American Prometheus (137 page)

571
Limejuice became:
Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, p. 4.

571
“brought back to him”:
Ibid., p. 5.

571
“Sis, come with me”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 2.

571
“He was an unassuming”:
Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, pp. 14–15.

571
“He was the gentlest”:
John Green, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/82, p. 15.

572
“She was trying”:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 7/7/79, p. 2.

572
“My God”:
Fiona and William St. Clair, interview by Sherwin, 2/17/82, p. 9; Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, p. 4; Doris Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 4.

572
Peter seldom came down:
John Green, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/82, p. 21.

572
“She was very sweet”:
Hiilivirta, interview by Bird, 3/26/01.

572
“a dead-serious child”:
Gibney, “Finding Out Different,” in
St. John People,
p. 157.

572
Extremely shy:
Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, p. 17.

572
“Toni was very pliable”:
Ibid., p. 2. Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 5; Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 9.

572
“Robert didn’t pay”:
Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 11.

572
“a deep regard”:
Steve Edwards, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 4.

573
“Alex was crazy about Toni”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 7.

573
But when Toni:
Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, pp. 1–2.

573
“rag people”:
John Green, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/82, p. 12.

573
“keep your hat brim”:
Betty Dale, interview by Sherwin, 1/21/82, pp. 2–3.

573
“Out of your mind”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 240.

573
“I never saw Robert drunk”:
Doris Jadan, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 8.

573
He loved
The Odyssey
:
Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, p. 14.

Chapter Forty: “It Should Have Been Done the Day After Trinity”

574
“Not on your life”:
Glenn T. Seaborg,
A Chemist in the White House,
p. 106; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 275.

574
When the editors:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, p. 593.

575
“Disgusting!” cried one:
“Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer,” 6/26/63, folder 2 of Oppenheimer file, HUAC name file, RG 233, NA.

575
“the scientist who writes:
Szasz, “Great Britain and the Saga of J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
War in History,
vol. 2, no. 3 (1995), p. 329.

575
“Look, this isn’t a day”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 247–48.

575
“I have been tempted”:
Ibid., p. 248; Teller claimed in his memoirs that he submitted Oppenheimer’s name for the 1963 Fermi Prize (Teller,
Memoirs,
p. 465).

575
Actually, many physicists:
NYT, 11/22/63; Herken,
Cardinal Choices,
pp. 307–8.

575
“My God, did you hear?”:
Peter Oppenheimer, e-mail to Bird, 9/7/04; Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 249.

576
“figure of stone”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 5, p. 529.

576
“I think it is just possible”:
White House press release, “Remarks of President Johnson, Seaborg, and Oppenheimer,” 12/2/63, Philip M. Stern Papers, JFKL; Seaborg,
A
Chemist in the White House,
p. 186; Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 5, p. 530.

576
Teller was in the audience:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
pp. 276–77.

576
Afterwards, John F. Kennedy’s grieving:
David Pines, interview by Bird, 6/26/04.

577
“dealt a severe blow”:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 331.

577
“It would require”:
Bird,
The Color of Truth,
p. 151.

577
“It’s a lovely show”:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 330.

577
“Oppenheimer’s partisans”:
Strauss, memo to file, 1/21/66, Strauss Papers, HHL.

577
“That was awful”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 22.

578
“There is nothing”:
Ibid., vol. 5, p. 275.

578
though privately, when he discussed:
Peter Oppenheimer, e-mail to Bird, 9/10/04.

578
“[B]ut I do recognize your Byrnes”:
JRO to Gar Alperovitz, 11/4/64, courtesy of Alperovitz; Alperovitz,
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,
p. 574.

579
“I begin to wonder”:
Heinar Kipphardt,
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
pp. 126–27.

579
“causes one furiously to think”:
Szasz, “Great Britain and the Saga of J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
War in History,
vol. 2, no. 3 (1995), p. 330.

579
“turned the whole damn farce”:
Ibid., p. 329.

579
“It’s twenty years too late”:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 77, Sherwin Collection.

579
“The subject of the book”:
JRO to Dr. Jerome Wiesner, 6/6/66, Stern Papers, JFKL.

580
“The library is beautiful”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 173.

580
“The trouble is that Robert”:
Strauss, memo to file, 4/22/63, Strauss Papers, HHL.

580
“simply waiting for the bell”:
Ibid., 4/29/65, Strauss Papers, HHL.

581
“even Princeton was too close”:
Ibid., 12/14/65, Strauss Papers, HHL.

581
Construction began in September:
Georgia Whidden (IAS), e-mail to Bird, 2/24/04.

581
“I am going to outlive”
and subsequent quotes:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 3; Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 26.

582
“dreadful news”:
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to JRO, 2/21/66, box 65, JRO Papers.

582
“faint hope”:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 6/23/79, p. 10.

582
“For the first time Robert”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 255.

582
“physicist and sailor”:
Pais,
A Tale of Two Continents,
p. 399; Goodchild,
J. Robert
Oppenheimer,
p. 279; Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 253.

582
“his spirit grew”:
Dyson, interview by Jon Else, 12/10/79, p. 4; Dyson,
Disturbing the
Universe,
p. 81.

583
“vigorous and almost gay”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 234.

583
In mid-July his doctor:
JRO to Nicolas Nabokov, cable, 7/11/66, Nabokov folder, box 52, JRO Papers.

583
“ghost, an absolute ghost”:
Sabra Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82, pp. 16, 21; Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 4.

583
“You don’t know what I’d”:
Hiilivirta, interview by Sherwin, 1/16/82, pp. 9, 12.

583
“They were, in fact”:
JRO to Nicolas Nabokov, 10/28/66, Nabokov folder, box 52, JRO Papers.

583
“He [Oppenheimer] was a very”:
George Dyson, e-mail to Bird, 5/23/03.

583
“the cancer was very manifest”:
JRO to Nicolas Nabokov, 10/28/66, Nabokov folder, box 52, JRO Papers.

584
“The last mile”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, pp. 299–300.

584
“I am much less able”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 254.

584
Early in December:
1966 desk book, box 13, JRO Papers.

584
“I was rather disturbed”
and subsequent quotes:
David Bohm to JRO, 11/29/66; JRO to Bohm, draft letter, 12/2/66; and JRO to Bohm, 12/5/66, Bohm file, box 20, JRO Papers.

585
“Oppenheimer then turned”:
Thorpe, “J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Transformation of the Scientific Vocation,” dissertation, pp. 629–30; Thomas B. Morgan, “With Oppenheimer, on an Autumn Day,”
Look,
12/27/66, pp. 61–63.

585
“indifference to the sufferings”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 34–35.

585
“They achieved their goal”:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else.

585
“I don’t feel very gay”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 6, p. 348.

586
“battling a cancerous throat”:
JRO letter to James Chadwick, 1/10/67, box 26, JRO Papers.

586
“I knew what he”:
Verna Hobson, interview by Sherwin, 7/31/79, p. 10.

586
“I am in some pain”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 254.

586
“He could speak only”:
Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe,
p. 81. Marvin Weinstein was a Columbia University–trained physicist who spent the years 1967 to 1969 as a fellow at the institute.

586
The next day Louis:
Louis Fischer to Michael Josselson, 2/25/67, folder 3a, box 5, Fischer Papers, PUL, courtesy of George Dyson.

587
“he mumbled so badly”
and subsequent quotes:
Ibid.