by American Prometheus: The Triumph;Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
103 “For the first few days”: Serber, Peace and War, pp. 38–39.
104 The next morning: Else Uhlenbeck, interview by Alice Smith, 4/20/76, pp. 11–12.
104 “To many of my friends”: JRO hearing, p. 8.
104 “an unworldly, withdrawn un-esthetic person”: Robert Serber, 1972 J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize acceptance speech, biographical file, Oppenheimer Memorial Prize, AIP Archives.
104 “active member of the Communist Party”: JRO FBI file, doc. 241, p. 13, 1/31/51, declassified 2001.
105 A young professor: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 29.
105 “Never since the Greek tragedies”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, pp. 23, 27. Serber, Peace and War, p. 43.
105 “We were not political”: Phillips, interview by Sherwin, 6/15/79, p. 1. In 1947, the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover claimed that Phillips had “reportedly distributed Communist pamphlets” at Brooklyn College (Hoover to Commerce Secretary Averell Harriman, 9/6/47, folder: Arms Control, 1947, Harriman Papers, Kai Bird Collection). In the early 1950s, Phillips was subpoenaed for questioning by the McCarran Committee. She refused to cooperate with the committee and was dismissed from Brooklyn College and the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. In 1987, Brooklyn College publicly apologized.
105 “I know three people”: Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76; Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 195.
105 He immediately agreed: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 173.
105 Similarly, Max Born: “Obituary: Prof. Max Born,” The Times of London, 1/7/70.
106 Although Sinclair lost: Stephen Schwartz, From West to East, pp. 226–46.
106 “We were sitting up high”: Serber, Peace and War, p. 31.
106 “It was very nice”: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73.
107 friendship as “very close”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, pp. 194–95.
107 “made a sweet island”: JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 19.
107 “one Jew in the department”: Serber, Peace and War, pp. 42, 50.
107 “I could be”: JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 31; Smith and Weiner, Letters, pp. 181, 190. The mathematician Hermann Weyl made the offer to Oppenheimer about joining the Institute for Advanced Study.
Chapter Eight: “In 1936 My Interests Began to Change”
111 “he began to court her”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 23; JRO hearing, p. 8.
111 “like an old Irish princess”: Priscilla Robertson, undated ltr. entitled “Promise,” circa January 1944 addressed to the deceased Jean Tatlock, Sherwin Collection. Edith Jenkins reports that Tatlock had blue eyes (p. 28), but the coroner’s death certificate for Tatlock described them as hazel. Michelmore reports them as a “luminous green” (The Swift Years, p. 47).
111 Five feet, seven inches: City and County of San Francisco Coroner’s Office, Coroner’s report for Jean Tatlock, 1/6/44; secret FBI memo, “Subject: Jean Tatlock,” 6/29/43, file A, RG 326, entry 62, box 1, NA.
111 She had but one: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 28.
111 “Jean was very private”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 21; Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 52.
111 Over lunch at the Faculty Club: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 13; Nuel Pharr Davis, a not always reliable source, claimed that Professor Tatlock “did not care for Jews.” He also quotes Mrs. Tatlock saying, “I must go to pick up my fascist husband and radical daughter” (Davis, Lawrence and Oppenheimer, p. 82). On the other hand, in 1938 Prof. Tatlock joined Oppenheimer, Chevalier, and other Berkeley professors in raising $1,500 in support of the East Bay chapter of the Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, an act highly unlikely for a fascist or a conservative (People’s Daily World, 1/29/38, p. 3).
111 “Batter my heart”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 24.
111 Jean owned a roadster: Ibid., p. 26.
112 “the most promising girl”: Priscilla Robertson, “Promise,” seven-page letter, circa January 1944.
112 “having gotten by nature”: Ibid.
112 “I just wouldn’t want”: Ibid.
112 “It was this social conscience”: Her poor grades that year perhaps reflect the time she gave to the Party. She received an A in psychology—but mostly C’s in her premed courses (University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School transcript, 1935–36; Jean Tatlock to Priscilla Robertson, undated, circa 7/15/35.)
113 “I find it impossible”: The Berkeley chapter of the Communist Party routinely harassed any of its members who went into analysis. When Frances Behrend Burch, a friend of the Chevaliers’, joined the Party in 1942, she simultaneously began seeing Donald MacFarlane, a Freudian analyst and a good friend of the Oppenheimers’. When Party officials learned of her analysis, they attempted to persuade her to end the sessions. (Kent Mastores and Constance Rowell Mastores, e-mail to Kai Bird, 5/6/04. Constance is Burch’s daughter.)
113 “a feeling for the sanctity”: Tatlock to Robertson, circa 7/15/35.
113 “worthy of Robert”: Royal, The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 69.
113 “All of us were”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 22.
114 “You must remember”: Ibid.
114 “There were a half dozen”: Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, pp. 9–10. See also Serber, Peace and War, p. 46.
114 “Jean was Robert’s”: Haakon Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 5/9/80.
114 “Beginning in late 1936”: JRO hearing, p. 8.
114 “He manifested deep interest”: Avram Yedidia to Sherwin, 2/14/80.
115 “If ever a revolution was due” and subsequent quotes: Harvey Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, pp. 270, 413; Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, p. 15; Edward L. Barrett, Jr., The Tenney Committee, p. 1; The Nation, 9/12/34, cited by Dorothy Healey, Dorothy Healey Remembers, pp. 40, 59; Steve Nelson, et al., American Radical, p. 262.
115 “I liked the new sense”: JRO hearing, p. 8.
115 “opened the door”: The phrase “opened the door” comes from Oppenheimer’s first draft of his autobiographical statement for the 1954 hearing. He cut the phrase in the final version. See Goodchild, Oppenheimer, p. 233.
116 After three terrifying months: “Dr. Peters Replies to Oppenheimer,” Rochester Times Union, 6/15/49; hearings before the HUAC, 7/8/49, p. 9, Bernard Peters Papers, NBA. Peters testified, “I was transferred to a prison in Munich and then I was released.” Peters also testified at this time that neither he nor his wife, Hannah, had ever been a member of the Communist Party.
116 “died in my hands”: Bernard Peters, “Report of a Prisoner at the Concentration Camp at Dachau, Near Munich,” written by Peters in 1934 in New York; Peters, “War Crimes,” 5/11/45, Peters Papers, NBA.
116 “a little different from most of us”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 120.
117 When Peters displayed: Ibid., pp. 120, 220.
117 “strengthened a conviction”: Dr. Hannah Peters to Mrs. Ruth B. Shipley, chief, Passport Division, Department of State, 8/28/51, Peters Papers, NBA. Appealing Shipley’s refusal to issue her a passport, Peters flatly denied she had ever been a member of the Communist Party. She said she had been a member of the Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.
117 Hannah also insisted: JRO to the editors of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 6/30/49, Peters Papers, NBA. In September 1943, Oppenheimer told Col. Lansdale and Gen. Groves that he thought Hannah Peters was a member of the CP; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 111; JRO FBI file, memo 4/28/54, document 1320; See also AEC report on JRO (Rochester Times Union, 7/7/54, folder 11, Bernard Peters Papers, NBA).
117 He was favorably: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 19.
117 “I suppose somewhere”: Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 5.
117 “better read”: Chevalier’s diary notation is dated 7/20/37—but his friend “E.” reported that Oppenheimer had read Das Kapital the previous summer. See Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 16; Steve Nelson was told the same
story: Steve Nelson, et al., American Radical, p. 269.
118 Born in 1901: Haakon Chevalier FBI file (100-18564), part 1 of 2, background report, pp. 2, 16.
118 “He was a terribly charismatic”: Larken Bradley, “Stinson Grand Dame Barbara Chevalier Dies,” Point Reyes Light, 7/24/03.
118 Frequently partying late: Haakon Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 30; Barbara Chevalier “diary,” 8/8/81, courtesy of Gregg Herken, www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com.
118 “gave shelter and moral support”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 25.
119 “to witness the transition”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 8–9.
119 “the new vision”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 8; Axel Madsen, Malraux, p. 195.
119 Over these years: Robert A. Rosenstone, Crusade of the Left, p. vii; Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, p. 15.
120 “anxious to do something”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 16.
120 “A group of people”: JRO hearing, p. 156; memo to FBI director, 1/17/58, regarding a term paper written by Mrs. Fred Airy, formerly Helen A. Lichens, entitled, “Term Report: Teachers’ Union of Berkeley and Oakland, Spring 1936.” Mrs. Airy explained to the FBI that she had written this term paper while a student at Berkeley in 1936. In the course of researching her paper, she attended many of the union meetings and interviewed its officers.
120 “hallucinatory feeling” and subsequent quotes: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 16–19, 21–22.
121 “Oh for God’s sake”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 49.
121 “a good friend”: JRO hearing, pp. 155, 191. When in 1950 the FBI questioned Oppenheimer about Dr. Addis, Oppenheimer refused to discuss the doctor, saying he was “dead and couldn’t defend himself” about “being close to the Communist Party.” By then, Addis’ widow told Linus Pauling that she did not want her late husband’s political views discussed in a memorial essay for the National Academy of Sciences, because she and her two children “feared for their own safety” Kevin V. Lemley and Linus Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” Biographical Memoirs, p. 3.
121 Even as a young doctor: Richard M. Lippman, M.D., to Linus Pauling, 2/1/55, Addis Memorial Committee, box 60, Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University.
121 In 1944 he was elected: Lemley and Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” p. 6.
121 Even as he was building: Ibid., p. 5; see also Dr. Frank Boulton e-mail to Kai Bird, 4/27/04, and Herken, website, www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com (endnotes for chapter 2, note 33).
122 He was a friend: Frank Boulton, “Thomas Addis (1881–1949),” Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, vol. 33, pp. 135–42; Lemley and Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” p. 28.
122 In 1935, Addis: Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets, pp. 265–66. Romerstein and Breindel cite “Comintern Archives, Moscow, Fond 515, Opis 1, Delo 3875.” They also cite a 1944 FBI report that described Addis as “active in 27 Communist Front organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area during the last ten years.” Addis: San Francisco field report, 5/17/44, sect. 4, Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians (FAECT) file, no. 61-723, FBI.
122 “an act of faith”: Lippman to Pauling, 2/1/55, with attached draft memoir essay on Addis, Addis Memorial Committee, box 60, Pauling Papers, Oregon State University. Lemley and Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” p. 29.
122 “a great man”: Pauling to Donald Tresidder (president, Stanford University), box 77, Pauling Papers; Dr. Horace Gray to Pauling, 4/5/57, Addis Memorial Committee, box 60, Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University.
122 “close to one”: JRO hearing, p. 1004.
122 “Injustice or oppression”: Dr. Frank Weymouth (chair of physiology dept., Stanford University) to Addis Memorial Committee, box 60, Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University.
122 “instrumental”: Thomas Addis, ltr. addressed to “Dear Friend,” September 1940, Addis correspondence with Pauling, 1040–42, box 59, Pauling Papers, Oregon State University. Other sponsors included Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, George Seldes, and Donald Ogden Stewart.
123 “reached into his work”: Ibid.; Boulton, “Thomas Addis (1881–1949),” p. 24.
123 “You are giving”: JRO hearing, pp. 183, 185, 9.
123 His annual donations: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index Adjuster, a dollar in 1938 had the purchasing power of $12.42 in 2001.
123 Robert’s last such: JRO hearing, pp. 5, 9, 157; Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 22.
123 “He was a respected”: Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 14; Nelson, et al., American Radical, p. 258; Haakon Chevalier FBI file (100-18564), part 1 of 2, SF 61-439, p. 37.
123 “I doubt that”: JRO hearing, p. 9.
124 “formulation of issues”: Ibid., p. 157; Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 22.
124 Late in January 1938: Oppenheimer’s donation was given to the American Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy (see Daily People’s World, 1/29/38, p. 3, cited in FBI background report on Oppenheimer, 2/17/47). The U.C. Berkeley fund-raising committee included Oppenheimer, Chevalier, Rudolph Schevill, Robert Brady, G. C. Cook, Frank Oppenheimer, John S. P. Tatlock, A. G. Brodeur, R. D. Calkins, H. G. Eddy, E. Gudde, W. M. Hart, S. C. Morley, G. R. Hoyes, A. Perstein, M. I. Rose, F. M. Russell, L. B. Simpson, P. S. Taylor, A. Torres-Rioseco, R. Tryon, and T. K. Whipple.
124 That spring, Robert: Daily People’s World, 4/26/38; ACLU News, vol. IV, no. 1, San Francisco, January 1939, p. 4; JRO hearing, p. 3.
124 “It was a time”: Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 3.
124 He nevertheless stood up: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 32–33; Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 4. In the spring of 1939 Oppenheimer served as chairman of Local 349’s Educational Policy Committee. Arthur Brodeur was president, and other committee chairmen included Chevalier and Philip Morrison (Joseph E. Fontrose, Secretary of Local 349, to Irvin R. Kuenzli, 4/27/39, reproduced from the collections of archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, courtesy of John Cortesi).
124 “Somehow one always knew”: Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 22.
125 “As long as she”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 202.
125 An eloquent teacher: Petteri Pietikainen, “Dynamic Psychology, Utopia, and Escape from History: The Case of C. G. Jung,” Utopian Studies, vol. 12, no. 1 (1/1/01), p. 41.
125 “fear of castration”: Siegfried Bernfeld Papers, “Psychoanalytic Committee—San Francisco,” box 9, LOC, contains invitation lists and various topics discussed by the committee.
126 “Some psychological damage”: Gerald Holton, “Young Man Oppenheimer,” Partisan Review, 1981, vol. XLVIII, p. 385.
126 “Bernfeld was one”: Siegfried Bernfeld Papers, “Psychoanalytic Committee—San Francisco,” box 9, LOC; Dr. Robert S. Wallerstein, phone interview, 3/19/01; see also Daniel Benveniste, “Siegfried Bernfeld in San Francisco,” unpublished essay, 5/20/93, and Benveniste’s interview with Dr. Nathan Adler, courtesy of Dr. Benveniste. Bernfeld was analyzing Wolff and possibly other members of the group, which raises the question of whether Oppenheimer himself was undergoing analysis with Dr. Bernfeld. While Oppenheimer’s name does not appear on a partial list of Dr. Bernfeld’s patients, Bernfeld later told Adler that one of his patients was a physicist at Berkeley who had played a central role in designing the cyclotron.
126 “seemed to treat physics”: Rabi, et al., Oppenheimer, p. 5.
126 Things metaphysical: Siegfried Bernfeld Papers, “Psychoanalytic Committee—San Francisco,” box 9, LOC; Dr. Wallerstein phone interview, 3/19/01. Dr. Wallerstein said that he knew Oppenheimer had been “intensely interested” in psychoanalysis and for this reason had regularly attended Dr. Bernfeld’s seminars; Dr. Stanley Goodman, a student of Dr. Bernfeld’s, e-mail, 3/20/01; Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, vol. 3, p. 344; Reuben Fine, A History of Psychoanalysis, p. 108.
127 “You’re too good a physicist”: Herbert Childs, An American Genius, pp. 2
66–67.
Chapter Nine: “[Frank] Clipped It Out and Sent It In”
128 Julius’ fortune: J. Edgar Hoover to the president, FBI memo, 2/28/47, JRO FBI file.
128 But as if: JRO hearing, p. 8.
129 “youthful cockiness”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Alice Smith, 3/17/75, p. 37.
129 “Frank himself is a sweet”: Leona Marshall Libby, The Uranium People, p. 106.
129 “He is a much finer person”: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 54; Herken’s source is a letter from Clifford Durr to Frank Oppenheimer, 12/10/69, Durr folder, box 1, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.
129 “I don’t think you”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 95.
129 At Hopkins, he: William L. Marbury to Allen Weinstein, 3/11/75, James Conant Papers, HU, courtesy of James Hershberg.
129 “we had a fine holiday”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 147. Frank’s friend Roger Lewis persuaded him to go to Johns Hopkins rather than Harvard. See Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Alice Smith, 3/17/75, p. 10.
130 “I know very well surely”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 155.
130 “You know how happy”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 163.
130 “There has seldom been a time”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, pp. 169–70.
130 He loved tinkering: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Alice Smith, 3/17/75, p. 15.
130 “reducing a specific”: Paul Preuss, “On the Blacklist,” Science, June 1983, p. 35.
130 Robert “did something”: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, told to Judith R. Goodstein, 11/16/84, p. 12, Caltech Archives. 130 In the laboratory: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, 2/9/73, AIP, pp. 38, 40.
130 Whereas Robert took: FBI background file on Frank Friedman Oppenheimer, 7/23/47, from D. M. Ladd to the director.
131 “Jackie prided herself”: Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 11.
131 They arrived in a brand-new: Frank Oppenheimer to Alice Smith, July 16 (no year), folder 4–24, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.
131 “It was an act”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 47; Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 34.
131 “The three of us saw”: Frank Oppenheimer to Alice Smith, July 16 (no year), folder 4–24, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.
