American Prometheus (136 page)

553
“He cannot tell the truth”:
Strauss, memo to file, 1/5/55, Strauss Papers, HHL.

553
“an unconscionable liar”:
Strauss, memos to file, 5/7/68 and 5/12/67, Strauss Papers, HHL; Merry,
Taking on the World,
pp. 360–63; Yoder,
Joe Alsop’s Cold War,
pp. 153–55.

553
“We were sound asleep”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, p. 24.

553
In early July:
Hoover, ltr., 7/15/54, sect. 46, doc. 1869, JRO FBI file.

553
“a very difficult time”:
Harold Cherniss, interview by Alice Smith, 4/21/76, p. 19; Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 393.

553
“The American Government is unfair”:
Peter wrote these words (spelling corrected) on 6/9/54; Brown,
Through These Men,
p. 228.

554
“if that corner isn’t”:
FBI memo, 7/14/54, sect. 46, doc. 1888, JRO FBI file.

554
FBI technical surveillance:
Newark FBI bureau, memo to Hoover, 7/13/54, sect. 46, doc. 1880, JRO FBI file.

554
“key security officials”:
FBI summary of surveillance, 7/15/54, sect. 46, doc. 1893, JRO FBI file.

554
“The letter,” the FBI summary:
JRO to Hoover, 7/15/54, doc. 1891; FBI summary of surveillance, 7/17/54, 1899, sect. 46, JRO FBI file.

554
The island’s one village:
Susan Barry, “Sis Frank,”
St. John People,
pp. 89–90.

555
“They were sort of”:
Irva Clair Denham, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/82, p. 4.

555
When Kitty was in a foul mood:
Inga Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, p. 19.

555
“According to the plan”:
FBI, JRO files, sect. 49, 8/23/54 and 8/25/54.

555
“were damn fools”:
FBI, JRO files, 8/30/54, sect. 49, docs. 1981, 2002.

555
Incredibly, the FBI:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 3, p. 615. Lilienthal had visited St. John that spring and learned of the FBI’s visit from Ralph Boulon, coproprietor of the hotel on Trunk Bay.

556
“How can the independent”:
Ferenc M. Szasz, “Great Britain and the Saga of J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
War in History,
vol. 2, no. 3 (1995), p. 327;
News Statesman
and Nation,
10/23/54, p. 525. The French press reacted equally critically. On June 8, 1954,
Le Monde
editorialized, “The obsession with security is in the process of leading the United States toward a mental and moral crisis of the first order. It is pushing them to forge the chains of that totalitarianism that they wish precisely to combat. No one wants to risk being accused of being soft on communism. And the views of Senator McCarthy unconsciously have wound up being imposed upon the majority.”

556
“The trouble was”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 116.

556
“After the security hearings”:
Coughlan, “The Equivocal Hero of Science: Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
February 1967, p. 34A; see also Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, p. 572.

556
“The glorification of Teller”:
Jeremy Gundel, “Heroes and Villains: Cold War Images of Oppenheimer and Teller in Mainstream American Magazines” (July 1992), Occasional Paper 92-1, Nuclear Age History and Humanities Center, Tufts University, p. 56.

556 “slanted favorably toward”: W. A. Branigan to Belmont, FBI memo, 7/27/54, sect. 47, doc. 1912, JRO FBI file; WP, 7/25/54.

557
“This is a world”:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, p. 608; JRO,
The Open Mind,
pp. 144–45.

557
“The trouble with secrecy”:
See It Now,
transcript, 1/4/55, CBS News Documentary Library, New York City.

558
“apologists for totalitarianism”
and subsequent quotes:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 581–84; Jane A. Sanders, “The University of Washington and the Controversy Over J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Pacific Northwest Quarterly,
January 1979, pp. 8–19.

558
But then to Lilienthal’s surprise:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 3, pp. 618–19.

559
“A lot of nonsense”:
Ibid., vol. 5, p. 156.

559
“somewhat troubled”:
Bertrand Russell to JRO, 2/8/57; JRO to Russell, 2/18/57; Russell to JRO, 3/11/57, box 62, JRO Papers; Lanouette,
Genius in the Shadows,
p. 369.

559
“excommunicated from the inner”:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 619–20.

559
Indeed, his name was conspicuously:
Max Born, et al., “The Peril of Universal Death,” 7/9/55, reprinted in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
pp. 485–87.

560
“Oppenheimer offered to weep”:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 617–18.

560
“He wanted to get back”:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 76.

560
“a tragic mistake”:
“A-Bomb Use Questioned,” 6/9/56, United Press International.

560
“It is satisfying”:
Max Born,
My Life and My Views,
p. 110; JRO to Born, 4/16/64, courtesy of Nancy Greenspan.

560
Only a year after:
JRO,
The Open Mind,
pp. 50–51.

560
“the minimization of secrecy”:
Ibid., p. 54.

561
“We don’t believe”:
New York Herald Tribune,
3/26/56; Bird,
The Color of Truth,
p. 147. Professor Morton White of the philosophy department initiated the invitation. M. White interview by Sherwin, 10/27/04.

561
As Oppenheimer rose:
“Requiescat,”
Harvard Magazine,
May–June 2004.

561
“nervously shifting his arms”:
Edmund Wilson,
The Fifties,
pp. 411–12. Bernstein,
Oppenheimer,
p. 174.

562
“given way to a kind”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 4, p. 259.

562
“quite too dogmatic”:
Nasar,
A Beautiful Mind,
pp. 220–21.

563
“That’s something no one”:
Ibid., pp. 221, 294. Oppenheimer had Nash back to the institute in 1961–62 and 1963–64.

563
“What is new and firm”:
Bernstein,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 187–88.

563
“endlessly fascinating”:
Ibid., p. 189; Jeremy Bernstein to Sherwin, memo, April 2004.

563
“What are we to make”:
Peter Coleman,
The Liberal Conspiracy,
pp. 120–21.

564
“Who didn’t know”:
Frances Stonor Saunders,
The Cultural Cold War,
pp. 378–79, 394–95; NYT, 5/9/66; Coleman,
The Liberal Conspiracy,
pp. 177, 297.

564
“I do not regret”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
pp. 241–42. For Japanese newspaper articles on Oppenheimer’s visit, we thank Mikio Kato of International House, Tokyo, Japan.

564
“contradiction between Oppenheimer’s”:
Lilienthal, interview by Sherwin, 10/17/78.

564
“He kept them on a tight”:
Ibid.

565
Francis Fergusson:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 7/7/79, p. 10.

565
“He is still in a very”:
JRO to Frank Oppenheimer, 4/2/58, Alice Smith Collection.

565
“What a slap”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79; Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 7/7/79, p. 8.

Chapter Thirty-nine: “It Was Really Like a Never-Never-Land”

566
In 1958, Robert hired:
Nancy Gibney, “Finding Out Different,” in
St. John People,
p. 151.

566
When finally built:
Sabra Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 6; Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 7/7/79, p. 1.

567
“Easter Rock”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 1.

567
A hundred yards up:
Nancy Gibney initially sold one acre to a couple from St. Louis—who then sold their acre to Oppenheimer. A year later, Oppenheimer persuaded the Gibneys to sell him a second acre. (Eleanor Gibney, interview by Bird, 3/27/01.)

567
The Gibneys had been living:
Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 6.

567
A former editor:
Ibid., p. 7; Irva Claire Denham, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/82, p. 20.

568
“seven hideous, hilarious weeks”
prior and subsequent quotes:
Gibney, “Finding Out Different,” in
St. John People,
pp. 153–55.

568
“Private Property” signs:
Ed Gibney, interview by Bird, 3/26/01.

568
“I came to have”:
Gibney, “Finding Out Different,” in
St. John People,
pp. 150–67.

569
“Gibney, never come to my”:
Doris and Ivan Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 14; Inga Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, p. 8; Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 8. The feud ended only after both Robert and Kitty were dead. Toni thought the whole thing was ridiculous, so one day she got Sabra Ericson to take her next door to see Nancy Gibney and got the whole thing settled.

569
“You never felt uncomfortable”:
Doris Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, pp. 1–4. Ivan Jadan never left the island; he died in 1995.

569
“Kitty, of course”:
Doris Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 3.

570
“I don’t remember Kitty”:
Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, pp. 14, 19.

570
“She was the great trouble”:
Doris Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 6.

570
“He treated her”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 7.

570
“There might be a dead spot”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, pp. 2, 8.

570
“Robert was a very humble”
and subsequent quotes:
Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, pp. 3–5; Hiilivirta, interview by Bird, 3/26/01.