Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin

by American Prometheus: The Triumph;Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

  131 “She could drive you crazy”: Hans “Lefty” Stern, interview by Kai Bird, 3/4/04.

  131 As an undergraduate: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, told to Goodstein, 11/16/84, p. 32, Caltech Archives.

  132 “I used to tell people”: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, told to Goodstein, 11/16/84, pp. 9–11, Caltech Archives; William L. Marbury, In the Catbird Seat, p. 107.

  132 Upon his return: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, told to Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 46, AIP.

  132 “I clipped it out”: Frank Oppenheimer testimony, 6/14/49, “Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atomic Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif.,” HUAC, p. 365; FBI report, 8/20/47, citing a Minneapolis Star article of 7/12/47. In 1938 his book number was 60439 and in 1939 it was 1001.

  133 “The intellectuals who were drawn”: Frank Oppenheimer to Denise Royal, 2/25/67, folder 4–23, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

  133 “We tried to integrate”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Sherwin, 12/3/78; Frank Oppenheimer oral history, interviewed by Goodstein, 11/16/84, Caltech Archives, pp. 14–15. Jackie Oppenheimer testimony, 6/14/49, “Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atomic Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif.,” HUAC, p. 377.

  133 “was essentially a secret group”: Jackie Oppenheimer testimony, 6/14/49; Frank Oppenheimer oral history, interviewed by Goodstein, 11/16/84, p. 15.

  133 “I remember a friend”: Frank Oppenheimer oral history, interviewed by Weiner, 2/9/73, AIP, p. 46.

  133 The Stanford physicist: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Sherwin, 12/3/78.

  133 One day Ernest Lawrence: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 115.

  134 “made a rather pathetic impression”: FBI summary memo on Frank Oppenheimer, 7/23/47, p. 2; JRO hearing, pp. 101–2.

  134 “We spent a lot of time”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Sherwin, 12/3/78.

  134 “He frequently spoke”: FBI summary memo on Frank Oppenheimer, 7/23/47, p. 3.

  134 “He was passionately fond”: JRO hearing, p. 102.

  134 “I was quite upset”: JRO hearing, pp. 186–87.

  135 “in his opinion Frank”: FBI summary memo on Frank Oppenheimer, 7/23/47, pp. 3–4.

  135 “very brief and very intense”: JRO, interview by John Lansdale, 9/12/43; JRO hearing, pp. 871–86.

  136 “In those days . . . the Party”: Jessica Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, p. 67.

  137 “How shall we dissipate”: Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, p. 413.

  137 “We/he initiated it”: Haakon Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, pp. 3, 4, 6, 7; see also Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 19. Many years after her divorce, Barbara Chevalier noted in her unpublished memoir that Opje and Haakon had “joined a secret unit of the Communist Party. There must have been only six or eight members—a doctor, a wealthy businessman (maybe).” Barbara noted that she had deliberately not wanted to remember the names of those involved (Barbara Chevalier manuscript, 8/8/81, courtesy of Gregg Herken).

  137 For almost a year the FBI: Born in Russia in 1905, Schneiderman came to the United States when he was three years old. In 1939, government prosecutors attempted to revoke his citizenship and deport him. The case was still under appeal at the time of his meeting with Oppenheimer; in 1943 the Supreme Court upheld Schneiderman’s citizenship (Klehr, The Heyday of American Communism, p. 484).

  137 “the big boys”: FBI report, 5/19/41, document 2, and FBI teletype, 10/16/53, San Francisco bureau to FBI director, Haakon Chevalier, FBI file, part 1 of 2. The cable reports that when Schneiderman and Folkoff arrived, “there were observed parked in Chevalier’s driveway cars registered to [blank] and J. Robert Oppenheimer.”

  138 “persons to be considered”: N.J.L. Piper to FBI director, 3/28/41, JRO FBI file, sect. 1, doc. 1.

  138 Another FBI document: FBI report, 6/18/54, by Joe R. Craig, with attachment, “Excerpts from 97-1 (C-14).” The attachment is undated, but judging from the context of the excerpts, it must have been written sometime after August 1941, when Oppenheimer moved into his home at One Eagle Hill, Berkeley. Oppenheimer had met Helen Pell through their joint activities on behalf of the Committee to Aid Democratic Spain. (Pell was also a good friend of Steve Nelson; see Nelson, interview by Sherwin, p. 13.) Dr. Addis, of course, was Jean Tatlock’s friend and the man who initially funneled Oppenheimer’s donations on behalf of the Spanish Republic to the Communist Party. Alexander Kaun was a Berkeley professor who rented Oppenheimer his house for a time. In 1943 Oppenheimer told Lt. Col. Lansdale that he knew Kaun was a member of the American Soviet Council—but that he did not know whether he was a Party member (JRO hearing, p. 877). George Andersen was identified as the “official Communist Party Attorney” in San Francisco. Aubrey Grossman and Richard Gladstein were attorneys for the union leader Harry Bridges.

  138 Morrison, of course: See Philip Morrison testimony, 5/7–8/53, “Subversive Influence in the Educational Process,” 83rd U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, part 9, pp. 899–919.

  138 When asked about Chevalier’s: Morrison, interview by Sherwin, 6/21/02.

  138 “What made you a member?” and subsequent quotes: Haakon Chevalier, interviews by Sherwin, 6/29/82, pp. 6–7, and 7/15/82, p. 5.

  138 “I don’t know that I could”: Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 14.

  139 “My own estimate”: Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 22.

  140 “liaison with the Faculty group”: Griffiths, “Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower: The Political Autobiography of a College Professor,” unpublished manuscript, LOC. Griffiths produced two versions of this typed manuscript; the shorter, untitled manuscript names Oppenheimer as a member of the closed unit. Oppenheimer’s name is not used in the longer manuscript; apparently, when Griffiths began to circulate the manuscript for possible publication, a friend persuaded him that he should not disclose Oppenheimer’s name. We are quoting here from the shorter manuscript, p. 26.

  141 he “did not consider”: Gordon Griffiths, “Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower,” unpublished manuscript, shorter version, LOC, p. 26; FBI report of interview with Kenneth O. May, 3/5/54, JRO FBI file.

  141 Once a graduate student: Kenneth May, confidential letter to Dr. Lawrence M. Gould, president of Carleton College, 9/25/50, Carleton College Archives, courtesy of college archivist Eric Hilleman. May wrote an article in the New Masses entitled “Why My Father Disinherited Me.” David Hawkins, interview by Sherwin, 6/5/82, p. 15.

  142 “agree with CP aims”: FBI report of interview with Kenneth May, 3/5/54. May left the Party sometime during World War II. In 1946 he finally obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics, and later that year he joined the mathematics department at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Interviews with John Dyer-Bennett, May’s roommate at Berkeley, and Miriam May, May’s third wife, by Bird, 5/15/01.

  Chapter Ten: “More and More Surely”

  143 “I know Charlie”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 211.

  143 No issue of the day was: Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On?, pp. 32–54.

  143 “fantastic falsehood that”: The Nation reprinted this open letter (Schwartz, From West to East, p. 290).

  143 “that Opje proved himself”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 31–32. In his 1959 novel, The Man Who Would Be God, Chevalier has his Oppenheimer character defend the Stalin-Hitler Pact with these words: “ ‘Even in the worst situation,’ he said in a low voice, ‘there is a right move, and there are many wrong ones. Since the Western powers violated their pledge to Czechoslovakia in Munich, Russia’s situation has been dangerously exposed. This is surely the right move. Because it’s the one move that foils the plot of a united attack on the Soviet Union by Germany and a coalition of Western nations—France and England, with American support. . . . The pact is not an alliance with Germany. It is a quarantining of Germany against any combination with the West. . . . This is going to be beastly
to explain’ ” (Chevalier, The Man Who Would Be God, pp. 21–22).

  143 at a time when: Numerous historians have lent credence to this argument (see Alexander Werth, Russia At War, pp. 3–39, and Peter Calvovoressi and Guy Wint, Total War, p. 82.

  144 “seasoned liberals into reactionaries” and subsequent quotes: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 33.

  144 Robert was not himself: Maurice Isserman, Which Side Were You On?, pp. 38, 42. In 1941 the newly created “Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities”— chaired by California state senator Jack B. Tenney—held hearings to investigate allegations that the League of American Writers was in fact a Communist front (see Edward L. Barrett, Jr., The Tenney Committee, p. 125).

  144 Not surprisingly, their discovery: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 31; Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, pp. 6–7; Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 35–36.

  144 “They were printed”: Gordon Griffiths, “Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower,” unpublished manuscript, shorter version, LOC, pp. 27–28.

  144 “The outbreak of war”: The pamphlets came to the attention of the university’s president, Robert G. Sproul, who placed them in his presidential papers in a folder marked “Communists, 1940.” During the course of an interview, Chevalier brought out copies of the pamphlets, and Sherwin read excerpts into a tape recorder (Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 7/15/82).

  144 “you can recognize his style”: Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 7/15/82.

  145 “The elementary test”: “Report to Our Colleagues: II,” 4/6/40, “Communism,” Office of the President (Robert Sproul), 1940, UCB.

  146 “something of a progressive”: Ibid.

  146 If Oppenheimer had: JRO to Edwin and Ruth Uehling, 5/17/41; Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 217.

  147 “I may be out of a job”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 216. We see no record that JRO was questioned by any investigative committee at this time, so perhaps he was not called.

  147 “The University of California”: Martin D. Kamen, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/79, p. 27.

  147 While his friend: Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 7/15/82. Daily Worker, 4/28/38. Chevalier was joined in this statement by nearly 150 prominent intellectuals, including Nelson Algren, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Malcolm Cowley.

  147 “It was an absolutely”: During World War II, Weissberg was eventually shipped to an extermination camp in Poland. He jumped from a truck, however, and managed to escape into the woods, where he became active in the Polish underground (Victor Weisskopf, interview by Sherwin, 3/23/79, p. 5).

  147 “It’s worse than you”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, pp. 57–58.

  147 “What they reported”: JRO hearing, p. 10.

  148 Oppie “still believed”: Weisskopf, The Joy of Insight, p. 115.

  148 “He really had”: Weisskopf, interview by Sherwin, 3/23/79, pp. 3–7.

  148 “I know that these conversations”: Weisskopf, interview by Sherwin, 3/23/79, p. 10.

  148 “Opje said he came”: Edith Arnstein Jenkins, Against a Field Sinister, p. 27. Edith chose as her Party alias the name of Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. She said that no one was a “card-carrying communist” in their own name: “It was too dangerous.” From 1936 to 1938, Arnstein was the official secretary and dues collector for a closed unit of the CP at Berkeley—but she left this position in 1938 when she quit law school. The professional section of the Communist Party at Berkeley, she said, was composed of several units, with about eight individuals in each unit. She later said that Oppenheimer was certainly not a member of her closed unit, though she could not speak to this point for the years after 1938. Jenkins also remembered that Oppenheimer had once given her a small sum of money as a contribution to the Young Communist League (YCL) (Edith Arnstein Jenkins, interview by Herken, 5/9/02; Jenkins, interview by Bird, 7/25/02).

  148 “Opje is fine”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 108; Bloch to Rabi, 11/2/38, box 1 (general correspondence), Bloch Papers, SU.

  148 That evening he presented: Childs, An American Genius, p. 307.

  149 “beautifully eloquent speech”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 108.

  149 “He had sympathies”: Bernstein, Hans Bethe, p. 65.

  149 “Our little group”: Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 10; Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 46.

  149 “[W]e shared the ideal”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 187.

  150 “Sebastian would meet”: Chevalier, The Man Who Would Be God, pp. 14–15.

  150 “It was his baby”: Ibid., pp. 88–89.

  150 the “novel’s underlying tone”: Time, 11/2/59, p. 94.

  151 “Your letter asks”: Chevalier to JRO, 7/23/64, and JRO to Chevalier, 8/7/64, folder “Chevalier, Haakon—Reference to Case,” box 200, JRO Papers, LOC.

  151 “discussion group”: Chevalier, Oppenheimer, pp. 19, 46.

  151 “to be a Communist”: John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, In Denial, p. 39. John Haynes later wrote, “Oppenheimer, of course, would have been regarded by any party officer with any sense as a highly valuable ally. Further, he had no dependence on the party for organizational or other assistance. He was highly valuable to the party, but the party was not valuable to Oppenheimer except to the extent of his belief in its goals and objectives and whatever personal/fraternal ties he had developed with others in the movement. No skilled party leader would impose ‘discipline’ on someone like Oppenheimer; instead of giving orders, he would persuade, convince, cajole, ask politely and even plead if necessary” (John Haynes, e-mail to Gregg Herken, 4/26/04, courtesy of Herken).

  152 In short, Oppenheimer: As one of the FBI’s informants put it, “although Oppenheimer may not have been actually brought into the Communist Party, the effort to bring him to acceptance of Communist Party philosophy and to secure his support for Communist aims was regarded by the Communists as successful.” This FBI informant was Louis Gibarti, a Hungarian-born communist who spent the years 1923 to 1938 as a Comintern agent. Gibarti, whose real name was Laszlo Dobos, left the Party in 1938 and then worked as a journalist. There is no evidence that Gibarti ever knew Oppenheimer, or for that matter had any evidence to support his supposition quoted above. In 1950 he became an informant for the FBI (J. Edgar Hoover to Lewis Strauss, 6/25/54, JRO FBI file, sect. 44, doc. 1800).

  Chapter Eleven: “I’m Going to Marry a Friend of Yours, Steve”

  153 “We were at least twice”: JRO to Maj. Gen. K. D. Nichols, 3/4/54.

  153 “No more flowers, please”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 49.

  153 “she disappeared for weeks”: Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 35.

  154 “mostly very attractive”: Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 9; Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 30; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 345.

  154 Bob Serber recalled: Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, p. 10. Interestingly, Sandra Dyer-Bennett must have been a decade or more older than Robert. She was the mother of the folk musician Richard Dyer-Bennett, born in 1913.

  154 “I fell in love with Robert” and subsequent quotes: Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82; Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 39; Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 9; Chevalier, Oppenheimer, p. 31; Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 63; JRO to Niels Bohr, 11/2/49, box 21, JRO Papers.

  154 “Kitty was related”: Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82.

  155 Kitty had been born: Katherine Oppenheimer FBI file (100-309633-2), FBI memo, 8/7/51.

  155 “a prince of a small principality”: Serber, interview by Jon Else, 12/15/79, p. 9.

  155 The Blonays served: www.swisscastles.ch/Vaud/chateau/blonay.htm.

  155 Kaethe Vissering was beautiful: Wilhelm Keitel, Mein Leben, pp. 19–20. Keitel’s German language memoirs describe the noble ancestry of his grandparents, Bodewin Vissering and Johanna Blonay. (Portions of this memoir were published in English, translated by David Irving, The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel [New York, Stein and
Day, 1966]. But this version excludes material about Keitel’s family background.) For Keitel’s temporary engagement to Kaethe Vissering, see JRO hearing, p. 277.

  155 “Her Highness, Katherine”: Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 13.

  155 “She was wild as hell”: Pat Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 10; Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 14.

  155 “I spent little time”: Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 37.

  156 Several months into the marriage: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 10.

  156 “The consensus was”: JRO hearing, p. 571; Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 38.

  156 “He was a handsome”: Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 39.

  156 “an utter misfit”; “It is difficult to tell”: Robert A. Karl, “Green Anti-Fascists: Dartmouth Men and the Spanish Civil War,” unpublished Dartmouth College research paper, 9/21/00, p. 42, DCL.

  156 Determined to “throttle”: Karl, “Green Anti-Fascists,” pp. 43–44; Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, p. 473; Marion Merriman and Warren Lerude, American Commander in Spain, p. 124. For Dallet’s Jewish background, see Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 34, and Dartmouth Alumni, December 1937, Dallet’s alumni file, DCL.

  157 By 1932, Dallet: Peer de Silva, unpublished manuscript, p. 2, courtesy of Gregg Herken; Daily Worker, 10/27/37; Fifth Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, 1949, p. 553.

  157 “The house had a kitchen”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 61; Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 38.

  157 Joe “was a bit dogmatic”: Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 4.

  157 “The poverty became”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 25; JRO hearing, p. 572; Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 38.

  158 “I was like a third wheel”: Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, pp. 3, 6.

  158 “I adore you”: Joe Dallet, Letters from Spain, pp. 56–57; Dallet to Kitty Dallet, 4/9/37, 4/22/37, and 7/25/37, reprinted in Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks, eds., Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War, pp. 71–74, 77–78.