Bomb (31 page)

“I was looking directly”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“I look back up”: Feynman,
Surely You're Joking
.

“An enormous ball of fire”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“Up it went”: Laurence,
Dawn of Zero
.

“His face relaxed”: Kelly,
Manhattan Project
.

“It worked”: Cole,
Something Wonderful
.

“Oppenheimer and the others”: Badash,
Reminiscences
.

“A loud cry”: Laurence,
Dawn of Zero
.

“I had rather expected”: Albright,
Bombshell
.

“I'll never forget the way”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“I am proud of you”: Groves.
Now It Can Be Told
.

“The war is over”: Laurence,
Dawn of Zero
.

“Naturally, we were very”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“It was extremely solemn”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

Little Boy

“The explosives dump”: Conant,
109 East Palace
.

“Operated on this morning”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“tremendously pepped up”: Holoway,
Stalin
.

“I casually mentioned”: Truman,
Memoirs
.

“How did it go”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“We'll have to have”: Holoway,
Stalin
.

“It was his opinion”: McCullough,
Truman
.

“It was a question of saving”: Truman,
Buck Stops
.

“We call upon”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“The 509 Composite Group”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“The word came Sunday”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“The usual jesting”: Laurence,
Dawn Over Zero
.

“Tonight is the night”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“He paused”: Laurence,
Dawn Over Zero
.

“Our orders were”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“I never saw a plane”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“It was a pleasant”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

Hiroshima

“It was a clear”: Osada,
Children of Hiroshima
.

“We were eight minutes”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“Put on your goggles”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“With the release”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“I saw a red dragonfly”: Osada,
Children of Hiroshima
.

“The view, where a moment”: Hachiya,
Hiroshima Diary
.

“I had unconsciously”: Osada,
Children of Hiroshima
.

“They stagger exactly”: Kelly,
Manhattan Project
.

“They moved as though”: Hachiya,
Hiroshima Diary
.

“If I live a hundred years”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“Now that I knew”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“a pot of boiling black”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“A feeling of shock”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

Reaction Begins

“I'm proud of you”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“Keep your seats”: McCullough,
Truman
.

“An American airplane”: Truman,
Statement by President
.

“Attention please”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“very considerable elation”: Sykes,
No Ordinary Genius
.

“There was a sudden noise”: Frisch,
What I Remember
.

“Thank God it wasn't a dud”: Conant,
109 East Palace
.

“Of course they were”: Frisch,
What I Remember
.

“I was involved in this”: Sykes,
No Ordinary Genius
.

“The reaction has begun”: Smith,
Letters and Recollections
.

“Hahn was completely”: Powers,
Heisenberg's War
.

“The guests were”: Bernstein,
Uranium Club
.

“Stalin had a tremendous”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“The whole city”: Jungk,
A Thousand Suns
.

“drastically alters the whole”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“I decided at a glance”: Jungk,
A Thousand Suns
.

“I felt that we ought”: Stimson,
Memorandum
.

“Back on Tinian”: Tibbets,
Tibbets Story
.

“Two additional runs”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“We'll go on to secondary”: Toland,
Rising Sun
.

“People were saying”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“should be ready”: Norris,
Racing for the Bomb
.

“I cannot endure”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

End Game

“I stopped somewhere”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“We drove out”: Haynes,
Spies
.

“He himself was rather”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“Meet openly as friends”:
Scope of Soviet Activity
.

“After a period of anxious”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“Things might turn out”: Albright,
Bombshell
.

Father of the Bomb

“a nervous wreck”: Herken,
Brotherhood
.

“Father of the Atomic Bomb”: Conant,
109 East Palace
.

“Can we make them more”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“The safety of this nation”: Smith,
Letters and Recollections
.

“Tell Dr. Oppenheimer”: Herken,
Brotherhood
.

“I neither can nor will”: Rhodes,
Atomic Bomb
.

“His eyes were glazed”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“It is our hope that”: Smith,
Letters and Recollections
.

“I never saw a man”: Blum,
Price of Vision
.

“When will the Russians”: Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer
.

“I feel I have blood”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“Never mind”: Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer
.

“Don't worry”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

Fallout

“It really happened so”:
Scope of Soviet Activity
.

“Well, well”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“On top of the tower”: Holoway,
Stalin
.

“It worked”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“Our atomic monopoly”: Bird,
American Prometheus.

“Had the Russian scientists”: Lamphere,
FBI-KGB
.

“Were you not in touch”: Moss,
Klaus Fuchs
.

“Even before they showed”:
Scope of Soviet Activity
.

Epilogue: Scorpions in a Bottle

“You don't know what”: Moss,
Klaus Fuchs
.

“Every time you squeeze”: Roberts,
The Brother
.

“I am calm”:
Scope of Soviet Activity
.

“You don't have any microphones”: Albright,
Bombshell
.

“We believe a super”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“I believe the most important”: Jungk,
A Thousand Suns
.

“Can the Russians do it”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

“We keep saying”: McCullough,
Truman
.

“If successful, radioactive”: Jungk,
A Thousand Suns
.

“We may be likened”: Rhodes,
Dark Sun
.

“I think to a certain extent”: Bird,
American Prometheus
.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK
began as a conversation with Deirdre Langeland, my awesome editor at Roaring Brook. We were discussing an article we'd both read about an obscure World War II spy, and gradually that grew into the idea of doing an ambitious global thriller about the birth of the bomb. Thanks to Deirdre for hashing out the story with me, and for her surgically precise touch in shaping and tightening the narrative. Thanks to Simon Boughton for bringing me onto the Roaring Brook team, and to my agent, Ken Wright, for all of his advice and encouragement—when Ken gets behind an idea, it really gives a guy confidence.

Thanks to Robert Norris, author of
Racing for the Bomb
, for sharing his vast knowledge of Manhattan Project espionage, and to Joseph Albright for talking to me about Ted Hall—Albright and his wife Marcia Kunstel actually interviewed Hall before he died, and somehow coaxed a statement from him about the thoughts that inspired him to become a spy. Their book,
Bombshell
, is a must-ave.

Special thanks to the best friends of every nonfiction writer: libraries and librarians. Many of the sources I needed to research this book were found and read in the New York Public Library. And thanks to the Saratoga Springs Public Library, especially the beautiful second floor, with its history books and quiet tables. Most of this book was written there.

I'm grateful to my critique group partners, Eric Etkin, Vicki Tremper, and Gail Aldous, for offering insightful advice. And thanks most of all to my wife, Rachel. She will always be my first and most trusted reader, and nothing goes out the door until she says it's okay.

PHOTO CREDITS

Front cover: Foreground © 2013 by Tristan Elwell, background courtesy of U.S. National Archives; Back cover: Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory;

Interior pages: frontispiece: Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory; 4–5 (clockwise from top left): Norwegian Resistance Museum, Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images, AP Images/Henry Griffin, AP Images, AIP Emilio Segré Visual Archive/Brittle Books Collecion, AP Images, AP Images; 7: AP Images; 42–43 (clockwise from top left): Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory, AP Images, Norwegian Resistance Museum, Getty Images, Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images, The Norwegian Resistance Museum, Courtesy of Thos. Powers; 44: AP Images; 88–89: Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory, AP Images, SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc., The Norwegian Resistance Museum, Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images; 90: Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory; 142–43: Bettman/Corbis/AP Images, AP Images, Russian Archives/Museum of Foreign Intelligence Services of Russia, AP Images, AP Images, Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images; 144: Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images 227: AP Images, 236–37: Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Arms race

Atomic bombs: American monopoly on atomic bombs; destruction from; power and energy of; race to build

Atoms.
See also
fission (atom splitting)

Berg, Moe

Chicago pile and Chicago pile team

Churchill, Winston

Cohen, Lona

Communism

Eifler, Carl

Einstein, Albert

Enola Gay

Fat Man and Nagasaki

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation): Americans, surveillance of; Soviet spies, surveillance of

Fermi, Enrico

Feynman, Richard

Fission (atom splitting): bomb making and; chain reaction of plutonium; chain reaction of uranium; discovery of; energy release during; graphite and; plutonium; study of; zip rod

Frisch, Otto

Fuchs, Klaus: appearance of; character and personality of; death of; photo of; spying activities; trial and sentencing of

Germany: Allied forces attacks on; blitzkrieg; bomb development by; Great Britain, bombing of; invasion of other countries; Potsdam meeting of Truman and Stalin; Soviet Union, agreement not to fight; Soviet Union, fighting against; Soviet Union, invasion of; surrender of; territorial claims by; uranium supply of

Gold, Harry: character and personality of; confession of; death of; FBI investigation and search of home; Pennsylvania Sugar Company, stealing information about; photos of; Soviet contacts, meetings with; spying activities; trial and sentencing of

Graphite

Great Britain: bomb, agreement to keep secret; bomb development and testing; British and US attack on Germany, call for by Stalin; German annexation of; German bombing of; German territorial claims to; Germany, fighting against; secrets, passing to ally; Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.)

Greenglass, David

Groves, Leslie: character and personality of; Los Alamos laboratory site selection; Pentagon, construction of; photo of; plutonium bomb, design of; plutonium bomb testing

Hahn, Otto

Hall, Theodore “Ted”: appearance and character of; death of; education of; photo of; plutonium and implosion process; plutonium bomb testing; spying activities; U-235 sample, experiment with

Haukelid, Knut: appearance of; ferry
Hydro
and transport of heavy water; in Great Britain; Norwegian Nazi sympathizer, throwing off ferry; photo of; resistance group and spying activities; in Sweden; Vemork Hydroelectric, Gunnerside mission to destroy