American Prometheus (114 page)

151
“Your letter asks”:
Chevalier to JRO, 7/23/64, and JRO to Chevalier, 8/7/64, folder “Chevalier, Haakon—Reference to Case,” box 200, JRO Papers, LOC.

151
“discussion group”:
Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
pp. 19, 46.

151
“to be a Communist”:
John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr,
In Denial,
p. 39. John Haynes later wrote, “Oppenheimer, of course, would have been regarded by any party officer with any sense as a highly valuable ally. Further, he had no dependence on the party for organizational or other assistance. He was highly valuable to the party, but the party was not valuable to Oppenheimer except to the extent of his belief in its goals and objectives and whatever personal/fraternal ties he had developed with others in the movement. No skilled party leader would impose ‘discipline’ on someone like Oppenheimer; instead of giving orders, he would persuade, convince, cajole, ask politely and even plead if necessary” (John Haynes, e-mail to Gregg Herken, 4/26/04, courtesy of Herken).

152
In short, Oppenheimer:
As one of the FBI’s informants put it, “although Oppenheimer may not have been actually brought into the Communist Party, the effort to bring him to acceptance of Communist Party philosophy and to secure his support for Communist aims was regarded by the Communists as successful.” This FBI informant was Louis Gibarti, a Hungarian-born communist who spent the years 1923 to 1938 as a Comintern agent. Gibarti, whose real name was Laszlo Dobos, left the Party in 1938 and then worked as a journalist. There is no evidence that Gibarti ever knew Oppenheimer, or for that matter had any evidence to support his supposition quoted above. In 1950 he became an informant for the FBI (J. Edgar Hoover to Lewis Strauss, 6/25/54, JRO FBI file, sect. 44, doc. 1800).

Chapter Eleven: “I’m Going to Marry a Friend of Yours, Steve”

153 “We were at least twice”: JRO to Maj. Gen. K. D. Nichols, 3/4/54.

153
“No more flowers, please”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 49.

153
“she disappeared for weeks”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 35.

154
“mostly very attractive”:
Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 9; Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 30; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 345.

154
Bob Serber recalled:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82, p. 10. Interestingly, Sandra Dyer-Bennett must have been a decade or more older than Robert. She was the mother of the folk musician Richard Dyer-Bennett, born in 1913.

154
“I fell in love with Robert”
and subsequent quotes:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 1/9/82; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 39; Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 9; Chevalier,
Oppenheimer,
p. 31; Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 63; JRO to Niels Bohr, 11/2/49, box 21, JRO Papers.

154
“Kitty was related”:
Robert Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82.

155
Kitty had been born:
Katherine Oppenheimer FBI file (100-309633-2), FBI memo, 8/7/51.

155
“a prince of a small principality”:
Serber, interview by Jon Else, 12/15/79, p. 9.

155
The Blonays served:
www.swisscastles.ch/Vaud/chateau/blonay.htm
.

155
Kaethe Vissering was beautiful:
Wilhelm Keitel,
Mein Leben,
pp. 19–20. Keitel’s German language memoirs describe the noble ancestry of his grandparents, Bodewin Vissering and Johanna Blonay. (Portions of this memoir were published in English, translated by David Irving,
The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel
[New York, Stein and Day, 1966]. But this version excludes material about Keitel’s family background.) For Keitel’s temporary engagement to Kaethe Vissering, see JRO hearing, p. 277.

155
“Her Highness, Katherine”:
Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 13.

155
“She was wild as hell”:
Pat Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 10; Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 14.

155
“I spent little time”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 37.

156
Several months into the marriage:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 10.

156
“The consensus was”:
JRO hearing, p. 571; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 38.

156
“He was a handsome”:
Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 39.

156
“an utter misfit”; “It is difficult to tell”:
Robert A. Karl, “Green Anti-Fascists: Dartmouth Men and the Spanish Civil War,” unpublished Dartmouth College research paper, 9/21/00, p. 42, DCL.

156
Determined to “throttle”:
Karl, “Green Anti-Fascists,” pp. 43–44; Hugh Thomas,
The Spanish Civil War,
p. 473; Marion Merriman and Warren Lerude,
American Commander in Spain,
p. 124. For Dallet’s Jewish background, see Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 34, and
Dartmouth Alumni,
December 1937, Dallet’s alumni file, DCL.

157
By 1932, Dallet:
Peer de Silva, unpublished manuscript, p. 2, courtesy of Gregg Herken;
Daily Worker,
10/27/37; Fifth Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, 1949, p. 553.

157
“The house had a kitchen”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 61; Goodchild,
J. Robert
Oppenheimer,
p. 38.

157
Joe “was a bit dogmatic”:
Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 4.

157
“The poverty became”:
Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 25; JRO hearing, p. 572; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 38.

158
“I was like a third wheel”:
Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, pp. 3, 6.

158
“I adore you”:
Joe Dallet,
Letters from Spain,
pp. 56–57; Dallet to Kitty Dallet, 4/9/37, 4/22/37, and 7/25/37, reprinted in Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks, eds.,
Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War,
pp. 71–74, 77–78.

158
“We had a nice few days”:
Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 28. Nelson read this letter into Sherwin’s tape recorder.

159
“Man, what a feeling”:
Dallet,
Letters from Spain,
p. 45.

159
“near hatred”:
Sandor Voros,
American Commissar,
pp. 338–40.

159
“A percentage of the men”:
Merriman and Lerude,
American Commander in Spain,
pp. 124–25. FBI doc. 263; FBI doc. 49, 10/9/37, contained in Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov,
The Secret World of American Communism,
pp. 184–86; Schwartz,
From West to East,
p. 360; Peter Carroll,
The Odyssey of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade,
pp. 164–65.

160
“The attack started”:
Voros,
American Commissar,
p. 342. Vincent Brome,
The International Brigades,
1966, p. 225. “We lost some good men in the attack,” wrote Bob Merriam to his wife on 10/16/37, “including Joe Dallet”; Merriman and Lerude,
American Commander in Spain,
p. 175; FBI doc. 158, p. 3; Rosenstone,
Crusade of the Left:
The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War,
pp. 234–36.

160
“She was crushed”:
Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, pp. 8–9; Nelson, et al.,
American Radical,
pp. 232–33; JRO hearing, p. 574. FBI doc. 284, p. 5.

160
given “themselves completely”:
Allen Guttmann,
The Wound in the Heart,
p. 142;
Daily Worker,
10/27/37.

160
Kitty spent a couple of months:
FBI memo 5/6/52, Katherine Oppenheimer FBI file (100-309633). Kitty met Browder only once, when he came to Youngstown, Ohio, to see Joe Dallet; they had dinner together (FBI memo on Katherine Oppenheimer, 4/23/52, JRO file, sect. 12).

160
“She seemed to be”:
Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 32; Sherr, interview by Sherwin, 2/20/79, p. 10.

161
“an impossible marriage”:
Jean Bacher, interview by Sherwin, 3/29/83, p. 4; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 39; JRO FBI file, doc. 108, p. 4.

161
At twenty-nine, Kitty:
JRO hearing, p. 574. Kitty was enrolled at UCLA from September 1939 through June 1940 and lived at 553
¹
⁄2 Coronado Street, Los Angeles.

161
“He would ride up”:
Dr. Louis Hempelmann, interview by Sherwin, 8/10/79, p. 26.

162
Just a day or two:
Serber,
Peace and War,
pp. 59–60. Frank and Jackie Oppenheimer also spent some time that summer on the ranch, bringing with them eleven-year-old Hans “Lefty” Stern, the son of their cousins, Dr. Alfred and Lotte Stern.

162
“he and the Oppenheimers”:
JRO FBI file, doc. 154, p. 7.

162
Even though Bob Serber:
Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 60.

162
“Kitty Dallet!”:
Steve Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 12; Nelson, et al.,
American Radical,
p. 268.

163
By the time the newlyweds:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 52.

163
At the end of November:
D. M. Ladd to FBI director, 8/11/47, JRO FBI file, doc. 159, p. 7. Ladd is quoting Nelson, apparently from an 8/7/45 wiretap.

163
Kitty immediately invited:
Kitty Oppenheimer to Margaret Nelson, undated, circa 11/29/40, in Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 30.

163
An FBI wiretap:
Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 56.

163
“With all of his brilliance”:
Margaret Nelson, interview by Sherwin, 6/17/81, p. 31; Steve Nelson, et al.,
American Radical,
p. 268.

163
“He was gentle, mild”:
Sabra Ericson, interview by Sherwin, 1/13/82.

163
“She could not stand”
and subsequent quotes:
Frank and Jackie Oppenheimer, interview by Sherwin, 12/3/78; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
pp. 39–40; Serber, interview by Sherwin, 3/11/82, p. 15; Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 2.

164
“Bombsight”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 65.