American Prometheus (132 page)

460
“We looked at each other”:
Sis Frank, interview by Sherwin, 1/18/82, p. 5.

460
And despite his acquittal:
NYT, 3/6/53.

460
“this will be the last time”:
JRO to Bernard Spero, 4/27/53, box 237, JRO Papers; Weinberg, interview by Sherwin, 8/23/79, p. 25. Weinberg said his prospective employer told him he’d need some cover to hire him and that he’d accept a letter from Robert Oppenheimer.

460
he “did not know”
and subsequent quotes:
Lewis Strauss, memo to file, 1/6/53, box 66, Strauss Papers, HHL. Oppenheimer’s final legal bill in connection with the Weinberg case was $14,780 (Katherine Russell to Strauss, 4/28/53, HHL). That the board finally rejected Oppenheimer’s legal bill can be found in A. H. Belmont, to D. M. Ladd, FBI memo, 6/19/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file.

Chapter Thirty-three: “The Beast in the Jungle”

462
“Utterly transfixed”:
Anne Wilson Marks to Bird, 5/11/02.

462
“It hasn’t yet come”:
Henry James,
The Beast in the Jungle and Other Stories,
pp. 39, 70.

463
According to the historian:
Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for Peace and War,
p. 44; McGrath,
Scientists, Business, and the State, 1890–1960,
p. 155.

463
His chosen audience:
“Meeting for Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer,” 2/17/53, Council on Foreign Relations Archives.

463
“Atomic Weapons and American Policy”
and subsequent quotes:
“Armaments and American Policy: A Report of a Panel of Consultants on Disarmament of the Department of State,” January 1953, top secret, declassified 3/10/82, White House Office of Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, NSC series, Policy Papers subseries, Disarmament folder, box 2, DDEL.

464
Atomic bombs, he continued
and subsequent quotes:
“We may be likened to”: JRO, “Atomic Weapons and American Policy,” Council on Foreign Relations speech, 2/17/53, reprinted in JRO’s
The Open Mind,
pp. 61–77. Oppenheimer may have borrowed the “two scorpions in a bottle” phrase from a speech Vannevar Bush gave at Princeton. See McGrath,
Scientists, Business, and the State, 1890–1960,
p. 151.

465
On the other hand:
Later that evening Oppenheimer dined alone with Lilienthal, who thought the speech was quite eloquent (Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 3, p. 370).

465
two major powers as “two scorpions”:
A draft copy of Oppenheimer’s speech, dated March 1953, was sent to C. D. Jackson. It was published in Foreign A fairs in July 1953 (JRO, “A Note on Atomic Weapons and American Policy,” Atomic Energy folder, box 1, C. D. Jackson Papers, DDEL).

465 “atomic weapons strongly favor”: Eisenhower to C. D. Jackson, 12/31/53, DDE diary, Ann Whitman file, December 1953 folder (1), box 4, DDEL.

466
“You can’t have”:
Herken,
Counsels of War,
p. 116.

466
For a moment:
Stephen E. Ambrose,
Eisenhower,
p. 132. See also “Chronology: Candor-Wheaties,” 9/30/54, Ann Whitman Admin. Series, Atoms for Peace folder, box 5, DDEL.

466
“the Soviets of trouble”:
Strauss,
Men and Decisions,
p. 356. Eisenhower appointed Strauss on 3/9/53 to be his “special assistant” on atomic energy issues. In July 1953, Strauss became chairman of the AEC.

466
“Dr. Oppenheimer was not”:
Eisenhower diary, 12/2/53, Ann Whitman file, box 4, folder Oct.–Dec. 1953, DDEL. Eisenhower noted, “When I first came to this office some one individual (I cannot now recall who it was) stated that in his opinion Dr. Oppenheimer was not to be trusted. Whoever it was—and I think it was probably Admiral Strauss—later told me that he had reason to revise his opinion.”

466
“Finally Strauss told”:
JRO to Strauss, 5/18/53, re: Felix Browder; Strauss to JRO, 5/12/53, JRO correspondence, IAS Archives. Browder taught at Princeton, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Rutgers University. He later won both a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and a Sloan Fellowship and was elected president of the American Mathematical Society.

467
“is alleged to have delayed”:
D. M. Ladd to Hoover, 5/25/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file.

467
Strauss “came back to him”:
Newman, “The Oppenheimer Case,” dissertation, chapter 4, footnote 127. Newman is citing an Eisenhower quote in a letter from Philip Stern to Gen. Robert L. Schulz, 7/21/67, box 1, Stern Papers, JFKL.

467
“he could not do the job”:
Ladd to Hoover, 5/25/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file 100-17828.

467
“he needed very badly”:
Newman, “The Oppenheimer Case,” chapter 2, footnotes 18, 21, 24.

467
“almost hypnotic power”:
Ibid., chapter 4, footnote 165. Newman is citing Jackson, memo to Henry Luce, 10/12/54, box 66, Jackson Papers, DDEL.

467
“The Hidden Struggle”:
Herken,
Counsels of War,
p. 69.

468
“another nasty”:
Lilienthal,
The Journals of David E. Lilienthal,
vol. 3, pp. 390–91; Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 203; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb,
p. 263.

468
“absolutely furious”:
Newman, “The Oppenheimer Case,” chapter 4, footnote 69.

468
“talked out of reasonable”:
Ibid., chapter 2, footnote 30 (Newman is citing Gertrude Samuels, “A Plea for Candor About the Atom,”
New York Times Magazine,
6/21/53, pp. 8, 21); Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for Peace and War,
p. 53.

468
“dangerous and its proposals”:
Pfau,
No Sacrifice Too Great,
p. 145.

469
“That’s complete nonsense”:
Lewis Strauss, “Memorandum of Conversation with the President,” 7/22/53, Strauss Papers, AEC memos to AEC Commissioners, box 66, HHL.

469
“We don’t want”:
Ambrose,
Eisenhower,
p. 133.

469
“Very relieved to”:
Jackson diary, 8/4/53, box 56, log 1953 (2), Jackson Papers, DDEL; Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for Peace and War,
p. 57.

469
Events also conspired:
Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for Peace and War,
pp. 58–59.

470
“New Look”:
Ambrose,
Eisenhower,
p. 171; Strauss,
Men and Decisions,
pp. 356–62.

470
“fraud upon the words”:
Newman, “The Oppenheimer Case,” chapter 2, footnote 102.

470
“obstruct things”:
JRO FBI file, sect. 3, doc. 103, FBI wiretap of JRO phone conversations with David Lilienthal and Robert Bacher, 10/23–24/46.

470
“You’d better tell”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
p. 208.

470
“I knew he was in trouble”:
Rabi, interview by Sherwin, 3/12/82, p. 13.

471
While he was in Brazil, the FBI:
Hoover to legal attaché, Rio de Janeiro, 6/18/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file, doc. 348.

471
“close and cordial”:
Hoover to Tolson and Ladd, memo, 6/24/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file.

471
“in the closest of confidence”:
Ibid.; Hoover to Tolson, Ladd, Belmont, and Nichols, memo, 5/19/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file.

472
“In the first place”:
Strauss crossed out the word
much
and replaced it with
some.
Lewis Strauss to Senator Robert Taft, draft ltr., 6/22/53, Taft folder, Strauss Papers, HHL.

472
“as if he were flag”:
Roland Sawyer, “The Power of Admiral Strauss,”
New Republic,
5/31/54, p. 14.

472
His first maneuver:
Belmont to Ladd, memo, 6/5/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file 100-17828; FBI summary of Oppenheimer file, 6/25/53, sect. 14, JRO FBI file. Strauss, memo for Gen. Robert Cutler and C. D. Jackson, 12/17/53, Strauss Papers, HHL.

472
During the Eisenhower:
Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for War and Peace,
p. 45.

472 “During a single seven-day”: William L. Borden, memo to JCAE chairman, 11/3/52, pp. 8–9, box 41, JCAE, no. DCXXXV, RG 128, NA.

473
“I think it would be”:
Strauss to Borden, 12/10/52, William Borden, box 10, AEC series, NA. For a discussion of other influences on Borden’s pursuit of Oppenheimer, see Priscilla McMillan,
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
Chap. 15.

473
“probably a compilation”:
Priscilla McMillan,
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 172.

474
This sequence of withdrawals:
There is a cover page to the Oppenheimer dossier which records the names and dates of previous users of the file. See John A. Waters memo to file, 5/14/53 and Gordon Dean letter to the Attorney General, 5/20/53, AEC files. As Jack Holl has written, “Publicly Borden always claimed that he acted alone and without consultation . . . Privately, he later told a Commission official that he had discussed the case with ‘one individual who is intimately familiar with the atomic program,’ whose name he preferred not to give, and whose name was not revealed.” That individual was certainly Lewis Strauss. Jack A. Holl, “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Origins of the Government’s Security Case,” a December 1975 paper presented to the American Historical Association, pp. 7–8. See also Hewlett and Holl,
Atoms for Peace and War,
pp. 45–47, 63. For more on Strauss’ meeting with Borden, see also McMillan,
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
Chap. 15.

474 “Strauss had promised”: Harold P. Green, “The Oppenheimer Case: A Study in the Abuse of Law,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
September 1977, p. 57.

474
“The Admiral is extremely anxious”:
Belmont to Ladd, memo, 9/10/53, JRO FBI file, sect. 14.

475
“to elucidate what”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
pp. 219–20.

475
“For all my trouble”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
pp. 199–200.

475
“It is a cruel”:
Reith Lectures, 1953, boxes 276–278, JRO Papers, LOC.

476
“The open society”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
pp. 202–3.

476
he “didn’t understand”:
Lincoln Gordon, phone interview by Bird, 5/18/04. At the time, Gordon was stationed in the U.S. Embassy in London. Later he served as U.S. ambassador to Brazil.

476 “Chevalier, who is very”: Secret cable from U.S. Legation, Paris, to FBI director, 2/15/54, JRO FBI file, doc. 797, declassified 7/11/01.

476
By December 7, 1953:
According to Chevalier, he had seen Oppenheimer two or three times in the autumn of 1946, five or six times in 1947, four or five times in 1949, twice in September and October 1950—and once in December 1953 (Chevalier to Philip Stern, 6/15/68, Stern Papers, JFKL).