Big Science
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“We thought of”: Compton, Atomic Quest, p. 240.
Ryokichi Sagane and Tameichi Yasaki: Heilbron and Seidel, pp. 317–18.
The memo suggested: “Recommendations on the Immediate Use of Nuclear Weapons,” June 16, 1945, copy in EOLP.
“It was hard to behave”: Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 657.
“Anytime after the fifteenth”: Oppenheimer to Lawrence, July 5, 1945, EOLP.
Groves arrived: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 136.
Richard Feynman: Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 668.
I decided the best: “Thoughts by E. O. Lawrence,” July 16, 1945, appended to Groves, Memorandum for the Secretary of War, July 18, 1945. The author wishes to thank Elaine B. McConnell of the special collections and archives department, U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point, for her assistance in locating this document.
“ ‘Now I am become’ ”: See Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p. 309. It has sometimes been pointed out that this is not the only possible translation of the text: it can also be rendered as: “Now I am become time, the destroyer of worlds”—perhaps a subtler and more sinister thought than Oppenheimer’s version.
“Operated on this morning”: Hewlett and Anderson, New World, p. 383.
“I casually mentioned”: Truman, 1945, p. 416.
“That was carrying”: Rhodes, Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 690.
“suitable warning”: Compton, Atomic Quest, p. 242.
“Are not the men”: Ibid.
“Suddenly a bright flash”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 7.
“From three of your former”: Ibid., p. 145. The letter, in facsimile, is reproduced in Compton, Atomic Quest, p. 258.
“I am sure”: Lawrence to Akeley, August 16, 1945, EOLP, quoted in Bernstein, Barton J., “Four Physicists and the Bomb,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 18, no. 2 (1988): pp. 231–63.
“I hope you will”: Darrow to Lawrence, August 9, 1945, EOLP.
“I am inclined”: Lawrence to Darrow, August 17, 1945, EOLP.
as finally prepared: Oppenheimer to the Secretary of War, August 17, 1945, in Smith and Weiner, Robert Oppenheimer: Letters, pp. 293–94.
“For the time being”: Hewlett and Anderson, New World, p. 417.
“it was a bad time”: Oppenheimer to Lawrence, August 30, 1945, EOLP.
Chapter Fifteen: The Postwar Bonanza
“tunic of Superman”: Life, August 20, 1945, quoted in Kevles, The Physicists, p. 334.
“In the past”: Franck et al., Preamble, “Report of the Committee on Political and Social Problems” (The Franck Report), June 11, 1945.
“Mr. President, I feel”: Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p. 332.
“to protect him from”: Neylan Recollections, HCP.
mid-1944: Robert Seidel, “Accelerating Science: The Postwar Transformation of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 13, no. 2 (1983), pp. 375–400.
“Our stock was”: Brobeck OH, BANC.
“lying in bed”: McMillan, AIP.
“no reference”: V. Veksler, “Concerning Some New Methods of Acceleration of Relativistic Particles,” Physical Review 69 (February 28, 1946): p. 244.
McMillan acknowledged: Edwin M. McMillan, “The Origin of the Synchrotron,” Physical Review 69 (May 1, 1946): pp. 534–35.
Known as SCR-268s: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 154. See also “Program for the Radiation Laboratory,” April 1, 1946, appendix C, EOLP.
Lawrence pried: Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
At its inception: Birge OH, BANC.
The Rad Lab budget: The estimates are from “Program for the Radiation Laboratory,” April 1, 1946.
He also knew: Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
“if it hadn’t been”: Fosdick to Weaver, Inter-office correspondence, September 20, 1945, RF.
“brought our civilization”: The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1945.
“We bet a hundred million”: Childs, American Genius, p. 374.
“very drastic and successful”: The speaker was Bernard Peters, quoted in Seidel, Robert, “A Home for Big Science: The Atomic Energy Commission’s Laboratory System,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 16, no. 1 (1986): pp. 135–75.
Instead, army engineers: Yoshio Nishina, “A Japanese Scientist Describes the Destruction of His Cyclotrons,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 1947.
“an act of utter stupidity”: New York Times, December 6, 1945.
“the present time”: Lawrence to Groves, January 20, 1946, quoted in Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
“I hope very much”: Childs, American Genius, p. 369.
Groves granted the Rad Lab: Hewlett and Anderson, New World, p. 628.
“We ran it”: Greenberg, Politics of Pure Science, p. 132.
the launch of: See spending figures in Science and Public Policy, vol. 1: A Program for the Nation, August 27, 1947, pp. 10 and 12. The document is known as the “Steelman Report” after John R. Steelman, chairman of the President’s Scientific Research Board.
“for every dollar”: Philip Morrison, “The Laboratory Demobilizes,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November 1946.
“The Berkeley laboratory”: Groves, Now It Can Be Told, p. 377.
“first totalitarian bill”: New York Times, October 31, 1945.
“I must confess”: Anderson to Higinbotham, October 11, 1945, quoted in Hewlett and Anderson, New World, p. 432.
“He was kind of boyish”: Neylan recollections, HCP.
Federation of American Scientists: Smith, A Peril and a Hope, p. 383.
“My own feeling”: Childs, American Genius, p. 378.
“free run”: Seidel, “The national laboratories.”
Seaborg had accepted: Seaborg, Journals, p. 747 (August 28, 1945).
$170,000 from the Manhattan District: See Weaver to Fosdick, Inter-Office Correspondence, February 11, 1948, RF.
The machine first: Childs, American Genius, p. 386.
“a kind of smoked”: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years 1945–1950, pp. 107–8 (journal entry of November 18, 1946).
“from irrationality to idiocy”: Smith, The Colonel. p. 462.
“pass no judgment”: Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
“Somebody asked”: Brobeck OH, BANC.
“good, big dinners”: Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, p. 109.
“Members of the committee”: Cooksey to Loomis, August 24, 1947, quoted in Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
“He regarded me”: Oppenheimer recollections, HCP.
“It may seem odd”: Oppenheimer to Lawrence, August 30, 1945, EOLP.
“Good, I can clip”: Oppenheimer recollections, HCP.
Brobeck had designed: See Brobeck OH, BANC.
It would harm science: Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
“Take something”: Rigden, Rabi: Scientist and Citizen, p. 186.
“What we submitted”: Brobeck OH, BANC.
“discouragement of the Berkeley group”: quoted in Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
Lawrence was summoned: Alvarez, “Ernest Orlando Lawrence: A Biographical Memoir,” National Academy of Sciences, 1970, p. 279.
Brookhaven settled: Seidel, “Accelerating Science.”
Chapter Sixteen: Oaths and Loyalties
“E. O. Lawrence personally”: Panofsky, Panofsky on Physics, p. 39.
“real cash”: Hewlett and Duncan, Nuclear Navy, p. 49.
“a subject which was”: IMJRO, p. 776.
Lawrence’s concern: For Neylan’s opinion of communists, see “John Francis Neylan: Politics, Law, and the University of California,” oral history interview by Corinne L. Gilb and Walton E. Bean, 1961, BANC.
The star witness: Barrett, Tenney Committee, p. 33.
The chairman: Stephanie Young, “Something Resembling Justice: John Francis Neylan and the AEC Personnel Security
Hearings at Berkeley, 1948–49,” in Carson and Hollinger, Reappraising Oppenheimer, p. 225.
The Neylan board’s first: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 191.
“he was the smart-alec”: Neylan recollections, HCP.
“if some kindly”: Young, p. 236.
“ ‘I hope you’ll give him’ ”: Ibid.
“If somebody sympathetic”: Young, p. 240.
“I had found”: Serber, Peace & War, p. 165.
“strengthened and reaffirmed”: Young, p. 243.
Frank had joined: Cole, Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens, pp. 47–48.
“I warned him”: IMJRO, p. 117.
“Why do you fool around”: Frank Oppenheimer recollections, HCP. See also Childs, American Genius, p. 354.
“Now look what you’ve done”: Frank Oppenheimer recollections, HCP. See also Childs, p. 405.
“one of the most useful”: Lawrence to J. W. Buchta, October 16, 1946, EOLP.
“meets with your approval”: Williams to Lawrence, October 26, 1948, EOLP.
Dear Lawrence: Frank Oppenheimer to Lawrence, October 26, 1948, EOLP. Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, pp. 403–4, dated this letter “circa 1949”; their text suggests late 1949, after Frank Oppenheimer had publicly confessed to having been a member of the Communist Party. According to their source citation, they viewed an undated copy in the Oppenheimer Papers at Berkeley; the dated copy cited here, showing it was written prior to that public confession, can be found in EOLP, also at Berkeley.
But he knew well: Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p. 402.
The reporter’s source: Hewlett and Duncan, Atomic Shield, p. 13.
That hurt: For the McMillan-Oppenheimer friendship, see McMillan, AIP.
“When we ran into”: Robert Oppenheimer recollections, HCP.
“any party or organization”: Text from Gardner, California Oath Controversy, p. 25.
“I was convinced”: Neylan OH, BANC.
he seized the reins: For Neylan’s role, see Gardner, California Oath Controversy, pp. 113–16.
“byzantine quibbles”: Segrè, A Mind Always in Motion, p. 235.
“get the hell out”: Ibid. See also Alvarez recollections, HCP.
“my secret weapon”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 139.
“Don’t do anything”: Panofsky, Panofsky on Physics, p. 43.
“Now, listen”: John David Jackson, “Panofsky Agonistes: The 1950 Loyalty Oath at Berkeley,” Physics Today 62, no. 1 (January 2009): pp. 1–7.
“lectured by Alvarez”: Steinberger, Learning About Particles, p. 39.
“One can only speculate”: Gardner, California Oath Controversy, p. 248.
“transient lunacies”: Segrè, A Mind Always in Motion, pp. 235–36.
“While I thought”: Seaborg, Adventures in the Atomic Age, pp. 143–44.
“Ernest felt emotionally”: Alvarez recollections, HCP.
Discovering that Neylan: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 221.
“There was one exception”: Teller to Maria Goppert Meyer, undat., quoted by Herken, ibid.
“Outstanding people left”: Symposium, “The University Loyalty Oath,” October 7, 1999.
Chapter Seventeen: The Shadow of the Super
“We have to do”: IMJRO, p. 659.
“had essentially not”: Ibid., p. 775.
“even went so far”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 385.
“A whopping big [program]”: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years, p. 577 (journal entry of October 10, 1949).
“shocked about his behavior”: IMJRO, pp. 777–78.
double the size: The estimate comes from Herbert F. York, Livermore’s first director. See York, The Advisors, p. 11.
“A very great change”: Oppenheimer to Conant, October 21, 1949. Text from IMJRO, pp. 242–43.
“Rabi was worried”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 171.
“They were extremely”: IMJRO, pp. 460–61.
“if it can be done”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 387.
“felt he could count”: IMJRO, p. 782.
“the greatest misgivings”: Hans Bethe, “Comments on the History of the H-Bomb,” Los Alamos Science, Fall 1982.
“We both had to”: IMJRO, p. 329.
“I am going”: Ibid., p. 781.
“There seemed to be a lack”: Ibid., p. 783.
“Keep your shirts”: Ibid.
“The East was evidently”: Serber, Peace & War, p. 169.
“my friends and any number”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 172.
“eyes light up”: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years, p. 581 (journal entry of October 29, 1949).
“quite strongly negative”: IMJRO, p. 247.
“The main reason”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 172.
“Pretty foggy thinking”: IMJRO, p. 784.
“No member of”: The text of the report can be found in York, The Advisors, pp. 150–59.
It has been suggested: See, for example, Rhodes, Dark Sun, pp. 402–3.
“rather awful”: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years, p. 582 (journal entry of October 30, 1949).
“a desperate need”: Joseph Alsop and Stewart Alsop, “We Accuse,” Harper’s, October 1954.
“an absolute dither”: Jeremy Bernstein, “Physicist-II,” New Yorker, October 20, 1975.
“I listened as carefully”: Beisner, Dean Acheson, p. 232.
On November 18: Hewlett and Duncan, p. 394.
The White House meeting: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years, p. 632 (journal entry of January 31, 1950).
“What the hell”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 407.
“say ‘No’ to a steamroller”: Lilienthal, Atomic Energy Years, p. 633 (journal entry of January 31, 1950).
Not even when: Pfau, No Sacrifice Too Great, p. 123.
“I never forgave”: Bernstein, “Physicist.”
Chapter Eighteen: Livermore
“absolutely no experience”: Serber, Peace & War, p. 169.
“I went back”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 172.
The nation’s entire: Hewlett and Duncan, pp. 147, 173–74.
“If you have”: Lawrence testimony, Joint Atomic Energy Committee, April 11, 1951, EOLP.
obtaining the end product: York, The Advisors, p. 123.
“Ernest wants to see”: Gow recollections, HCP.
“The first priority”: Brobeck OH, BANC.
“occupied most”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 173.
“spectacular stalagmites”: Panofsky, Panofsky on Physics, p. 41.
“Night after night”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 175.
“I am not waiting”: Lawrence testimony, JAEC, April 11, 1951.
The key: Hewlett and Duncan, p. 551.
“MTA breaks the bottleneck”: Lawrence to Smyth, April 16, 1952, EOLP.
“I don’t understand”: Smyth to Lawrence, April 3, 1952, EOLP.
“the wisdom of continuing”: Powell to Gordon Dean (AEC chairman), July 11, 1952, EOLP.
“The prototype MTA”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 176.
“If the Russians”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, p. 390.
“the first thermonuclear”: York, The Advisors, p. 127.
“It’s a boy”: Hewlett and Duncan, p. 542.
“dominated by irresistible”: Segrè, A Mind Always in Motion, p. 238.
“wouldn’t work with him”: Norris E. Bradbury OH, BANC.
“like waving a red flag”: Rogers M. Anders, Forging the Atomic Shield, p. 164.
“the somewhat ironic”: Hewlett and Duncan, p. 569.
At a physics department: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, p. 62.
“all those other physicists”: York, ibid., p. 53.
Lawrence drove Edward Teller: Hewlett and Duncan, p. 582.
“We debated this”: IMJRO, p. 311.
“because of Teller”: Ibid., p. 314.
“You get a bunch”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, p. 62.
“development and experimentation”: York, The Advisors, p. 132.
“wel
l-lubricated”: York, Making Weapons, p. 68.
“obvious special status”: York, The Advisors, p. 132.
“he simply instructed”: York, Making Weapons, p. 66.
“It certainly was”: Childs, American Genius, p. 445.
“some folks would”: Peter Moulthrop in Sybil Francis, “Warhead Politics: Livermore and the Competitive System of Nuclear Weapon Design,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1996, p. 64.
“simply coming”: York, The Advisors, p. 134.
“built a laboratory”: Statement by Norris E. Bradbury, September 24, 1954, Los Alamos National Laboratory archives.
Livermore’s work: Edward Teller, “The Work of Many People,” Science 121, no. 3139 (February 25, 1955): pp. 267-275.
At the first explosion: Francis, “Warhead Politics.”
“complete revolution”: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, p. 180.
“It was not surprising”: York, The Advisors, p. 135.
“believed in some quarters”: Francis, “Warhead Politics”
“had [not] been an effective”: Ibid.
Livermore’s first-year budget: York, The Advisors, p. 135.
“coming of age”: Francis, “Warhead Politics.”
Chapter Nineteen: The Oppenheimer Affair
“We do not operate well”: The text of the speech was published as J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Atomic Weapons and American Policy,” Foreign Affairs 31, no. 4 (July 1953): pp. 525-235.
“The campaign is dangerous”: Pfau, No Sacrifice Too Great, p. 145.
“blank wall”: Hewlett and Holl, p. 69.
“set in motion”: Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p. 487.
“should never again”: Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, p. 87.
“slippery sonofabitch”: Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, p. 542.
“I personally would feel”: IMJRO, p. 710
“we have an A-bomb”: Ibid., p. 468.
“ ‘But that is treason’ ”: Ibid., p. 130.
As late as Friday: Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb, p. 290.
“barely civil”: Ibid., p. 291.
“would seem to reflect”: Alvarez recollections, HCP.
he summoned his fellow: Childs, American Genius, p. 473.
“I had never seen”: Alvarez, Adventures, p. 180.