American Prometheus (129 page)

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.