 1940.
“We as a people . . .”: NYT, June 13, 1940.
“O.K.—FDR”: James Phinney Baxter 3rd, Scientists Against Time, 14–19. This book tells the official story of the history of the NDRC and OSRD. Also Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper, 1948), 153–56; JBC diary, June 14, 1940, JBCPP.
“Will you be a member?,” “Is it real,” “Are you to head . . .”: MSL, 235; Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 15.
“four horsemen”: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 71; JBC diary, June 18, 1940, JBCPP.
“the mood was anything . . . ,” “the equivalent of helping . . . ,” “Hurry as they might . . .”: MSL, 239.
candidates would have to be cleared: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 15; MSL, 241.
“faute de mieux”: JBC diary, June 25, 1940, JBCPP.
“Jim will definitely . . .”: GRC to MTR, July 14, 1940, CFP.
“revolutionary”: MSL, 236–37.
“felt ill at ease”: JBC diary, July 3, 1940, JBCPP.
“never straighten up”: MSL, 204.
“go on the air,” “He said Cousin Eleanor . . . ,”: JBC diary, June 29, and July 4, 7, and 8, 1940.
“save himself”: Ibid.
“extremists,” “four jumps ahead”: MSL, 220.
“great scheme”: JBC diary, August 4, 1940, JBCPP.
“this utterly aimless war”: DBG, September 25, 1940.
“wave of the future”: Schlesinger, A Life in the Twentieth Century, 242.
“British plutocrats”: Olson, Those Angry Days, 283.
“cold-blooded efficiency . . .”: James R. Conant ’40, Class Oration, Phillips Exeter Bulletin, July 1940, 6.
“quite ‘shocking,’ ” “an overstatement of ‘hard-boiled’ ”: JBC diary, June 23, 1940, JBCPP.
“booed and hissed”: JBD diary, June 18, 1940.
“fantastic nonsense,” “Harvard was in bitter contention . . .”: Schlesinger, A Life in the Twentieth Century, 244–45.
“Mass airplane attacks . . .”: JBC diary, August 12, 1940, JBCPP.
“The importance of physicists . . .”: MSL, 241.
“stupidity of the FBI”: JBC diary, August 7, 1940.
“fundamental physico-chemical study . . .”: JBC diary, July 18, 1940, JBCPP.
“next moves”: JBC diary, July 25, 1940.
“pretending to be away . . .”: Ibid., July 15, 1940.
“almost overpowering emotional reaction”: MSL, 227.
“finest hour,” “aid to allies,” “I certainly put my heart . . .”: MSL, 225, 220–21.
“What is the worst possibility . . .”: JBC, September 24, 1940, as quoted in MSL, 221.
“a real exchange of information . . .”: JBC diary, October 9, 1940, JBCPP.
“Navy and Army faces . . .”: Ibid.
“Rad Lab”: Jennet Conant, Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 138.
“Your boys are not going . . .”: Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 250.
“thus preserving political neutrality! . . .”: JBC diary, November 5, 1940, JBCPP.
“private citizen”: JBC, “Speaking as a Private Citizen,” 3.
“We shall be rightly condemned . . .”: Ibid.
“the best we can hope for . . .”: Smith, The Harvard Century, 145.
“No fan mail”: JBC diary, November 21, 1940, JBCPP.
“So large a proportion . . . ,” “advantageously insisted upon . . .”: Tuttle, “James B. Conant,” 214.
“I am much disturbed . . .”: JBC to FDR, December 16, 1940, MSL, 228.
“168 signees more to come”: JBC diary, December 26, 1940, JBCPP.
“Conant-Douglas round-robin”: Tuttle, “James B. Conant,” 238.
“short of war,” “lifeline,” “Aid to the allies . . .”: MSL, 229, 225–26.
“muzzled,” “row developed . . .”: JBC to Grenville Clark, December 3, 1940, JBCPP. Tuttle, “James B. Conant,” 242.
“united front”: Ibid.
“Publicly, I think . . .”: JBC to Grenville Clark, December 31, 1940, as quoted in MSL, 228.
“make it the settled policy . . .”: JBC to FDR, December 26, 1940, JBCPP.
“inform the American people . . .”: FDR to JBC, December 1940, JBCPP.
“fireside chat,” “great arsenal of democracy”: MSL, 228.
“magnificent”: JBC to Grenville Clark, December 31, 1940, JBCPP. Also quoted in MSL, 228.
“very effective . . .”: JBC diary, December 29, 1940, JBCPP.
“I have been very encouraged . . .”: JBC to Grenville Clark, December 31, 1940.
“this country is singularly fitted . . .”: FDR to VB and JBC, ordering the creation of the NDRC, June 15, 1940, NDRC file, Bush Papers, NA.
“pessimistic about the long . . .”: JBC diary, June 29, 1940, JBCPP.
“Expressed my views . . .”: Ibid.
“dangerous man”: MSL, 223.
“no reference to Harvard”: JBC diary, January 2, 1941, JBCPP.
“heavy deans”: Smith, The Harvard Century, 142.
“wonder . . .”: JBC diary, December 20, 1940.
CHAPTER 12: MISSION TO LONDON
“To the sorely pressed . . .”: POTA, 42.
“Am sailing for England . . .”: JBC to Marjorie Conant, Friday, February 14, 1941, CFP.
“gala,” “might well be the gay 20s . . . ,” “dignified though conservative . . .”: JBC’s typed and edited diary of his mission, “Trip to England—1941,” JBCPP (henceforth JBC MTE diary). The trip is also chronicled in MSL, 248–71.
“recent scientific information . . .”: Ibid.
“Conant Heads Mission to London”: Ibid.
“As president of Harvard . . .”: NYT, February 16, 1941.
“little or no enthusiasm”: JBC MTE diary, 12.
“No Conant tea . . .”: As quoted in Harvard Alumni Bulletin 43, February 22, 1941.
“Winston: ‘One lump . . .’ ”: Ibid.
“I feel very strongly . . .”: JBC to VB, December 13, 1940, NDRC files, NA.<
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“ill-advised,” “I feel that this may be . . .”: JBC MTE diary, December 20, 1940.
“conspiracy”: Ibid.
“war from the skies . . .”: MSL, 249.
“probably not more than one . . . ,” I believe actions . . .”: JBC to Frank Jewett, December 27, 1940, JBCPP.
“grand job”: FDR to VB, February 4, 1941, NDRC files, NA.
“courage of his convictions”: BH, February 17, 1941.
“He was very anxious . . . ,” “Yes, of course . . . ,” “proof”: JBC MTE diary.
“He has made some of the most forceful . . .”: NYT, July 20, 1941.
“It is like granting a man . . . ,” “dictatorship-war-bankruptcy . . . ,” “the New Deal’s triple A . . .”: Tuttle, “James B. Conant,” 250, 246.
“stooge”: Ibid., 253.
“Hitler’s soldiers are proponents . . .”: JBC testimony, Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, S. 275, a Bill Further to Promote the Defense of the United States, part 3, February 11, 1941. Also NYT, February 12, 1941.
“Democracy was finished”: David Nasaw, The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 498.
“New England caution,” “subtle flattery . . .”: MSL, 224–25.
“I saw a stouthearted population . . .”: MSL, 248.
“the ideal emissary”: POTA, 42.
“messenger of hope”: MSL, 248.
“The job is really important . . .”: JBC to GRC, March 4, 1941, reprinted in MSL, 256.
“obviously tired and grumpy”: JBC MTE diary, 42.
“let himself go”: MSL, 254.
“This bill has to pass . . .”: William Manchester and Paul Reid, The Last Lion, 312.
“such a profound ignorance . . .”: MSL, 254.
“We don’t want your men . . . ,” “habit of quoting . . .”: JBC’s MTE diary, and MSL, 253–55.
“calculated quotient of righteous anger, “monster bomb,” “to address such dastardly technologies . . .”: Manchester and Reid, The Last Lion, 304.
“any new form of explosive,” “the Prof,” “Uranium is continually halving . . .”: Ibid., 305.
“exploiting uranium . . .”: MSL, 274–76.
“no responsible statesman . . . ,” “had succeeded,” “American news very discouraging . . .”: MSL, 254–55.
“your great president . . .”: JBC as quoted by GRC to Marjorie Conant, May 13, 1941, CFP.
“the gratitude of the British . . .”: JBC MTE diary, 44.
“what shall I talk to him about? . . .”: MSL, 253. Also Manchester and Reid. The Last Lion, 306.
“the maximum time . . .”: JBC MTE diary.
“first real Blitz . . . ,” “cross between fireworks”: JBC to GRC, March 8, 1941, reprinted in MSL, 255–57. Also described in JBC’s diary.
“Six Bombs dropped . . . ,” “lovely but heavy”: Ibid.
“wild idea,” “most important . . . ,” “electronic battalion,” “Conant scheme”: JBC MTE diary, 60–62, 69–70; MSL, 269–70.
“One thing they do better . . . critical point”: JBC to VB, March 16, 1941, NDRC files, NA.
“not many men . . . enormous difference”: JBC to VB, March 20, 1941, NDRC files, NA.
“If you accept this line of argument . . . years or longer”: Ibid.
“Here he was ahead of his time . . .”: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 122–23.
“brass hats”: JBC to VB, March 16, 1941, NDRC files, NA.
“clearly conveying secret information,” JBC’s conversation with Lindemann: MSL, 277–78, “grave offense” on 271.
“If I were to stay here . . .”: JBC to GRC, March 25, 1941, reprinted in MSL, 264–65.
“Here we are . . .”: Manchester and Reid, The Last Lion, 328–29.
“intensity of my feelings . . .”: Ibid.; MSL, 266.
“immediate objective,” “could not be won at all”: Ibid.
“radio magic,” “almost totally ignorant”: JBC MTE diary and MSL, 270.
“marvelous progress . . .”: Henry L. Stimson diary, April 25, 1941, YU.
embarrassing position, pet scheme”: MSL, 271, and Baxter, Scientists Against Time, footnote, 123.
“As one Harvard graduate . . .”: JBC meeting with FDR, MSL, 267–69.
“trusting to luck”: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1940–1945) (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 1956), 91–92.
“If we could preserve our freedom . . .”: JBC, “When Shall America Fight?” June 15, 1941, Speaking as a Private Citizen.
“cold, hard facts”: DBG, May 28, 1941.
“Friends of freedom everywhere . . .”: JBC to FDR, 1941.
“any man or state . . . ,” “equally detestable”: DBG, July 1, 1941. NYT, July 1941.
“The thing that worries me . . .”: JBC to Grenville Clark, 1941.
“No voice is louder . . .”: BG, July 21, 1941.
“persistent rumor”: NYT, June 15, 1941.
“certain great authors,” “continuation of the liberal . . .”: Amster, “Meritocracy Ascendant,” 149–52.
“Jefferson’s ideal,” “our common heritage . . . ,” “The Objectives . . .”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 13: WAR SCIENTIST
“You say you are convinced . . .”: AQ; OSRD Records, NA; Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 124.
“won the confidence of President Roosevelt . . .”: Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 465.
“light a fire”: Herbert Childs, An American Genius, 311. MSL, 274–75.
“almost completely negative,” “only hinted at . . .”: MSL, 278.
“so important,” “To me, the defense . . . ,” “talked in excited tones . . .”: Ibid.
“rough job,” “prime efforts”: VB to EOL, July 14, 1941, EOL Papers, BL.
“I have been putting a lot of thought . . .”: Ibid.
“when I retailed to him . . .”: MSL, 279–80.
“It can be made to work . . . ,” “complete faith,” “reversal in attitude”: Ibid.
“more significant”: Ibid.
“practically irresistible,” “counterthreat”: Childs, American Genius, 315. JBC, “A History of the Development of the Atomic Bomb,” 1943, unpublished manuscript, CFP (henceforth JBC, Secret History). Also in OSRD Records, NA.
“critical mass,” “We have now concluded . . .”: The MAUD Report, 1941, Outline of Present Knowledge, pt. 1, general statement, www.atomicarchive.com. Also see Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The New World, 42 (henceforth TNW).
“unprecedented violence,” “justify the scheme . . .”: Ibid.
“With the news from Britain . . . ,” “about the question . . .”: JBC, Secret History, 21.
“discreet inquiries,” “amazed and distressed”: Mark Oliphant, “The Beginning: Chadwick and the Neutron,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 38, no. 10 (December 1982): 17.
“gossip among nuclear scientists . . . ,” “all-out advocates”: JBC, Secret History, 19, 24.
“Though the factual evidence . . .”: MSL, 280.
“practical feasibility,” “We just [cannot] afford . . .”: Arthur H. Compton, Atomic Quest, 8 (henceforth AQ). The pivotal meeting is described in dramatic detail in AQ, 6–10.
“If such a weapon”: Ibid.
“Ernest, you say . . .”: Ibid.
“If you tell me this is my job”: Ibid.
“Top Policy Group,” “deeply involved in the atom . . .”: MSL, 280–81.
“A fission bomb . . .”: Ibid.
“all-out” American effort, “high responsibility . . .”: TNW, 71, 52.
“full steam ahead”: MSL, 281.
“speedy and complete victory”: DBG, December 9, 1941. Harvard Alumni Bulletin 44, December 13, 1941, 209–13.
“rush of hot anger”: JBC, “What Victory Requires,” December 22, 1941, Speaking as a Private Citizen.
&n
bsp; “Some defeatists have said . . .”: DBG, December 9, 1941.
“the mobilization of young men . . .”: JBC, President’s Report, 1940–1941, JBCPP.
“organizing some kind of a superintelligence service . . .”: Keller, Making Harvard Modern, 163.
“Conant’s Arsenal”: “Conant’s Arsenal,” Time, August 31, 1942. See Bethell, Harvard Observed, 137–54, for a detailed description of Harvard’s wartime transformation and contribution.
“Of what goes on behind . . .”: JBC, President’s Report, 1940–1941, 4, JBCPP.
“The last thing in the world . . .”: JBC as quoted by John Finley, Memorial Address, April 2, 1978, CFP.
“forward the national goal . . .”: JBC, “Total War,” in Amster, “Meritocracy Ascendant,” 138.
“catastrophic possibilities . . . ,” “spreading the gloom”: MSL, 280.
“how the devil . . .”: Harvey Bundy Oral History, CUOH.
“The Germans can never win . . .”: Harvey H. Bundy, “Remembered Words,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1957, 57.
“learn to think offensively . . . in utmost secrecy”: WP, December 23, 1941. JBC, “What Victory Requires.”
“armed alliance of free societies . . .”: Ibid.
“The country had been at war . . . ,” “There will be no need . . .”: JBC, Secret History, 31.
“not yet been seen . . . ,” “largely unknown”: MSL, 282.
“this was Conant . . . ,” “Glenn Seaborg is a very competent . . .”: AQ, 71.
“near certainty,” “magnificent achievement”: MSL, 282.
“really an afterthought”: AQ, 71.
“exciting events”: AQ, 78–79.
“In guiding these discussions . . .”: AQ, 71, 78–79.
“recurring question”: MSL, 284.
“a heavy burden”: POTA, 59.
“When called on in May . . .”: Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 434.
“betting heavily,” “All five methods,” “Anything less . . . unconsciously”: JBC to VB, May 14, 1942, VB-JBC files, NA. Also in Baxter, Scientists Against Time, 434.
“determining,” “They cannot be far behind . . .”: Ibid.
“Why nearly two years’ delay?”: MSL, 285.
“VB—O.K.—FDR,” “when necessary . . .”: Ibid.
“Take the necessary action”: NCBT, 10.
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