Pandora's Keepers (66 page)

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Authors: Brian Van DeMark

6
. Enrico Fermi, “My Observations During the Explosion at Trinity on July 16, 1945,”A-84–019,LANLA.
7
. Laura Fermi, “Bombs or Reactors,”
BAS
, June 1970, p. 27.
8
. Rabi,
Science
, p. 138; and Bernstein, “Physicist: Profile—II,” p. 58.
9
. Author’s interview with Raemer Schreiber, Los Alamos, N.Mex., July 17, 1997.
10
. Quoted in
Albuquerque Journal
, July 12, 1970.
11
. Robert Oppenheimer to Thomas Farrell and William Parsons, July 23, 1945, CTS, MED, NA.
12
. Michihiko Hachiya, M.D.,
Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6–September 30, 1945
(University of North Carolina Press, 1955), p.1.
13
. The following account of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is based on the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey,
Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Summary Report (Pacific War
) (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), and Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
.
14
. Bodanis,
E=mc
2
, pp. 163–164.
15
. Hachiya,
Hiroshima Diary
, p. 31.
16
. Captain William C. Bryson, U.S. Navy, September 14, 1945, reprinted in
BAS
, December 1982, p. 35.
17
. August 6, 1945, Transcript, L. R. Groves Telephone Conversations, MEDR, NA.
18
. See Teller with Brown,
The Legacy of Hiroshima
, p. 41.
19
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, p. 277.
20
. Leo Szilard to Gertrud Weiss, August 6, 1945, quoted in Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 735.
21
. Quoted in Leigh Fenly, “The Agony of the Bomb, and Ecstasy of Life with Leo Szilard,”
San Diego Union
, November 19, 1978, pp. Dl, D8.
22
. Arthur Compton to A. J. McCartney, March 18, 1946, Series 3, Box 5, AHCP, WUA; and Arthur Compton in
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 7, 1945, p. 4D.
23
. Powers,
Heisenberg’s War
, p. 461; and Sam Cohen,
The Truth About the Neutron Bomb
(Morrow, 1983), pp. 21–22.
24
. Cited in Field Report, April 18, 1952, Robert Oppenheimer File, FBI, Washington, D.C.
25
. J. R. Oppenheimer to All Division Leaders, August 9, 1945, LANLA.
26
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, p. 277.
27
. Author’s interview with Hans Bethe, Ithaca, N.Y., June 6, 1997.
28
. Quoted in Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb
, p. 139.
29
. Karl K. Darrow to Ernest O. Lawrence, August 9, 1945, EOLP, BL, UCB.
30
. Ernest O. Lawrence to Karl K. Darrow, August 17, 1945, in ibid.
31
. Ernest O. Lawrence to Citizens of Berkeley, August 22, 1945, in ibid.
32
. Quoted in Fermi,
Atoms in the Family
, p. 245.
33
. Rabi,
Science
, p. 70.
34
. Winston Churchill,
Triumph and Tragedy
(Houghton Mifflin, 1953), p. 639.
35
. Quoted in Alice Kimball Smith, “Los Alamos: Focus of an Age,” in Lewis, Wilson, and Rabinowitch,
Alamogordo Plus Twenty-Five Years
, p. 40.

Chapter 8: An End, a Beginning

1
. I. I. Rabi, “The Physicist Returns from the War,” p. 107.
2
. Talk to FAS Members, Los Alamos, N.Mex., July 9, 1953, #14/22/976, Hans A. Bethe Papers (hereafter cited as HABP), Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University (hereafter cited as CAKL, CU).
3
. Philip Morrison, “The Laboratory Demobilizes,”
BAS
, November 1946, pp. 5–6.
4
. Quoted in Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
, p. 754.
5
.
Time
, November 5, 1945, p. 27.
6
. Robert Oppenheimer, “Physics in the Contemporary World,”
BAS
4, no. 3 (March 1948): 66.
7
. Francis Sill Wickware, “Manhattan Project,”
Life
, August 20, 1945, p. 100.
8
. I. I. Rabi to the Research Board for National Security, April 3, 1945, OVP, Box33, MDLOC.
9
. J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Atomic Weapons,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
, January 1946, pp. 7–10.
10
. Author’s interview with Hans Bethe, Ithaca, N.Y., June 6, 1997.
11
. Telegram, Ernest Lawrence to J. R. Oppenheimer, August 16, 1945, Box 45, JROP, MDLOC.
12
. J. R. Oppenheimer, “For the [Scientific Advisory] Panel,” to Secretary of War Henry Stimson, August 17, 1945, Box 291, in ibid.
13
. Oppenheimer to Lawrence, August 30, 1945, EOLP, BL, UCB.
14
. Quoted in
Time
, October 29, 1945, p. 30.
15
. Arthur Compton to Henry A. Wallace, September 27, 1945, Box 73, JROP, MDLOC.
16
. Scientific Advisory Panel, “Proposal for Research and Development in the Field of Atomic Energy,” September 28, 1945, Accession #A-92–024, 1–18, LANLA.
17
. Bernstein, “Four Physicists and the Bomb,” pp. 243–244.
18
. Robert Oppenheimer to Herbert W. Smith, August 26, 1945, Box 294, JROP, MDLOC; to Haakon Chevalier, August 27, 1945, Supplemental Files, Jon Else,
The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
(Voyager CD-ROM, 1999); and to Frederick Bernheim, August 27, 1945, reprinted in Smith and Weiner,
Robert Oppenheimer
, pp. 297–298.
19
. Robert Oppenheimer to General Leslie Groves, May 7, 1945, MEDR, NA.
20
. George Harrison, Memorandum for the Files, September 25, 1945, HBF, MEDR, NA.
21
. Quoted in Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer
, p. 251.
22
. Quoted in Hawkins,
Toward Trinity
.
23
. Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, November 2, 1945, reprinted in Smith and Weiner,
Robert Oppenheimer
, pp. 315–325.
24
. Edith Warner to J. Robert Oppenheimer, November 25, 1945, reprinted in ibid., pp. 325–326.
25
. Niels Bohr, “A Challenge to Civilization,”
Science
, October 12, 1945, pp. 363–364.
26
. Niels Bohr to Robert Oppenheimer, November 9, 1945, JROP, MDLOC.
27
. Robert Oppenheimer to W. A. Higinbotham, March 1946, quoted in Smith,
A Peril and a Hope
, p. 350; and Oppenheimer, “Atomic Weapons,” p. 9.
28
. Enrico Fermi and Samuel K. Allison to Senator Warren G. Magnusson, September 13, 1945, EFP, DSC, JRL, UC.
29
. Arthur Compton to Leslie Groves, November 28, 1945, Series 2, Box 6, AHCP, WUA.
30
. Rigden,
Rabi
, pp. 196–197; quote is in Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
, pp. 180–181.
31
.
Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy
, Department of State Publication No. 2498 (U.S. Government Printing Office, March 16, 1946), p. viii.
32
. Edward Teller and James Franck, Proposed Statement of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago on the Acheson Report, April 10, 1946, Box 9, James Franck Papers, DSC, JRL, UC.
33
. Arthur Compton, Statement with Regard to State Department’s Proposal for Development and Control of Atomic Energy, April 3, 1946; and Richard Baumhoff to Arthur Compton, April 2, 1946, Series 3, Box 4, AHCP, WUA.
34
. Hans A. Bethe to J. M. Burgers, May 16, 1946, Federation of American Scientists Papers (hereafter cited as FASP), Box 12, DSC, JRL, UC.
35
. Bundy,
Danger and Survival
, pp. 166–192.
36
. David Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal
, pp. 69–70.
37
. Robert Oppenheimer to W. A. Higinbotham, May 20, 1947, FASP, DSC, JRL, UC; and Robert Oppenheimer to Niels Bohr, September 3, 1947, JROP, Box21,MDLOC.
38
. Leo Szilard, “The Physicist Invades Politics,” pp. 33–34.
39
. Quoted in
Time
, October 29, 1945, p. 30.
40
. Quoted in Jungk,
Brighter than a Thousand Suns
, p. 241.
41
. Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe
, p. 73.
42
. Quotes are in Merle Miller,
Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974), p. 248; and Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
, p. 180.
43
. Quoted in Bernstein, “Four Physicists and the Bomb,” p. 251.
44
. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission,
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
, p. 23.
45
. See Libby,
The Uranium People
, p. 247.
46
. Teller, “The State Department Report,” p. 13.
47
. Teller, “Comments on the ‘Draft of a World Constitution,” p. 204.
48
. Hans Bethe,
BAS
, December 1958, p. 428.
49
. Author’s interview with Hans Bethe, Ithaca, N.Y., June 6, 1997.
50
. Author’s interview with Herbert York, La Jolla, Calif., March 12, 2001.
51
. Ibid.
52
. Ibid.
53
. Quoted in Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer
, p. 254.
54
. Segrè,
Enrico Fermi
, pp. 167, 169, 172.
55
. Ibid, pp. 170–171.
56
. Author’s interview with Harold Agnew, Solana Beach, Calif., March 13, 2001.
57
. Quoted in Segrè,
Enrico Fermi
, p. 176.
58
. Paul Boyer,
By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age
(Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 102. Stockpile figures are in David Alan Rosenberg, “U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, 1945–1950,”
BAS
, May 1982, pp. 25–30.

Chapter 9: The Superbomb Debate

1
. Teller with Brown,
Legacy of Hiroshima
, p. 33.
2
. Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb
, pp. 201–202.
3
. Edward Teller to Enrico Fermi, October 31, 1945, LANLA.
4
. Quoted in Ulam,
Adventures of a Mathematician
, p. 151.
5
. Quoted in Moss,
Men Who Play God
, p. 68.
6
. Quoted in Coughlan, “Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession,” p. 61.
7
. See George Harrison and Harvey Bundy Files, Folder 76, MEDR, NA.
8
. Arthur Compton to Gordon Gray, April 21, 1954, AHCP, Series 3, Box 18, WUA.
9
. Robert Oppenheimer to James Conant, October 21, 1949, reprinted in U.S. Atomic Energy Commission,
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
, pp. 242–243; and transcript of interview with Warner Schilling, JROP, MDLOC.
10
. Author’s interview with Hans Bethe, June 6, 1997, Ithaca, N.Y.
11
. Herbert York, quoted in Lifton and Markusen,
The Genocidal Mentality
, p. 116.
12
. Quoted in Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb
, pp. 204–205.
13
. Author’s interview with Herbert York, La Jolla, Calif., March 12, 2001.
14
. Quoted in Teller with Shoolery,
Memoirs
, p. 281.
15
. See “National Defense and the Scientists: An Open Letter to Hans Bethe from Edward Teller,” HABP, Box 33, CAKL, CU; and Palevsky,
Atomic Fragments
, p. 53.
16
. Author’s interview with Edward Teller, Stanford, Calif., July 27, 1998.
17
. Edward Teller to Maria Mayer (undated), Maria Mayer Papers (hereafter cited as MMP), MSCD, GL, UCSD.

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