American Prometheus (126 page)

364
“Ruth, dear heart”:
JRO to Ruth Tolman, 11/18/48, Ruth Tolman folder, box 72, JRO Papers.

364
“I think Kitty”:
Jean Bacher, interview by Sherwin, 3/29/83. When asked by Sherwin about rumors of an affair between Tolman and Oppenheimer, Bacher became flustered, and insisted, “There certainly was never any sexual interest in the relationship; it was very supportive.” She then made it clear that further questions about an affair would conclude the interview.

365 “Dr. Oppenheimer first earned”: “Memorandum for the Files of Lewis L. Strauss,” 12/9/57, box 67, Strauss Papers, HHL. Strauss’ secretary, Virginia Walker, told the historian Barton J. Bernstein that her boss was very upset when he learned of Oppenheimer’s affair with Tolman (Walker, interview by Barton Bernstein, 11/7/02). Bernstein also reports an interview with James Douglas, an aircraft company executive who claimed that he had visited the Tolman house one morning during the war and saw Oppenheimer and Ruth Tolman alone, wearing only dressing gowns. See also Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
pp. 290, 404; Herken cites a 1997 interview with Lawrence’s wife, Molly, who remembered her husband coming home in a rage from a cocktail party hosted by Gloria Gartz, a neighbor and psychologist who knew Ruth Tolman. Gartz apparently told Lawrence of the affair at this party, which took place sometime prior to the 1954 Oppenheimer hearings. When Herken asked Molly if Richard Tolman was still alive at the time of the affair, Molly answered, “I know he was.”

365
“I shall always remember”:
Ruth Tolman to JRO, undated, Tuesday (spring 1949?), Ruth Tolman folder, box 72, JRO Papers. Ruth Tolman’s papers were destroyed at her instructions upon her death (Alice Smith to Beatrice Stern, 12/14/76, Smith correspondence, Sherwin Collection). A friend of Ruth’s later said that Ruth herself destroyed her letters from Robert. Dr. Milton Pleoset, interview by Sherwin, 3/28/83, p. 11. Pleoset recalled, “She was very close to Oppenheimer.”

365
“there was derogatory”:
JRO hearing, p. 27.

365
“to conduct an open”
and subsequent quotes:
Barton J. Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,”
Stanford Law Review,
July 1990, p. 1399.

366
“Joe, what do you think?”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 104.

366
Oppenheimer “may at one time”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
pp. 104–5; Bernstein, “The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered,”
Stanford Law Review,
July 1990, p. 1399; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 179.

366
“rather carefully”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 104.

367
“specifically substantiating the fact”:
FBI to Lilienthal, JRO FBI file, doc. 149, 4/23/47; see also Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 179.

367
“he had had homosexual tendencies”:
JRO FBI file, doc. 165, 10/30/47, SAC San Francisco to FBI director, declassified 6/28/96. The “extremely derogatory” story about Hall and Oppenheimer was regurgitated in another FBI memo to Mr. Ladd on 11/10/47. S. S. Schweber cites this FBI document in his book In the Shadow of the
Bomb,
p. 203.

367
Lilienthal thought it telling:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
pp. 179, 377.

Chapter Twenty-seven: “An Intellectual Hotel”

369
The Oppenheimers arrived:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 138; Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 141.

370
Robert had most of them torn out:
Anne Wilson Marks to Kai Bird, 5/11/02.

370
Soon after their arrival:
Time,
11/8/48, p. 76.

370
“an artist in the ancient”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 130.

370
“When we first moved”:
Morgan, “A Visit with J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Look,
4/1/58, p. 35.

370
Robert mounted one:
Oppenheimer sold this painting in 1965 for $350,000; twenty years later it was sold to a private collector at Sotheby’s for $9 million.

370
They hung a Derain:
Brown,
Through These Men,
p. 286.

370
Oppie’s austere study:
Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, pp. 16–17.

370
Oppenheimer’s ground-level office:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 198.

371
Oppenheimer took these:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 139.

371
“monstrous safe”:
Freeman Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 8; Pais,
A Tale
of Two Continents,
p. 240. By 1953, the classified documents had been moved to a vault in the basement. But the AEC was still spending $18,755 a year on five guards to maintain twenty-four-hour security. (F. J. McCarthy, Jr., to Strauss, memo, 7/7/53, Strauss Papers, HHL.)

371
“ablaze with power”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 241.

371
“that looked as if”:
Jeremy Bernstein, e-mail to Sherwin, April 2004.

371
Oppie drove a stunning blue:
Bernstein,
The Merely Personal,
p. 164; Bernstein,
The
Life It Brings,
p. 100; Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 255.

371
“cut like a monk’s”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 3, p. 173 (diary entry of 6/6/51).

371
“He was very thin”:
Freeman Dyson, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, p. 9.

371
“a town with character”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 322.

372
In 1933, Flexner:
Ibid., p. 196.

372
“writing unnecessary textbooks”
and subsequent quotes:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s
Office?,
pp. 26–27; Abraham Flexner,
Harper’s,
October 1939; Pais,
A Tale of Two
Continents,
pp. 194–96, 223.

372
“Today,” he told:
JRO, “Physics in the Contemporary World,” Second Annual Arthur Dehon Little Memorial Lecture at MIT, 11/25/47, p. 7.

372
“This is Robert”
and subsequent quotes:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
pp. 224, 230, 221. Pais is citing K. K. Darrow’s diary for 6/3/47, on file at NBL.

373
“I was sitting next to”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
pp. 232, 234.

374
“renormalization theory”:
Weisskopf,
The Joy of Insight,
p. 171.

374
“Let me handle this”:
Ibid., p. 167.

374
“Professor of Physics”:
Regis,
Who Got Einstein’s Office?,
p. 140.

375
“He didn’t have
Sitzfleisch
”:
Ibid., p. 147.

375
The Institute was a singularly:
Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 642. Stern’s unpublished manuscript was commissioned by Oppenheimer in 1964, but never published (IAS Archives).

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.