Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin

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

  375 “This is an unreal place”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, pp. 248–49.

  376 “There was never”: Regis, Who Got Einstein’s Office?, p. 113.

  376 At the time: Von Neumann’s machine is on display in the Smithsonian Museum.

  377 “brilliant, discursive in his interests”: Bruner, In Search of Mind, pp. 44, 111, 238; JRO, “Report of the Director, 1948–53,” IAS, 1953, p. 25. Much later, Oppenheimer used the Director’s Fund to bring the linguist Noam Chomsky to the institute in 1958–59.

  377 Soon, other such: JRO, “Report of the Director, 1948–53,” IAS, 1953; Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, pp. 235–38.

  377 “I invited Eliot”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 72; Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 662, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  377 Nevertheless, Oppenheimer: Harold Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 20.

  377 “The point of this”: Regis, Who Got Einstein’s Office?, p. 280.

  378 “rotating universe”: Ibid., pp. 62–63.

  378 “Since I found”: Ibid., p. 193.

  378 “Isn’t ‘in any form’ ”: Bernstein, The Merely Personal, p. 155.

  378 Von Neumann was unusual: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 207.

  378 “I think that”: Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon, p. 63.

  379 “You got your doctorate” and subsequent quotes: Lansing V. Hammond, “A Meeting with Robert Oppenheimer,” written October 1979, courtesy of Freeman Dyson.

  379 “We were close”: JRO, “On Albert Einstein,” New York Review of Books, 3/17/66.

  379 “Einstein is a landmark”: Time, 11/8/48, p. 70.

  379 When Oppenheimer’s name: Regis, Who Got Einstein’s Office?, p. 135.

  379 “I could be”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 190.

  379 “Certainly Oppenheimer has made”: Regis, Who Got Einstein’s Office?, p. 136.

  380 “unusually capable man”: Fölsing, Albert Einstein, p. 734.

  380 “completely cuckoo”: Smith and Weiner, Letters, p. 190.

  380 “the good Lord”: Fölsing, Albert Einstein, p. 730.

  380 “see me as a heretic”: Ibid., p. 735.

  380 “extraordinary originality” and subsequent quotes: JRO, “On Albert Einstein,” New York Review of Books, 3/17/66.

  381 “watched him as he”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 298.

  381 Oppenheimer arranged to have: Georgia Whidden, interview by Bird, 4/25/03.

  381 “This is not a jubilee”: Denis Brian, Einstein: A Life, p. 376.

  381 “unprepared to make”: JRO to Einstein, undated (reply to Einstein’s letter of 4/15/47), JRO Papers.

  382 “He did not have”: Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, p. 719.

  382 “You know,” Einstein told him: JRO, “On Albert Einstein,” New York Review of Books, 3/17/66.

  382 “Something odd just”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 240.

  382 “a Hoover Republican”: Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” pp. 613–14, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  383 “I was struck”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 327.

  383 “The episode marks”: Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” pp. 672–73, 688, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  383 “political controversy”: Ibid., pp. 679–80, 691.

  383 “Oppenheimer plans to have”: Harry M. Davis, “The Man Who Built the A-Bomb,” New York Times Magazine, 4/18/48, p. 20.

  384 “an intellectual hotel”: “The Eternal Apprentice,” Time, 11/8/48, p. 70.

  384 “very strong opinion”: Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 651, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  384 “The institute is”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 14.

  384 “This upstart Oppenheimer”: John von Neumann to Lewis Strauss, 5/4/46, Strauss Papers, HHL. The founding director of the institute, Dr. Abraham Flexner, also strongly opposed Strauss’s selection of Oppenheimer (Strauss, Men and Decisions, p. 271).

  385 “disastrous”: Freeman Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 18.

  385 Indeed, during his first: Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 654, unpublished manuscript, IAS archives.

  385 “the most arrogant”: Regis, Who Got Einstein’s Office?, pp. 151.

  385 “He [Oppenheimer] was out to humiliate”: Ibid., p. 152.

  385 Academic politics can: Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” pp. 667–69, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  386 “He really flattened me”: Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 17.

  386 Abraham Pais recalled: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 240.

  386 “I meant, will you explain”: Bernstein, Oppenheimer, pp. 184–85.

  386 “air of hauteur”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 241.

  387 “Tea is where”: Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, p. 25.

  387 “The best way to send”: Time, 11/8/48, p. 81.

  387 “The young physicists”: Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,” Life, 10/10/49.

  387 “I have been observing”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 73; John Manley, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/85, p. 27.

  387 “Fireballs, fireballs!”: Murray Gell-Mann, The Quark and the Jaguar, p. 287.

  388 “came down on me”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, pp. 55, 73–74.

  388 “so much deeper”: Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 3.

  388 “conquer the Demon”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 80.

  388 “incomprehensibility can be mistaken”: Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 5.

  388 “Science’s sense of guilt”: Time, 2/23/48, p. 94.

  388 “That sort of crap”: Rabi, interview by Sherwin, 3/12/82, p. 11.

  388 “Scientists aren’t responsible”: Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,” Life, 10/10/49.

  389 “One can only imagine” and subsequent Blackett quotes: P. M. S. Blackett, Fear, War, and the Bomb, pp. 135, 139–40. This is the American edition of the original British publication.

  389 “The wailing over Hiroshima”: Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 433–35. Philip Morrison wrote a highly favorable review of Blackett’s book in the February 1949 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. JRO to Blackett, cable, 11/6/48; JRO to Blackett, 12/14/56, JRO Papers.

  389 That spring: Physics Today, vol. 1, no. 1 (May 1948).

  390 “He wanted to be”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 87.

  Chapter Twenty-eight: “He Couldn’t Understand Why He Did It”

  391 “The Europa reise is”: JRO to Frank Oppenheimer, 9/28/48, Alice Smith Collection, Sherwin Collection.

  392 “completely broken”: Preuss, “On the Blacklist,” Science, June 1983, p. 33.

  393 “authentic contemporary hero”: Time, 11/8/48, p. 70; Time’s cover photo showed Oppenheimer standing before a blackboard filled with mathematical formulae; Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 74.

  393 “I woke up to a recognition”: Time, 11/8/48, p. 76.

  393 “quite good”: Herbert Marks to JRO, 11/12/48; JRO to Marks, 11/18/48, box 49, JRO Papers.

  394 “You may have to”: Peat, Infinite Potential, p. 92.

  394 “Dear Rossi: I was glad”: JRO to Lomanitz, 10/30/45, Sherwin Collection.

  394 “Oh, my God”: Lomanitz, interview by Sherwin, 7/11/79. Lomanitz wrote Peter Michelmore that Oppenheimer had “seemed inordinately worried” (Lomanitz to Michelmore, 5/21/68, Sherwin Collection).

  394 But Oppenheimer had: Walter Goodman, The Committee, pp. 239, 273. HUAC’s chief investigator, Louis Russell, was another former FBI agent.

  394 “We won’t lie”: JRO hearing, p. 151.

&
nbsp; 395 “a dangerous man”: Hearings before the HUAC, 6/7/49, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233 HUAC Executive Session Transcripts, box 9, JRO folder, pp. 8–9, 21.

  396 “Just look at him”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, pp. 124–25.

  396 “tremendously impressed”: Hearings before the HUAC, 6/7/49, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233 HUAC Executive Session transcripts, box 9, JRO folder, Robert Oppenheimer, p. 42.

  396 “Robert seemed to have”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 120.

  397 Peters denied that he had been: Hearings before the HUAC, 6/8/49, pp. 1–9, Bernard Peters Papers, NBA.

  397 “God guided their questions”: FBI file 100-205953, report made in Buffalo, New York, 3/5/54, by Charles F. Ahern, Sherwin Collection. The FBI obtained this quote from a 6/23/49 letter intercepted between Ed Condon and his wife, Emilie (New York Herald Tribune, 4/20/54). By one account, Peters replied, “What do you mean? What if God had not guided their questions, would you have said something derogatory about me?” (Stern notes and questions for Harold Green, Philip Stern Papers, JFKL.)

  397 “Dr. Oppenheimer Once Termed”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 125; Rochester Times Union, 6/15/49.

  397 Peters knew immediately: Sol Linowitz, a lawyer—later a high-ranking official in the Carter Administration—represented Peters. See Linowitz to Peters, 11/29/48, and attached legal document, Peters Papers, NBAC.

  397 “I have never told”: Rochester Times-Union, 6/15/49; Peters was apparently arrested on a warrant of the State Secret Police of Munich, issued on 5/13/33 on suspicion of illegal communist activities. Another police order, dated 10/14/33, charged him with communist activities and barred him from further academic studies. (Rochester Times-Union, 7/8/54, contained in folder 11, Peters Papers, NBAC.) Peters was Jewish and the Nazis were in power, suggesting that these charges should be taken with a grain of salt.

  397 “You are right that I”: Bernard Peters to JRO, 6/15/49, Peters Papers, NBAC.

  397 “to sue Robert”: Bernard Peters to Hannah Peters, 6/26/49, Bernard Peters Papers, NBAC.

  397 “very much disturbed”: JRO FBI file, sect. 7, doc. 175, 7/5/49, p. 18. The FBI is citing an Oppenheimer phone conversation dated 6/20/49. See also Hannah Peters to Bernard Peters, 6/20/49, Bernard Peters Papers, NBAC.

  398 “set this record straight”: JRO hearing, p. 212; Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, pp. 123–27.

  398 “I remember you”: Hans Bethe to JRO, 6/26/49, Peters Papers, NBAC.

  398 “shocked beyond description”: Condon’s letter to his wife was intercepted by the FBI, and in 1954 it was leaked to the press. See New York Herald Tribune, 4/20/54.

  398 “Oppie has been”: Paul Martin, “Oppenheimer Testimony on Dr. Peters Draws Charges of ‘Immunity Buying,’ ” Rochester Times-Union, 7/9/54, folder 11, Peters Papers, NBAC.

  398 “I have lost”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 126. “The thing that horrified me most,” Condon later said, “was he [Oppenheimer], a Jewish boy, so soon after the six million had been cremated—and this was his personal protégé, also a Jewish boy—he said to this scoundrelly committee, ‘I’m not sure how far I would trust Peters, because he resorted to guile in escaping from Dachau’ ” (see Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, p. 486).

  398 “My talk with Robert” and subsequent quotes: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 127; Schweber cites Peters, ltr. to Victor Weisskopf, 7/21/49, folder 42, box 3, Weisskopf Papers, MIT.

  399 “I believe this statement”: JRO hearing, p. 214.

  399 “a not very successful”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 127.

  399 Nonetheless, it managed to salvage: The University of Rochester remained remarkably steadfast in its support for Dr. Peters. The university sponsored his trip to India in 1950 and the following year promoted him to associate professor. (Donald W. Gilbert, provost, to Bernard Peters, 5/29/51, folder 13, Peters Papers, NBAC.)

  399 Lomanitz’ fate: Lomanitz, interview by Sherwin, 7/11/79.

  400 “sad personally about”: Lomanitz to Peter Michelmore, 5/21/68, Sherwin Collection.

  400 “if anyone can do it”: Peat, Infinite Potential, pp. 104, 337; Peat cites a newspaper article, “After 40 Years, Professor Bohm Re-emerges,” by H. K. Fleming, Baltimore Sun, April 1990.

  400 “I think he acted fairly”: Bohm, interview by Sherwin, 6/15/79.

  400 “He told me”: Ibid.

  400 “He [Oppenheimer] was obviously”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 127. Schweber quotes from Peters, ltr. to Victor Weisskopf, 7/21/49, folder 42, box 3, Weisskopf Papers, MIT.

  401 A young reporter: In 1969, Philip Stern would write a brilliant book on the 1954 Oppenheimer security trial (see Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 131).

  401 “Well, Joe, how did I do?” and subsequent quotes: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, pp. 129–31; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, pp. 196–97.

  402 “I don’t think Robert”: Dr. John F. Fulton to Herbert H. Maas, 8/1/49, quoted in Beatrice M. Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 676, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

  402 “effrontery . . . to differ”: Strauss, memo to file, 9/30/49, LLS Papers, HHL. In September 1953, Strauss learned that the request for the isotopes in question had been made by Norway’s military on behalf of a Dr. Ivan Th. Rosenquist, who had later been dismissed by the Norwegians as a communist. Feeling vindicated, Strauss noted this fact in a memo to file, undated, Strauss Papers, HHL.

  402 “The story was full”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 72.

  402 “I cannot talk”: Frank Oppenheimer testimony, 6/14/49, “Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atomic Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley,” HUAC, pp. 355–73.

  403 “They all looked rachitic”: Frank Oppenheimer, undated memo, folder 3–37, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

  403 “I knew of no Communist”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 5/21/73, p. 2.

  403 “What is going on?”: Frank Oppenheimer to Ernest Lawrence, undated, circa 1949, folder 4–34, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB. Frank Oppenheimer may not have mailed this letter.

  404 “No one has offered”: Frank Oppenheimer to Bernard Peters, undated, autumn 1949, Peters Papers, NBAC. Oppenheimer was tentatively offered a job by the Tata Institute in Bombay, India—but the State Department denied him a passport (Ed Condon to Bernard Peters, 12/27/49, folder 12, Peters Papers, NBAC).

  404 “Jackie would sit”: Preuss, “On the Blacklist,” Science, June 1983, p. 37.

  404 “Don’t you want”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 73.

  404 “Finally, after all these”: Frank Oppenheimer, “The Tail That Wags the Dog,” unpublished manuscript, folder 4–39, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB; Preuss, “On the Blacklist,” Science, June 1983, p. 34.

  404 “I really felt like”: Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 5/21/73, pp. 11–12.

  404 Over the next year: JRO to Dr. Harold C. Urey, box 74, JRO Papers.

  404 First Steps (After Millet): Dalzell Hatfield to Frank Oppenheimer, 2/2/54, folder 4–45, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

  405 “all lead in many”: JRO to Grenville Clark, 5/17/49, Grenville Clark Papers, sect. 13, box 17, DCL.

  405 “Even the walls have ears”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 113.

  405 “He was always conscious”: Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, p. 20.

  405 By 1949, the bureau: JRO FBI file 100-17828, doc. 162, 10/24/47; FBI SAC to Hoover, 4/13/49, JRO FBI file, 100-17828, doc. 173.

  405 “No additional information”: JRO FBI file 100-17828, sect. 6, doc. 156, 6/27/47, and doc. 176, 4/13/49.

  Chapter Twenty-nine: “I Am Sure That Is Why She Threw Things at Him”

  406 He spent about: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 15.


  406 “The time has come”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 143.

  406 “He is warmly affectionate”: Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,” Life, 10/10/49.

  406 “Mrs. Oppenheimer, whose thinking”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 309; Life, vol. 29, no. xii (1947), p. 58.

  407 “His family relationships”: Priscilla Duffield, interview by Alice Smith, 1/2/76, p. 11 (MIT Oral History Laboratory).

  407 “He was an extraordinarily”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, pp. 3–4, 8, 18.

  407 “crew of birds”: Mildred Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/3/83, pp. 5, 13.

  407 “She would get drunk”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 3.

  407 “She would arrive”: Pat Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 15.

  408 “I mean, she just”: Ibid., p. 25.

  408 “He knew of Kitty’s”: Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 272.

  408 “Don’t go away”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, pp. 242–43.

  408 “doctor, nurse and psychiatrist”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 19.

  408 “Robert just liked”: Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 16.

  409 “He was just as loyal”: Robert Strunsky, interview by Sherwin, 4/26/79, p. 11.

  409 “barbaric custom”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 18; Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 242.

  409 “He was really just”: Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, pp. 12–13.

  409 On one occasion: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 20. 409 “never drank excessively”: Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 16. Serber’s explanation is somewhat misleading. Typically, alcoholism is a primary cause for pancreatitic attacks. According to Dr. Hempelmann, Kitty developed pancreatitis in the late 1950s. Her doctors prescribed very strong painkillers that didn’t mix with alcohol.

  410 “I need you”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 14.

  410 “If you are single”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 322.

  410 “People left [calling] cards”: Mildred Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/3/83, pp. 9–10.

  410 “wicked” woman: Ibid., pp. 5, 16; Marvin Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/28/83, p. 3.