American Prometheus (112 page)

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. 266–67.

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.

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.