Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (136 page)

292
. ‘Even if’: ibid., 154

292
. a two-part report: the report in full is printed as Appendix I in Serber (1992)

292
. ‘What is impressive’: Bernstein (2004), 69

292
. ‘Once assembled’: Serber (1992), 86

293
. ‘I am convinced’: quoted Rhodes (1988), 325

293
. ‘electrified by the possibility’: ibid., 330

293
. ‘source of power in submarines’: quoted Schweber (2008), 331, note 29

293
. ‘
met niels
’: see Rhodes (1988), 340

294
. £5 million: ibid., 343

294
. ‘the most extraordinary experience’: quoted Rhodes (1988), 357. For a detailed account of Conant’s visit to Britain, see Hershberg (1993), Chapter 8.

294
. ‘introduced the subject’: Rhodes (1988), 359

294
. ‘this was entirely’: quoted Hershberg (1993), 146

294
. ‘light a fire’: Rhodes (1988), 360

294
. ‘a very good idea’: ibid., 362

295
. ‘an energetic but dispassionate review’: ibid.

295
. 17 May 1941: ibid., 365

295
. invited Charles Lauritsen: ibid., 368

295
. ‘that the destructive effect’: ibid., 369

295
. ‘a major push’: ibid.

295
. ‘If Congress knew’: ibid., 372

295
. ‘amazed and distressed’: ibid.

296
. ‘I thought’: ibid., 373

296
. joined by Oppenheimer: see Herken (2002), 40

296
. ‘But that’s terrible’: Michelmore (1969), 66

299
. ‘gossip among nuclear physicists’: Rhodes (1988), 373

299
. ‘Oliphant’s behaviour’: Herken (2002), 40

300
. Through Cairncross, for example: see West (2004), 10–18

300
. ‘Venona’ project: see Haynes and Klehr (2000) and Romerstein and Breindel (2001)

301
. ‘involuntary conference’: Rhodes (1988), 376

301
. ‘Ernest’: ibid.

301
. policy group: ibid., 378

302
. ‘Oppenheimer has important new ideas’: quoted Herken (2002), 42

302
. ‘a great deal of confidence’: ibid.

302
. ‘reliable confidential informant’: Romerstein and Breindel (2001), 264

302
. ‘him’: ibid., 265

302
. Oppenheimer had contacted Folkoff: ibid.

303
. ‘I think surely’: S & W, 215

303
. ‘All of a sudden’: Martin Kamen, interview with MJS, 18.1.1979, quoted B & S, 178

303
. ‘not without envy’: ITMO, 11

303
. ‘guarantees not the right to a belief’: S & W, 219

304
. The meeting opened: for the details of the meeting, see Rhodes (1988), 382–3

304
. 100 pounds: ibid., 382

304
. Urey told Compton: see Compton (1956), 54

305
. Their paper: ‘Radioactive Element 93’,
Physical Review
, 57, 1185–6 (1940)

305
. to the disgust of James Chadwick: see Brown (1997), 206

305
. made a conclusive identification of element 94: on the ‘secret discovery’ of plutonium, see Seaborg (2001), Chapter Seven.

306
. which he put at about 220 pounds: Rhodes (1988), 382

306
. ‘some hundreds of millions of dollars’: Compton (1956), 57

306
. ‘lest the government’: ibid.

306
. ‘always been rather proud’: ibid.

306
. ‘a fission bomb’: ibid., 59. See also Rhodes (1988), 386

307
. ‘I don’t want you to join it’: Childs (1968), 319

307
. ‘I had hoped’: JRO to EOL, 12.11.1941, S & W, 220

308
. the two had lunch the next day: Schecter and Schecter (2002), 47–8. See also Sudoplatov (1994), 174–5

308
. ‘one of the leaders’: ibid., 50

309
. ‘learn the chemistry’: Compton (1956), 77

309
. ‘The period’: ibid., 79

309
. ‘You’ll never get a chain reaction going here’: ibid., 81

310
. ‘represent, in the opinion of this office’: Agent Pieper to J. Edgar Hoover, 26.1.1942, JRO FBI file

310
. ‘follow proper procedure’: Hoover to Pieper, 15.4.1942, JRO FBI file

311
. ‘Whoever gets this first’: quoted Hershberg (1993), 158

311
. ‘Oh! . . . Oh! . . .’: ibid.

311
. 9 March 1942: see Rhodes (1988), 405

311
. ‘New and compelling reasons’: S & W, 223

311
. ‘the desirability’: EOL to JBC, 26.3.1942, quoted Herken (2002), 51

312
. ‘nervously chain-smoking’: Herken (2002), 54

312
. ‘Uranium was never mentioned’: Lomanitz, interview with Gregg Herken, 1996, quoted Herken (2002), 348, note 141

312
. The 184-inch Calutron was switched on: see Herken (2002), 60

313
. ‘a few weeks after Pearl Harbor’: Serber (1998), 65

313
. ‘There, alone in that rural setting’: ibid.

313
. he did not do until May: see Rhodes (1988), 410

313
. ‘Breit was always frightened’: Goodchild (1980), 48

314
. ‘Breit was a terrible choice’: Pharr Davis (1969), 124

314
. ‘Compton, who had’: ibid., 125

314
. ‘I do not believe’: Rhodes (1988), 410

314
. On 28 April 1942: see Herken (2002), 347, note 116

315
. ‘I went down’: Serber (1998), 67–8

315
. 23 May 1942: Rhodes (1988), 406

315
. On 17 June: ibid.

316
. ‘I didn’t take up’: Serber (1998), 68

316
. ‘provided, of course’: ibid.

316
. ‘luminaries’: S & W, 227

317
. ‘Separating isotopes’: Bernstein (1981), 70

317
. ‘tremendous stacks of graphite’: ibid., 71

317
. ‘I then’: ibid.

318
. by Fermi: see Teller (2001), 157

319
. ‘heavy hydrogen’: quoted Rhodes (1988), 416

319
. ‘We had a compartment’: Bernstein (1981), 72

319
. According to one account: see Goodchild (1980), 51

320
. ‘Everybody agreed’: Serber (1998), 71

320
. ‘The theory of the fission bomb’: Rhodes (1988), 417

320
. ‘a detonation wave’: Serber (1998), 71

320
. ‘everybody forgot’: ibid.

320
. ‘At one point’: ibid.

320
. ‘found something’: Compton (1956), 127

321
. ‘could not be passed’: ibid., 128

321
. ‘Oppenheimer’s team’: ibid.

321
. ‘some unjustified assumptions’: Rhodes (1988), 419

321
. ‘but then’: ibid., 418

321
. ‘The conference’: Serber (1998), 72

321
. ‘As Chairman’: Goodchild (1980), 52–3

321
. ‘A spirit of spontaneity’: Rhodes (1988), 419

322
. ‘The intellectual experience’: Bethe (1997), 187–8

322
. ‘would require’: Rhodes (1988), 420

322
. ‘We have become convinced’: ibid., 421

322
. ‘nothing should stand in the way’: ibid., 424

323
. ‘the biggest sonovabitch’: ibid., 426

323
. ‘The Secretary of War’: Groves (1962), 3

323
. ‘it will win the war’: ibid., 4

323
. On his first day in command: Rhodes (1988), 427

323
. The next day: ibid.

324
. ‘That would be the equivalent’: Groueff (1967), 34

324
. ‘Well, actually’: ibid., 39

324
. Oppenheimer’s first meeting with Groves: Groves (1962), 61

325
. ‘He was always’: Chevalier (1965), 21

325
. ‘discussed at some length’: Groves (1962), 61

325
. ‘In later summer’: ITMO, 12

325
. ‘I discussed with him’: ibid.

326
. squeezed into a tiny compartment: see Norris (2002), 241

326
. ‘convinced of the necessity’: JRO to John H. Manley, 12.10.1942, S & W, 231

327
. ‘I let myself’: Badash et al. (1980), 24

327
. ‘I can’t tell you’: ibid., 25

327
. ‘the question of site’: JRO to John H. Manley, 6.11.1942, S & W, 236

327
. ‘It is a lovely spot’: ibid.

327
. ‘anything about the developments’: ibid., 237

327
. On 16 November: S & W, 238

327
. ‘This will never do’: Badash et al. (1980), 15

328
. ‘As soon as Groves saw it’: ibid.

328
. Gregg Herken: Herken (2002), 71

328
. his formal letter: see S & W, 249

328
. ‘neither Bush, Conant nor I’: Groves (1962), 61

328
. ‘no one’: ibid.

328
. ‘had had’: ibid., 62

328
. ‘the prestige’: ibid.

328
. ‘background’: ibid., 63

328
. ‘which was not yet,: ibid.

329
. ‘it became apparent’: ibid.

329
. ‘had a fatal weakness’: Stern (1971), 40

329
. ‘the men we are after’: JRO to LRG, 2.11.1943, JRO papers, LOC

329
. ‘I was supposed’: Badash et al. (1980), 28

329
. ‘So I dug out some maps’: ibid., 29

330
. ‘whether, if Oppenheimer’: ibid., 28

330
. ‘I bugged Oppie’: ibid., 30

330
. ‘Oppie practically threw’: ibid.

330
. divided the lab into four main sections: Hawkins (1946), Chapters V, VI, VII and VIII

330
. the Experimental Division: ibid., Chapter VI

331
. several reasons: see Rigden (1987), 152

331
. ‘the sound of’: Anderson (1974), 44

331
. ‘The Italian navigator’: Compton (1956), 144

332
. 150,000 workers: these figures are taken from Hales (1997), 163

332
. ‘New workers’: ibid., 131

332
. He persuaded: ibid., 167

333
. a letter he wrote to Hans and Rose Bethe: S & W, 243–6

333
. ‘is in the great effort’: ibid., 245

333
. a long letter of 25 February 1943: reproduced in full as Appendix 1 in Hawkins (1946), 311–15

334
. ‘the fatherly advisor to Oppie’: Bethe, interview with Rigden (Rigden [1987], 154)

335
. was caught on the FBI microphones: Goodchild (1980), 66–7, Herken (2002), 72

335
. ‘Look, what if’: B & S, 188

335
. Chevalier’s side of the story: see Chevalier (1965), 52–5

335
. ‘Haakon was one hundred per cent’: Barbara Chevalier’s diary, 14.7.1984, see the extracts published on Gregg Herken’s website:
http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/documents.html

335
. ‘means of getting technical information’: ITMO, 130

336
. ‘no chance’: ‘synopsis of facts’, 12.2.1954, JRO, FBI file, quoted B & S, 199

336
. Bernard Peters had told him: see Romerstein and Breindel (2001), 270

336
. ‘I just want to say goodbye’: Nelson, interview with MJS, 17.6.1981, quoted B & S, 194

336
. ‘I think now’: B & S, 189

338
. ‘Bulldozers moved in’: quoted Conant (2005), 62

339
. ‘two or three fellows’: Serber (1998), 75

340
. ‘a toy one-lane suspension bridge’: ibid.

340
. ‘Cost and construction time’: Badesh (1980), 29

340
. ‘That was my introduction’: ibid., 31

341
. explicitly ordered by Major General Strong: Groves (1962), 138

342
. ‘would next be reading’: interview with Pash, 15.3.1954, JRO FBI file, quoted Thorpe (2006), 208

342
. ‘Yes I did’: ITMO, 823

343
. The conversation: see B & S, 188–90, Herken (2002), 96–7

343
. ‘a little bit scared’: Herken (2002), 97

343
. ‘preferably that’: ibid.

344
. ‘very much worried’: ibid., 96

344
. ‘changed a bit’: B & S, 189

344
. ‘To my sorrow’: ibid.

344
. ‘a great deal of concern’: ITMO, 260

345
. ‘General Groves’s view’: ibid.

345
. on 5 April 1943: Groves (1962), 138

345
. some counter-intelligence: what follows is based on the accounts given in Herken (2002), 98–99, Haynes and Klehr (2000), 230–2, and Romerstein and Breindel (2001), 257–9.

345
. ‘Jesus’: Herken (2002), 98

346
. ‘very helpful’: ITMO, 262

346
. ‘The scientists’: ibid.

346
. ‘Oppie’: Serber (1998), 77–8

346
. ‘dragooned’: ibid., 78

346
. ‘We propose’: JRO to LRG, 30.4.1943, S & W, 256

347
. ‘Do you know’: Serber (1998), 79

347
. ‘that I think’: JRO to WP, 20.5.1943, S & W, 257–8

347
. In his reply: WP to JRO, 19.6.1943, S & W, 259

348
. ‘Los Alamos from Below’: Feynman (1992), 107–36

348
. ‘job lot’: Edward U. Condon, interviewed by Charles Weiner in Boulder, Colorado, 27 April 1968, AIP

348
. ‘And so’: Feynman (1992), 110

348
. ‘Please inform your wife’: ibid., 117

348
. ‘until the sergeant’: ibid., 118

349
. ‘neutral’: Teller (2001), 170

349
. ‘seemed about’: ibid.

349
. ‘had confused that strange language’: ibid.

349
. ‘major responsibility’: Groves (1962), 154