American Prometheus (117 page)

206
Within two days:
The Los Alamos Ranch School probably would have closed down even if Oppenheimer had not chosen it as a site for the new laboratory. See Fred Kaplan’s description of the school in his biography
Gore Vidal,
pp. 99–112.

206
“Suddenly we knew the war”:
Sterling Colgate, interview by Jon Else, 11/12/79, pp. 2–3; Peggy Pond Church,
The House at Otowi Bridge,
p. 84.

206
Soon afterwards, an armada:
Edwin McMillan,
Early Days of Los Alamos,
p. 8.

207
“I am responsible for”:
Wirth and Aldrich,
Los Alamos,
p. viii. JRO said this to Wirth’s grandfather in 1955.

207
“What we were trying to do”:
Manley, “A New Laboratory Is Born,” unpublished manuscript, p. 18.

207
Robert assured Hans Bethe:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 244–45; JRO to Hans and Rose Bethe, 12/28/42.

208
“He was something of an eccentric”:
Raymond T. Birge, “History of the Physics Department,” vol. 4, unpublished manuscript, UCB, p. xiv; Robert R. Wilson, interview by Owen Gingrich, 4/23/82, p. 3.

208
“wondering whether we”:
Hershberg,
James B. Conant,
p. 167.

208
“I was somewhat frightened”:
Manley, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/85, p. 23; Manley, “A New Laboratory Is Born,” unpublished manuscript, p. 21.

209
Stunned, Wilson and Manley:
Robert R. Wilson, “A Recruit for Los Alamos,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
March 1975, p. 45; Goodchild,
Oppenheimer,
p. 72.

209
“So it was quite a change”:
Mary Palevsky,
Atomic Fragments,
pp. 128–29.

209
“He had style”:
Robert R. Wilson, interview by Gingrich, 4/23/82, p. 4.

209
“when I was with him”:
Palevsky,
Atomic Fragments,
pp. 134–35; Wilson, interview by Gingrich, 4/23/82, p. 4, Sherwin Collection.

209
through these early planning:
Dudley, “Ranch School to Secret City,” in Badash, et al., eds.,
Reminiscences of Los Alamos,
Sherwin Collection.

210
When Los Alamos opened:
For security reasons, the total population at Los Alamos was regarded as highly classified information; a census was not taken until April 1946. Different sources use different figures: See Thorpe and Shapin, “Who Was J. Robert Oppenheimer?”
Social Studies of Science,
August 2000, p. 585; Kunetka,
City of Fire,
pp. 89, 130; Kunetka uses a figure of 4,000 for Los Alamos’ “scientific population” (p. 65). According to Edith C. Truslow’s Manhattan District History (1991), by the end of 1944 Los Alamos had a population of 5,675. She reports a sharp increase in 1945 to a total of 8,200. Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
p. 246, uses similar figures.

210
“the above physical defects”:
JRO medical physical, Presidio of San Francisco, 1/16/43, box 100, series 8, MED, NA; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 75. This medical record reported that Oppenheimer was five feet ten inches tall, that he weighed 128 pounds, and that he had a 28-inch waist. He registered a regular blood-pressure of 128 over 78. He had 20/20 vision and perfectly normal hearing—but he was missing five of his original teeth. Oppenheimer told the army doctors that he had no history of mental illness.

210
“Oppie would get”:
Jane Wilson, ed.,
All in Our Time,
1974, p. 147; Libby,
The Uranium People,
p. 197; Wilson, “A Recruit for Los Alamos,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
March 1975, pp. 42–43.

211
“he was very foolish”:
Rabi, interview by Sherwin, 3/12/82, p. 11.

211
By the end of that month:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 247–49.

211
“I think that you have”:
Hans Bethe to JRO, 3/3/43, Bethe folder, box 20, JRO Papers, LOC.

211
“Without Rabi”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
p. 149.

211
“I was strongly opposed”:
Ibid., p. 152.

212
“I thought it over”:
Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb,
p. 452.

212
“I think if I believed”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 250.

212
“I never went on the payroll”:
Rigden,
Rabi,
p. 146.

212
“the nerve center”:
JRO to Rabi, 2/26/43; Rabi to JRO, 3/8/43, and Rabi to JRO, “Suggestions for Interim Organization and Procedure,” 2/10/43, Rabi folder, box 59, JRO Papers.

213
Feynman was touched:
James Gleick,
Genius,
p. 159.

213
“We should start now”:
JRO to John H. Manley, 10/12/42, box 50, Manley folder, JRO Papers.

213
“very nearly unique”:
JRO to Robert Bacher, memo, 4/28/43, box 18, Bacher folder, JRO Papers.

213
“I saw a man walking”:
McKibbin was also an old friend of Luvie Pearson’s, the wife of the influential syndicated columnist, Drew Pearson (Nancy C. Steeper, Gatekeeper
to Los Alamos,
p. 73 of draft manuscript).

214
“gatekeeper to Los Alamos”:
Dorothy McKibbin, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, p. 2, Sherwin Collection; Peggy Corbett, “Oppie’s Vitality Swayed Santa Fe,” McKibbin folder, JRO Papers; Steeper,
Gatekeeper to Los Alamos,
p. 3.

214
“He had the bluest eyes”:
McKibbin, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, pp. 21–23.

215
That first spring in 1943:
Bernice Brode,
Tales of Los Alamos,
p. 8.

215
“I was rather shocked”:
Bethe, interview by Jon Else, 7/13/79, p. 7.

215
“We could gaze beyond”:
Brode,
Tales of Los Alamos,
p. 15.

215
“Nobody could think straight”:
Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 163.

215
Everyone had to change:
Brode,
Tales of Los Alamos,
p. 37.

216
The astonished MP:
Elsie McMillan, “Outside the Inner Fence,” in Badash, et al., eds.,
Reminiscences of Los Alamos,
p. 41.

216
“refrain from flying”:
Leslie Groves to JRO, 7/29/43, Groves folder, box 36, JRO Papers.

216
“I don’t recall”:
Brode,
Tales of Los Alamos,
p. 33.

216
“His porkpie hat”:
Eleanor Stone Roensch,
Life Within Limits,
p. 32. (Oppie’s phone number was 146.)

216
“several times Dr. Oppenheimer”:
Ed Doty to his parents, 8/7/45 (Los Alamos Historical Museum), cited by Thorpe and Shapin, “Who Was J. Robert Oppenheimer?,” p. 575.

216
who “demanded attention”:
Roensch,
Life Within Limits,
p. 32.

216
When the young physicist:
Kunetka,
City of Fire,
p. 59; Brode,
Tales of Los Alamos,
p. 37.

217
Oppenheimer himself had been:
McKibbin, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, p. 19.

217
“The work was terribly”:
Bethe, interview by Jon Else, 7/13/70, p. 7.

217
Scientists accustomed:
Thorpe and Shapin, “Who Was J. Robert Oppenheimer?,” p. 546; see also Charles Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 302–3.

217
“Feynman sort of materialized”:
Bernstein,
Hans Bethe,
p. 60.

217
“No, no, you’re crazy”:
Badash, et al., eds.,
Reminiscences of Los Alamos,
p. 109; James Gleick,
Genius,
p. 165.

217
“Oppenheimer at Los Alamos”:
Bethe, interview by Jon Else, 7/13/79, p. 9.

218 “very easily and naturally”: Eugene Wigner, The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner, p. 245.

218
“never dictated what”:
Bethe, “Oppenheimer: Where He Was There Was Always Life and Excitement,”
Science,
vol. 155, p. 1082.

218
“In his presence”:
Wilson, “A Recruit for Los Alamos,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
March 1975, p. 45.

218
“The power of his personality”:
John Mason Brown,
Through These Men,
p. 286.

218 “He could read a paper”: Lee DuBridge, interview with Sherwin, 3/30/83, p. 11.

218
“One would listen”:
Thorpe and Shapin, “Who Was J. Robert Oppenheimer?,” p. 574.

218
“He made you do”:
McKibbin, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, pp. 21–23.

219
“I think he had”:
Manley, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/85, p. 24; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 263; Manley, interview by Alice Smith, 12/30/75, pp. 10–11.

219
“The background of our work”:
JRO to Enrico Fermi, 3/11/43, box 33, Fermi, JRO Papers.

219
“Security was terrible”:
Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 80.

219
“The object of the project”:
Serber,
The Los Alamos Primer,
p. 1.

220
Some of the physics:
Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb,
p. 460.

220
“That once plutonium”:
Bethe, interview by Jon Else, 7/13/79, p. 1.

220
“the pieces might be mounted”:
Serber,
The Los Alamos Primer,
pp. xxxii, 59; Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb,
p. 466.

221
“I believe your people”:
Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 182.

221
“In this connection”:
Barton J. Bernstein, “Oppenheimer and the Radioactive-Poison Plan,”
Technology Review,
May–June 1985, pp. 14–17; Rhodes,
The Making of the
Atomic Bomb,
p. 511; JRO to Fermi, 5/25/43, box 33, JRO Papers.

222
“I doubt that you will”:
JRO to Weisskopf, 10/29/42, box 77, Weisskopf folder, JRO Papers; Sherwin,
A World Destroyed,
p. 50.