by American Prometheus: The Triumph;Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
410 “You would sit in”: Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 272.
410 “indulged in a rather”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 242.
411 “running around at his”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, pp. 25–26.
411 “I think he leaned on her”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 19. Hobson never actually saw Kitty throw anything at Robert, but she saw him come into the office with abrasions, and more so as the years went by.
411 Kitty told Sherr: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 25.
411 Another Los Alamos friend: Jean Bacher, interview by Sherwin, 3/29/83, p. 1.
411 “was insanely jealous”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 6.
412 “She was a very lovely”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 12.
412 “I think to be a child”: Strunsky, interview by Sherwin, 4/26/79, p. 11.
412 “On the surface”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 17.
412 “could not have a son”: Ibid., pp. 16–17.
412 “looking very paternal”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 456 (diary entry 2/3/49).
413 “problematical figure for a father”: Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, p. 79.
413 “To an outsider”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 243.
413 “Robert thought,” said Hobson: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 18.
413 “Kitty was very, very”: Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79.
413 “He [Robert] was very loving”: Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, p. 19.
413 From all accounts: Ibid., p. 14.
413 “he seemed to be starved”: Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 20.
413 “Her attachment to Toni”: Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 18.
414 “So the warm waters”: Ruth Tolman to JRO, 1/15/52, box 72, JRO Papers.
414 “She was a tower”: Freeman Dyson to Alice Smith, 6/1/82, Alice Smith correspondence, Sherwin Collection; Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 15.
414 “We always have such”: Elinor Hempelmann to Kitty Oppenheimer, undated, circa 1949–50, JRO Papers.
414 “Dear Oppy”: Al Christman, Target Hiroshima, p. 242.
415 “I am so glad”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 3, pp. 381–82 (diary entry of 3/28/53).
415 “When God at first made man”: Dyson, From Eros to Gaia, p. 256. Dyson quotes Mrs. Ursula Niebuhr in a draft, book-review copy sent to Sherwin. George Herbert wrote with almost morbid sensitivity about his inner moods—which may explain Oppenheimer’s attraction.
Chapter Thirty: “He Never Let On What His Opinion Was”
416 When called, Bush: JRO hearing, p. 910.
416 “tried every argument”: Lilienthal to JRO, 9/23/49, box 46, JRO Papers; Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, pp. 571–72. Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, vol. 2, p. 367.
417 “Keep your shirt on”: Teller, Memoirs, p. 279.
417 “ ‘Operation Joe’ is simply”: Lincoln Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,” Life, 10/10/49, p. 121.
417 “Our atomic monopoly”: Time, 11/8/48, p. 80.
417 But he also feared: Around this time, Einstein wrote the Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley, “I now feel sure that the people in power in Washington are pushing systematically toward preventive war” (William L. Shirer, Twentieth Century Journey, p. 131).
417 “We mustn’t muff it”: Lilienthal to JRO, 9/23/49, box 46, JRO Papers (Lilienthal quotes Oppenheimer in this letter). See also Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, pp. 570, 572.
417 a “more rational”: Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, p. 368.
417 The U.S. stockpile: Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power, p. 324.
417 “quantum jump”: Strauss to AEC commissioners Lilienthal, Pike, Smyth, and Dean, memo 10/5/49, memorandum for the record, 1949–1950, box 39, Strauss Papers, HHL; McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival, p. 204; Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, p. 373; Herbert York, The Advisors, pp. 41–56.
417 Truman was not: McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival, p. 201; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 204.
417 “I am not sure”: JRO to James Conant, 10/21/49, reprinted in JRO hearing, p. 242.
418 The physics of fusion: Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, vol. 2, p. 383.
418 “no such effort”: Bernstein, “Four Physicists and the Bomb,” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, vol. 18, no. 2 (1988), pp. 243–44 (italics are ours). See also Bernstein and Galison, “In Any Light: Scientists and the Decision to Build the Superbomb, 1952–1954,” HSPS, vol. 19, no. 2 (1989), pp. 267–347.
418 “long and difficult discussion”; “over my dead body”: Hershberg, James B. Conant, pp. 470–71.
419 “What does worry me”: JRO hearing, pp. 242–43; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 204.
419 “the climate of opinion”: JRO hearing, p. 242 (JRO to James Conant, 10/21/49).
419 “equally undecided”: JRO hearing, p. 328.
420 “We both had to agree”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 393.
420 “he would certainly”: JRO hearing, p. 76.
420 At two o’clock: Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 473.
420 “ ‘bloodthirsty’ ”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 582 (diary entry of 10/30/49); see also Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, vol. 2, pp. 381–85.
421 “Although I deplore”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 395. Rabi believes Seaborg would have changed his mind had he been present. “If he had been there,” Rabi said, “and stood out against it, I would have been very astonished.” (Rabi, interview by Sherwin, 3/12/82, p. 8.) See also Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 384.
421 “He never let on”: Lee DuBridge, interview by Sherwin, 3/30/83, p. 21; see also DuBridge testimony in JRO hearing, p. 518.
421 “looking almost translucent”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 581.
421 “Oppenheimer followed Conant’s lead”: Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 478.
421 “flatly against it”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, pp. 580–83; Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 158; Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 474.
421 “who will be willing”: Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb, p. 158.
421 “one must explore it”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 582.
422 “The use of this weapon”: “The GAC Report of October 30, 1949,” reprinted in York, The Advisors, pp. 155–62; Bernstein, “Four Physicists and the Bomb: The Early Years, 1945–1950,” p. 258.
422 “too small”: JRO hearing, p. 236; Hershberg, James B. Conant, pp. 467–68.
423 “To the argument”: “The GAC Report of October 30, 1949,” reprinted in York, The Advisors, pp. 155–62.
423 Indeed, if the Super: York, The Advisors, p. 160; Bundy, Danger and Survival, pp. 214–19.
423 “This will cause you”: Michelmore, The Swift Years, p. 173.
424 “blow them off the face”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, pp. 584–85; York, The Advisors, p. 60.
424 “You know, I listened”: Gordon R. Arneson, “The Decision to Drop the Bomb,” interview transcript by NBC News film, 3/1/86, courtesy of Nancy Arneson, part 1, p. 13; Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 405; Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 481.
424 His disillusionment was complete: See Carolyn Eisenberg, Drawing the Line; Bird, “Stalin Didn’t Do It,” The Nation, 12/16/96.
424 Kennan had first encountered: David Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy, p. 241.
424 “He was dressed”: George Kennan, interview by Sherwin, 5/3/79.
425 “He kept the whole thing”: Ibid., p. 3.
425 “present state of the atomic”: JRO to Kennan, 11/17/49, box 43, JRO Papers.
425 “this weapon could not”: Untitled draft
speech, initialed “GFKennan,” 11/18/49, box 43, JRO Papers.
425 “thoroughly admirable”: JRO to Kennan, 1/3/50, box 43, JRO Papers.
426 “I fear that the atomic bomb”: Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy, pp. 307–8; FRUS 1950, vol. 1, pp. 22–44, George Kennan, Memoirs, 1925–1950, p. 355; George Kennan, “Memorandum: International Control of Atomic Energy,” 1/20/50.
426 “as something superfluous”: Walter L. Hixson, George F. Kennan, p. 92.
426 “move as rapidly as possible”: Ibid.
426 “I was firmly convinced”: Kennan, interview by Sherwin, 5/3/79, p. 13.
427 “judicious exploitation”: Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy, p. 308. In retrospect, Kennan argued, “our stance toward the Russians should have been: Look here, so long as there are no arrangements for international controls, we are going to hold enough of these weapons—a small amount—to make it no temptation for anybody else to use them against us; but we deplore their very existence; we are anxious to get on with agreements to rule them out entirely, and we are not going to base our defense posture on them, nor our diplomacy” (Kennan, interview by Sherwin, 5/3/79, p. 10).
427 “George, if you persist”: Gordon R. Arneson, “The Decision to Drop the Bomb,” interview transcript by NBC News film, 3/1/86, courtesy of Nancy Arneson, part 2, p. 2.
427 “Let them fall”: Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, p. 200.
427 “Certainly not”: Teller, Memoirs, p. 289.
427 “I thought it would be”: Transcript of executive meeting, JCAE 1/30/50, doc. 1447, RG 128, courtesy of Gregg Herken. See also Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 216.
428 “The American people”: Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 349.
428 “We must protect”: Patrick J. McGrath, Scientists, Business, and the State, 1890–1960, p. 124.
428 “Can the Russians do it?”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, pp. 594, 601 (diary entry of 11/7/49).
428 “ ‘No’ to a steamroller”: Ibid., pp. 630–33 (diary entry of 1/31/50).
429 By the end of the decade: David Alan Rosenberg, “The Origins of Overkill: Nuclear Weapons and American Strategy, 1945–60,” International Security, no. 7 (Spring 1983), p. 23; Stephen Schwartz, ed., Introduction, Atomic Audit, pp. 3, 33;
429 “I never forgave”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 408. The “secret” of the H-bomb could not be kept secret. As Hans Bethe later wrote, “Of course in the long run this secret will be discovered by any nation which tries hard” (Bethe to Philip M. Stern, 7/3/69, Stern Papers, JFKL).
429 “It was like a funeral”: Lilienthal, The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 2, p. 633.
429 “For heck’s sake”: Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 481.
429 “promote a debate”: JRO hearing, p. 898.
429 “didn’t [resign]”: Hershberg, James B. Conant, p. 482 (Conant to William L. Marbury, 6/30/54).
429 “You don’t look jubilant”: Goodchild, J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 204; Pfau, No Sacrifice Too Great, p. 123. Pfau cites an interview with Strauss for this incident.
430 “These are complex”: Lewis Strauss to R. Adm. Sidney Souers in the White House, 2/16/50, folder “H-bomb,” AEC series, box 39, Strauss Papers, HHL.
430 “that these decisions”: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July 1950, p. 75.
430 “the whole rotten business”: Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 346.
Chapter Thirty-one: “Dark Words About Oppie”
431 “our large and ill-managed”: Davis, Lawrence and Oppenheimer, p. 316.
431 “You probably do not”: Kennan to JRO, 6/5/50, box 43, JRO Papers.
431 “What stands out”: Kennan, interview by Sherwin, 5/3/79, pp. 4, 6.
431 “I, who owe to your”: Kennan to JRO, 6/26/66, box 43, JRO Papers.
432 “not, so far, an historian”: John von Neumann to JRO, 11/1/55, Strauss Papers, HHL.
432 “They resented Kennan”: Freeman Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 19; Harold Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 14. Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 683, unpublished manuscript, IAS archives.
432 But less than six months: Kennan to Barklie Henry, 9/9/52, box 43, JRO Papers (Kennan asked Henry to forward a copy of this letter to Oppenheimer); Kennan to JRO, 10/14/52, box 43, JRO Papers.
432 “he knew of no ‘niche’ ”: Hixson, George F. Kennan, p. 117.
433 “nuclear power for planes”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 133.
433 “I know,” recalled Lee DuBridge: DuBridge, interview by Sherwin, 3/30/83, p. 16.
433 “had all the facts”: Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Rickover, p. 138.
433 Placing his hand: John Manley, interview by Alice Smith, 12/30/75, p. 12; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 195.
433 “very cruel”: Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 3.
433 “These are not happy”: Strauss to William T. Golden (Strauss’ assistant in the AEC), 7/21/49, Strauss Papers, HHL.
434 “to the effect”: Strauss to Golden, 9/15/49, Strauss Papers, HHL.
434 “effrontery for anyone”: Strauss, memos for the record, 1949–1950, box 39, Strauss Papers, HHL.
434 “a general who did not”: Pfau, No Sacrifice Too Great, p. 132; Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,” Stanford Law Review, p. 1414; McGrath, Scientists, Business, and the State, 1890–1960, p. 146.
434 “It is important to realize”: Leslie Groves to Strauss, 10/20/49 and 11/4/49, Strauss Papers, HHL.
435 “prefer defeat in war”: Strauss to Kenneth Nichols, 12/3/49, Strauss Papers, HHL.
435 On the afternoon: Strauss, memo to file, 2/1/50, box 39, Strauss papers, HHL.
435 “only fortifies the wisdom”: Robert Chadwell Williams, Klaus Fuchs, pp. 116, 137.
435 “Have you heard”: Anne Wilson Marks, interview by Bird, 3/5/02.
435 “would set them back”: Pais, A Tale of Two Continents, p. 258.
436 “lack of honesty”: Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,” Stanford Law Review, July 1990, p. 1408.
436 “I . . . think it was right”: Ibid.
436 “It resembled a meteor”: Herken, Counsels of War, pp. 10–14; Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 194.
436 “Borden was like a new dog”: Wheeler, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam, p. 284.
437 “It is a dangerous”: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 195.
437 By 1949, Strauss and Borden: See Lewis Strauss correspondence with William L. Borden, 2/4/49, 2/24/49, 12/10/52, 10/11/54, and 2/3/58, and other letters, William L. Borden, box 10, AEC series.
437 “I think he had”: William W. Prochnau and Richard W. Larsen, A Certain Democrat, p. 114.
437 Now, for the first time and subsequent notes: Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,” Stanford Law Review, July 1990, pp. 1409–10.
437 “every time he came to Washington”: Priscilla McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer, p. 175.
437 “fueled Borden’s doubts”: Ibid., pp. 154–55.
438 “Until now,” Jackson said: Robert G. Kaufman, Henry M. Jackson, p. 55.
438 “[h]e never forgot”: Ibid., p. 56.
438 “session of a top-drawer”: Stern, The Oppenheimer Case, p. 164; FBI memo, 8/18/50, pp. 18–20, sect. 10, JRO FBI file.
439 “West Coast Whittaker Chambers”: Newspaper clippings from San Francisco News, San Francisco Call-Bulletin, and Oakland Tribune, 5/9/50, contained in JRO FBI file, sect. 8. For more on the Hiss case, see Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers; Allen Weinstein, Perjury; Alger Hiss, Recollections of a Life; Victor Navasky, “The Case Not Proved Against Alger Hiss,” The Nation, 4/8/78; John Lowenthal, Venona and Alger Hiss,” Intelligence and National Security 15, no. 3 (2000); and Tony Hiss, The View from Alger’s Window: A Son’s Memoir.
439 “I
have never been”: Statement by JRO, 9:45 p.m., 5/9/50, JRO FBI file sect. 8.
439 “How utterly nauseating”: Lilienthal to JRO, 5/10/50, box 46, JRO Papers.
439 “inherently believable”: Borden, memo to file, 8/13/51, JCAE records, doc. 3464, cited in Barton J. Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,” Stanford Law Review, July 1990, pp. 1409–11.
439 “I am in the habit”: Victor Navasky, Naming Names, p. 14.
439 Curiously, Crouch was pardoned: Memo re: Herbert Marks, 12/1/50, sect. 44, doc. 1817, JRO FBI file.
440 “they had formulated”: Oakland Tribune, 5/9/50; Navasky, Naming Names, p. 14. Marshall Tukhachevsky was executed on 6/12/37, during one of Stalin’s early purges.
440 “He spent a lot of his time”: Cedric Belfrage, The American Inquisition, pp. 16, 168; Nelson, et al., American Radical, p. 332. Fred J. Cook, The FBI Nobody Knows, 388; Joseph and Stewart Alsop, WP, 7/4/54. Crouch testified against Harry Bridges, the famous union leader who had been indicted on perjury charges. In the course of the 1949–50 trial, Bridges’ lawyer presented evidence that Crouch had perjured himself. (Charles P. Larrowe, Harry Bridges, pp. 311, 322.)
440 “had been talking”: FBI memo, 4/18/50 (Paul Crouch interview), JRO FBI file, sect. 8; see also Paul Crouch, unpublished memoir, chapter 29, Crouch Papers, Hoover War Institute Archives, Stanford, CA, courtesy of Andrew Meier.
441 Oppenheimer later documented: Dorothy McKibbin found a hospital record for the X-ray dated July 25 (FBI memo, 11/18/52, p. 46, JRO FBI file, sect. 14).
441 Crouch was either mistaken: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 231. Herken speculates that Oppenheimer may have had a reason to drive the 2,200-mile round-trip journey between his ranch and Berkeley during the three-day window between Friday, July 25, and Monday afternoon, July 28—when Kitty crashed the car. Even today, the trip would take more than eighteen hours of straight driving in each direction. In 1941 such a drive would have taken considerably longer. Dorothy McKibbin found bills from a Santa Fe grocery store charged to the Oppenheimers for July 12, 14, 25, 28 and 29, 1941—indicating that the Oppenheimers had not left New Mexico in late July (FBI memo, 11/18/52, JRO FBI file, sect. 14, p. 45). Furthermore, Oppenheimer was at that time negotiating to buy a home at One Eagle Hill in Berkeley. On 7/26/41, Oppenheimer signed a letter sent from Cowles, New Mexico, to the real estate agent, Robinson, saying, “As for the furniture, we would, I think, be just as content to have everything taken from the house.” So this indicates that they did not comply with the home owner’s cabled request to meet them July 26 or 27 to dispose of the furniture. Oppie also says, “There is a chance that we shall be back in Berkeley before we had planned, perhaps within a week. . . . If you do not hear from us by Wednesday, you may assume that we shall be back about the 13th of August.” Finally, on 8/11/41, the Title Insurance Co. received a check for $22,163.87 in payment for the Eagle Hill house. Kitty is identified as the “deliverer of the check” (sect. 44, doc. 1805, 6/25/54, JRO FBI file).
