American Prometheus (128 page)

398
“My talk with Robert”
and subsequent quotes:
Schweber,
In the Shadow of the
Bomb,
p. 127; Schweber cites Peters, ltr. to Victor Weisskopf, 7/21/49, folder 42, box 3, Weisskopf Papers, MIT.

399
“I believe this statement”:
JRO hearing, p. 214.

399
“a not very successful”:
Schweber,
In the Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 127.

399
Nonetheless, it managed to salvage:
The University of Rochester remained remarkably steadfast in its support for Dr. Peters. The university sponsored his trip to India in 1950 and the following year promoted him to associate professor. (Donald W. Gilbert, provost, to Bernard Peters, 5/29/51, folder 13, Peters Papers, NBAC.)

399
Lomanitz’ fate:
Lomanitz, interview by Sherwin, 7/11/79.

400
“sad personally about”:
Lomanitz to Peter Michelmore, 5/21/68, Sherwin Collection.

400
“if anyone can do it”:
Peat,
Infinite Potential,
pp. 104, 337; Peat cites a newspaper article, “After 40 Years, Professor Bohm Re-emerges,” by H. K. Fleming, Baltimore
Sun,
April 1990.

400
“I think he acted fairly”:
Bohm, interview by Sherwin, 6/15/79.

400
“He told me”:
Ibid.

400
“He [Oppenheimer] was obviously”:
Schweber,
In the Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 127. Schweber quotes from Peters, ltr. to Victor Weisskopf, 7/21/49, folder 42, box 3, Weisskopf Papers, MIT.

401
A young reporter:
In 1969, Philip Stern would write a brilliant book on the 1954 Oppenheimer security trial (see Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 131).

401
“Well, Joe, how did I do?”
and subsequent quotes:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
pp. 129–31; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
pp. 196–97.

402
“I don’t think Robert”:
Dr. John F. Fulton to Herbert H. Maas, 8/1/49, quoted in Beatrice M. Stern, “A History of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930–1950,” p. 676, unpublished manuscript, IAS Archives.

402
“effrontery . . . to differ”:
Strauss, memo to file, 9/30/49, LLS Papers, HHL. In September 1953, Strauss learned that the request for the isotopes in question had been made by Norway’s military on behalf of a Dr. Ivan Th. Rosenquist, who had later been dismissed by the Norwegians as a communist. Feeling vindicated, Strauss noted this fact in a memo to file, undated, Strauss Papers, HHL.

402
“The story was full”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 72.

402
“I cannot talk”:
Frank Oppenheimer testimony, 6/14/49, “Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atomic Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley,” HUAC, pp. 355–73.

403
“They all looked rachitic”:
Frank Oppenheimer, undated memo, folder 3–37, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

403
“I knew of no Communist”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 5/21/73, p. 2.

403
“What is going on?”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Ernest Lawrence, undated, circa 1949, folder 4–34, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB. Frank Oppenheimer may not have mailed this letter.

404
“No one has offered”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Bernard Peters, undated, autumn 1949, Peters Papers, NBAC. Oppenheimer was tentatively offered a job by the Tata Institute in Bombay, India—but the State Department denied him a passport (Ed Condon to Bernard Peters, 12/27/49, folder 12, Peters Papers, NBAC).

404
“Jackie would sit”:
Preuss, “On the Blacklist,”
Science,
June 1983, p. 37.

404
“Don’t you want”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 73.

404
“Finally, after all these”:
Frank Oppenheimer, “The Tail That Wags the Dog,” unpublished manuscript, folder 4–39, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB; Preuss, “On the Blacklist,”
Science,
June 1983, p. 34.

404
“I really felt like”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 5/21/73, pp. 11–12.

404 Over the next year: JRO to Dr. Harold C. Urey, box 74, JRO Papers.

404
First Steps (After Millet):
Dalzell Hatfield to Frank Oppenheimer, 2/2/54, folder 4–45, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

405
“all lead in many”:
JRO to Grenville Clark, 5/17/49, Grenville Clark Papers, sect. 13, box 17, DCL.

405
“Even the walls have ears”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 113.

405
“He was always conscious”:
Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, p. 20.

405
By 1949, the bureau:
JRO FBI file 100-17828, doc. 162, 10/24/47; FBI SAC to Hoover, 4/13/49, JRO FBI file, 100-17828, doc. 173.

405
“No additional information”:
JRO FBI file 100-17828, sect. 6, doc. 156, 6/27/47, and doc. 176, 4/13/49.

Chapter Twenty-nine: “I Am Sure That Is Why She Threw Things at Him”

406
He spent about:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 15.

406
“The time has come”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 143.

406
“He is warmly affectionate”:
Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
10/10/49.

406
“Mrs. Oppenheimer, whose thinking”:
Rhodes,
Dark Sun,
p. 309;
Life,
vol. 29, no. xii (1947), p. 58.

407
“His family relationships”:
Priscilla Duffield, interview by Alice Smith, 1/2/76, p. 11 (MIT Oral History Laboratory).

407
“He was an extraordinarily”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, pp. 3–4, 8, 18.

407
“crew of birds”:
Mildred Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/3/83, pp. 5, 13.

407
“She would get drunk”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 3.

407
“She would arrive”:
Pat Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 15.

408
“I mean, she just”:
Ibid., p. 25.

408
“He knew of Kitty’s”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 272.

408
“Don’t go away”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
pp. 242–43.

408
“doctor, nurse and psychiatrist”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 19.

408
“Robert just liked”:
Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 16.

409
“He was just as loyal”:
Robert Strunsky, interview by Sherwin, 4/26/79, p. 11.

409
“barbaric custom”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 18; Pais,
A Tale of Two
Continents,
p. 242.

409
“He was really just”:
Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, pp. 12–13.

409
On one occasion:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 20. 409
“never drank excessively”:
Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 16. Serber’s explanation is somewhat misleading. Typically, alcoholism is a primary cause for pancreatitic attacks. According to Dr. Hempelmann, Kitty developed pancreatitis in the late 1950s. Her doctors prescribed very strong painkillers that didn’t mix with alcohol.

410
“I need you”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 14.

410
“If you are single”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 322.

410
“People left [calling] cards”:
Mildred Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/3/83, pp. 9–10.

410
“wicked” woman:
Ibid., pp. 5, 16; Marvin Goldberger, interview by Sherwin, 3/28/83, p. 3.

410
“You would sit in”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 272.

410
“indulged in a rather”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 242.

411
“running around at his”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, pp. 25–26.

411
“I think he leaned on her”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 19. Hobson never actually saw Kitty throw anything at Robert, but she saw him come into the office with abrasions, and more so as the years went by.

411
Kitty told Sherr:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 25.

411
Another Los Alamos friend:
Jean Bacher, interview by Sherwin, 3/29/83, p. 1.

411
“was insanely jealous”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 6.

412
“She was a very lovely”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 12.

412
“I think to be a child”:
Strunsky, interview by Sherwin, 4/26/79, p. 11.

412
“On the surface”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 17.

412
“could not have a son”:
Ibid., pp. 16–17.

412
“looking very paternal”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 2, p. 456 (diary entry 2/3/49).

413
“problematical figure for a father”:
Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe,
p. 79.

413
“To an outsider”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 243.

413
“Robert thought,” said Hobson:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 18.

413
“Kitty was very, very”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79.

413
“He [Robert] was very loving”:
Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, p. 19.

413
From all accounts:
Ibid., p. 14.

413
“he seemed to be starved”:
Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 20.

413
“Her attachment to Toni”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 18.

414
“So the warm waters”:
Ruth Tolman to JRO, 1/15/52, box 72, JRO Papers.

414
“She was a tower”:
Freeman Dyson to Alice Smith, 6/1/82, Alice Smith correspondence, Sherwin Collection; Dyson, interview by Sherwin, 2/16/84, p. 15.

414
“We always have such”:
Elinor Hempelmann to Kitty Oppenheimer, undated, circa 1949–50, JRO Papers.