American Prometheus (111 page)

107
“one Jew in the department”:
Serber,
Peace and War,
pp. 42, 50.

107
“I could be”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 31; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 181, 190. The mathematician Hermann Weyl made the offer to Oppenheimer about joining the Institute for Advanced Study.

Chapter Eight: “In 1936 My Interests Began to Change”

111
“he began to court her”:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 23; JRO hearing, p. 8.

111
“like an old Irish princess”:
Priscilla Robertson, undated ltr. entitled “Promise,” circa January 1944 addressed to the deceased Jean Tatlock, Sherwin Collection. Edith Jenkins reports that Tatlock had blue eyes (p. 28), but the coroner’s death certificate for Tatlock described them as hazel. Michelmore reports them as a “luminous green” (
The
Swift Years,
p. 47).

111
Five feet, seven inches:
City and County of San Francisco Coroner’s Office, Coroner’s report for Jean Tatlock, 1/6/44; secret FBI memo, “Subject: Jean Tatlock,” 6/29/43, file A, RG 326, entry 62, box 1, NA.

111
She had but one:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 28.

111
“Jean was very private”:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 21; Michelmore,
The
Swift Years,
p. 52.

111
Over lunch at the Faculty Club:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 13; Nuel Pharr Davis, a not always reliable source, claimed that Professor Tatlock “did not care for Jews.” He also quotes Mrs. Tatlock saying, “I must go to pick up my fascist husband and radical daughter” (Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 82). On the other hand, in 1938 Prof. Tatlock joined Oppenheimer, Chevalier, and other Berkeley professors in raising $1,500 in support of the East Bay chapter of the Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, an act highly unlikely for a fascist or a conservative (
People’s Daily World,
1/29/38, p. 3).

111
“Batter my heart”:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 24.

111
Jean owned a roadster:
Ibid., p. 26.

112
“the most promising girl”:
Priscilla Robertson, “Promise,” seven-page letter, circa January 1944.

112
“having gotten by nature”:
Ibid.

112
“I just wouldn’t want”:
Ibid.

112
“It was this social conscience”:
Her poor grades that year perhaps reflect the time she gave to the Party. She received an A in psychology—but mostly C’s in her premed courses (University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School transcript, 1935–36; Jean Tatlock to Priscilla Robertson, undated, circa 7/15/35.)

113
“I find it impossible”:
The Berkeley chapter of the Communist Party routinely harassed any of its members who went into analysis. When Frances Behrend Burch, a friend of the Chevaliers’, joined the Party in 1942, she simultaneously began seeing Donald MacFarlane, a Freudian analyst and a good friend of the Oppenheimers’. When Party officials learned of her analysis, they attempted to persuade her to end the sessions. (Kent Mastores and Constance Rowell Mastores, e-mail to Kai Bird, 5/6/04. Constance is Burch’s daughter.)

113
“a feeling for the sanctity”:
Tatlock to Robertson, circa 7/15/35.

113
“worthy of Robert”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 69.

113
“All of us were”:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 22.

114
“You must remember”:
Ibid.

114
“There were a half dozen”:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, pp. 9–10. See also Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 46.

114
“Jean was Robert’s”:
Haakon Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 5/9/80.

114
“Beginning in late 1936”:
JRO hearing, p. 8.

114
“He manifested deep interest”:
Avram Yedidia to Sherwin, 2/14/80.

115
“If ever a revolution was due”
and subsequent quotes:
Harvey Klehr,
The Heyday of
American Communism,
pp. 270, 413; Ellen Schrecker,
Many Are the Crimes,
p. 15; Edward L. Barrett, Jr., The Tenney Committee, p. 1; The Nation, 9/12/34, cited by Dorothy Healey,
Dorothy Healey Remembers,
pp. 40, 59; Steve Nelson, et al.,
American Radical,
p. 262.

115
“I liked the new sense”:
JRO hearing, p. 8.

115
“opened the door”:
The phrase “opened the door” comes from Oppenheimer’s first draft of his autobiographical statement for the 1954 hearing. He cut the phrase in the final version. See Goodchild,
Oppenheimer,
p. 233.

116
After three terrifying months:
“Dr. Peters Replies to Oppenheimer,”
Rochester Times
Union,
6/15/49; hearings before the HUAC, 7/8/49, p. 9, Bernard Peters Papers, NBA. Peters testified, “I was transferred to a prison in Munich and then I was released.” Peters also testified at this time that neither he nor his wife, Hannah, had ever been a member of the Communist Party.

116
“died in my hands”:
Bernard Peters, “Report of a Prisoner at the Concentration Camp at Dachau, Near Munich,” written by Peters in 1934 in New York; Peters, “War Crimes,” 5/11/45, Peters Papers, NBA.

116
“a little different from most of us”:
Schweber,
In the Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 120.

117
When Peters displayed:
Ibid.
,
pp. 120, 220.

117
“strengthened a conviction”:
Dr. Hannah Peters to Mrs. Ruth B. Shipley, chief, Passport Division, Department of State, 8/28/51, Peters Papers, NBA. Appealing Shipley’s refusal to issue her a passport, Peters flatly denied she had ever been a member of the Communist Party. She said she had been a member of the Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.

117
Hannah also insisted:
JRO to the editors of the
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle,
6/30/49, Peters Papers, NBA. In September 1943, Oppenheimer told Col. Lansdale and Gen. Groves that he thought Hannah Peters was a member of the CP; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 111; JRO FBI file, memo 4/28/54, document 1320; See also AEC report on JRO (
Rochester Times Union,
7/7/54, folder 11, Bernard Peters Papers, NBA).

117
He was favorably:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 19.

117
“I suppose somewhere”:
Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 5.

117
“better read”:
Chevalier’s diary notation is dated 7/20/37—but his friend “E.” reported that Oppenheimer had read
Das Kapital
the previous summer. See Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 16; Steve Nelson was told the same story: Steve Nelson, et al.,
American Radical,
p. 269.

118
Born in 1901:
Haakon Chevalier FBI file (100-18564), part 1 of 2, background report, pp. 2, 16.

118
“He was a terribly charismatic”:
Larken Bradley, “Stinson Grand Dame Barbara Chevalier Dies,”
Point Reyes Light,
7/24/03.

118
Frequently partying late:
Haakon Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 30; Barbara Chevalier “diary,” 8/8/81, courtesy of Gregg Herken,
www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com
.

118
“gave shelter and moral support”:
Jenkins,
Against a Field Sinister,
p. 25.

119
“to witness the transition”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 8–9.

119
“the new vision”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 8; Axel Madsen,
Malraux,
p. 195.

119
Over these years:
Robert A. Rosenstone,
Crusade of the Left,
p. vii; Schrecker,
Many
Are the Crimes,
p. 15.

120
“anxious to do something”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 16.

120
“A group of people”:
JRO hearing, p. 156; memo to FBI director, 1/17/58, regarding a term paper written by Mrs. Fred Airy, formerly Helen A. Lichens, entitled, “Term Report: Teachers’ Union of Berkeley and Oakland, Spring 1936.” Mrs. Airy explained to the FBI that she had written this term paper while a student at Berkeley in 1936. In the course of researching her paper, she attended many of the union meetings and interviewed its officers.

120
“hallucinatory feeling”
and subsequent quotes:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 16–19, 21–22.

121
“Oh for God’s sake”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 49.

121
“a good friend”:
JRO hearing, pp. 155, 191. When in 1950 the FBI questioned Oppenheimer about Dr. Addis, Oppenheimer refused to discuss the doctor, saying he was “dead and couldn’t defend himself” about “being close to the Communist Party.” By then, Addis’ widow told Linus Pauling that she did not want her late husband’s political views discussed in a memorial essay for the National Academy of Sciences, because she and her two children “feared for their own safety” Kevin V. Lemley and Linus Pauling, “Thomas Addis,”
Biographical Memoirs,
p. 3.

121
Even as a young doctor:
Richard M. Lippman, M.D., to Linus Pauling, 2/1/55, Addis Memorial Committee, box 60, Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University.

121
In 1944 he was elected:
Lemley and Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” p. 6.

121
Even as he was building:
Ibid., p. 5; see also Dr. Frank Boulton e-mail to Kai Bird, 4/27/04, and Herken, website,
www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com
(endnotes for chapter 2, note 33).

122
He was a friend:
Frank Boulton, “Thomas Addis (1881–1949),”
Journal of the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh,
vol. 33, pp. 135–42; Lemley and Pauling, “Thomas Addis,” p. 28.

122
In 1935, Addis:
Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel,
The Venona Secrets,
pp. 265–66. Romerstein and Breindel cite “Comintern Archives, Moscow, Fond 515, Opis 1, Delo 3875.” They also cite a 1944 FBI report that described Addis as “active in 27 Communist Front organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area during the last ten years.” Addis: San Francisco field report, 5/17/44, sect. 4, Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians (FAECT) file, no. 61-723, FBI.