"Brotherhood of the Bomb" the Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller

Transcription

1 archived as [pdf] [StealthSkater note: this is an extract from this most excellent book that follows the 3 most important personalities as the atomic bomb was developed.] "Brotherhood of the Bomb" the Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller by Gregg Herken 2002 / ISBN (hb) If Science is the story of the 20 th Century, no drama is more compelling than that of "the Bomb" and its creators. But the riveting tale of human conflict that connects the 3 scientists most reposible for the nuclear age (Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller) was until now known only in broad outline. 10 years in the research and writing, Gregg Herken's eye-opening account is based on private papers; interviews with Manhattan Project survivors; and recently released documents and coded intercepts obtained from FBI and KGB archives and other sources around the World. 1

2 One of Brotherhood of the Bomb's surprises is the complex game of spy versus counterspy that surrounded the Bomb's building and later dominated the Cold War. And yet, armies of U.S. security agents were unable to prevent the Bomb's secrets from being passed to the Russians (sometimes by their American helpers). At the book's center is the question of loyalty -- to science, to country, to family -- and the wrenching choices that had to be made when such allegiances came into conflict. Revealed here for the first time are Robert Oppenheimer's efforts while scientific director of the Manhattan Project to hide his radical past and the complicity of General Leslie Groves (head of the Bomb project) in keeping that long-held secret. Oppenheimer was ultimately compromised by lies that he told to protect his brother Frank. These led to his own loyalty hearing during the high-water mark of McCarthyism in the 1950s. More than a cautionary tale, Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history. Gregg Herken's compelling and authoritative book reveals what can happen to individual and group integrity when big-time Science -- and its practitioners -- are enlisted in the service of the State. Robert Oppenheimer at age 22. An "overgrown choirboy both subtly wise and terribly innocent." Ernest Orland Lawrence holding the first cyclotron. By sheer force of personality more than by any power of intellect, Lawrence was a commanding presence at Berkeley by the early 1930s. Edward Teller at age 17. "I reached adolescence still a serious child with no sense of humor." 2

3 Robert and Frank Oppenheimer, Oppie grew unusually protective of his younger brother. "In some ways, perhaps part of a father to him." Richard and Ruth Tolman, Oppenheimer reportedly firt earned Lawrence's disapproval when he seduced the wife of Professor Tolman at Caltech. Oppenheimer thought Lawrence's riding outfit a curious affectation. He did not realize it was Lawrence's way of distancing himself from his roots. 3

4 Lawrence and the Rad Lab staff with the 60-inch cyclotron, The great cyclotron was to be transformed while still in the womb into a weapon of war. 4

5 Lawrence in the control room. Starting the machine was sometimes accompanied by an "ensuing sparking, crash, and blowing out of lights" recalled one cyclotroneer. Oppenheimer and Lawrence at the cyclotron. "I can only think that perhaps when they were such really good friends, maybe they never really understood each other" observed one of Lawrence's "boys". 5

6 Joe Weinberg, Rossi Lomanitz, David Bohm, and Max Friedman on the Berkeley campus, Gregori Kasparov, Martin Kamen, and Gregori Kheifets outside Bernstein's Fish Grotto, July

7 Haakon Chevalier at Berkeley, "I certainly don't intend to resign myself to remaining a bystander" he wrote his son Jacques during the War. Frank Oppenheimer, circa Louise Bransten appearing before HUAC, September San Francisco's socalled "apricot heiress" was known as the "Bernstein woman" to Steve Nelson and by the codename "Map" to her Soviet control officer. (Left) Klaus Fuchs, Los Alamos badge, At Los Alamos, project officials were still innocent of the fact the Nation's real atomic secrets were being driven out of the front gate in Fuch's blue Buick. (Right) Wartime Army counterintelligence headquarters in Oakland, California. 7

8 In a March 1948 meeting with his Soviet control in a London pub, Klaus Fuchs passed along an advanced design for "the Super" (i.e., H-bomb). Preparing for "Tesla", While Los Alamos researchers had traditionally transported their devices on an Army flatbed truck, Livermore bomb designers drove to the shot tower in a latemodel sedan with their bomb crammed into a pair of heavily-reinforced Samsonite suitcases sitting in the backseat. 8

9 Teller at the Pacific test site for "George", May He predicted that Eniwetok would not be big enough for his next bomb. Aftermath of "Ruth" -- Livermore's first nuclear test, Los Alamos weaponeers suggested that next time, their rivals use either a bigger bomb or a smaller tower. 9

10 Lawrence and the Bevatron, "His fears that he was being -- or might be -- undermined in a position were a terror for him" Oppenheimer observed. Edward Teller, He wrote to Boethe: "I would say that physicists have known power." Robert Oppenheimer at Princeton, "In the forest, in battle, in the midst of arrows, javelins, fire / Out on the great sea, at the precipice's edge in the mountains / In sleep, in delirium, in deep trouble / The good deeds a man has done before defend him." 10

11 About the Author Gregg Herken is a senior historian and curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. He previously taught at Oberlin College, Yale University, and the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of The Winning Weapon: the Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, Counsels of War, and Cardinal Choices (a history of Presidential science advising). Herken received a MacArthur research and writing grant for Brotherhood of the Bomb. In , he was detailed as a senior research and policy analyst to the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments as a result of some of the discoveries that he made while researching this book. He and his family live in Alexandria, Virginia. if on the Internet, Press <BACK> on your browser to return to the previous page (or go to else if accessing these files from the CD in a MS-Word session, simply <CLOSE> this file's window-session; the previous window-session should still remain 'active' 11