Pandora's Keepers (62 page)

An all-too-common human weakness is a refusal to face and deal with unpleasant facts. And we face a fact of truly gigantic unpleasantness: namely the existence of atomic and thermonuclear weapons capable of inflicting death and destruction on an unlimited scale. The reaction of most people to this fact is apathy, which covers over profound feelings of vulnerability and helplessness. Inattention and irony, silence and suspicion, are just some of the materials out of which we build our defensive walls of denial. Perhaps we can break through such walls and honestly face the human implications of nuclear weapons.

One has to find a place for that truth within the self, morally and psychologically, in order to live and act from it. The atomic scientists did this over the course of their own lives, even though they started out having less knowledge—and came to bear more personal responsibility—than do we. Facing the realities of nuclear weapons and coming to terms with them may be a tall order, but to fail to try is certainly a dereliction. For the first time in history it is not humankind’s limited abilities that prevent us from destroying ourselves, but only our good sense. Not the atom, not physics, not science and technology, but man’s fears and hopes—these are the determinative forces, now as always. The atomic scientists—very intelligent men—came to understand that.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book owes a primary debt to Geoff Shandler, Executive Editor of Little, Brown and Company. He brilliantly edited the manuscript, seeing how it should be structured and precisely where it should be cut. I am deeply indebted to him for enriching the book and bringing it to publication. Emily Loose of Crown Publishers was another splendid editor: demanding in her expectations and incisive in her criticisms. In clarifying many problems of writing and interpretation, she made this a better book than it would otherwise have been, and for that I am grateful.

Few readers are aware of the endless, essential details of transforming a long manuscript into a printed book. Elizabeth Nagle of Little, Brown has been superb at this, working with problems of text and photographs and many other things. There were others at Little, Brown whom I must also thank for helping to create this book: Steve Lamont and especially Karen Landry for their careful copyediting; and Debbie Lindblom for thoroughly preparing the index.

My literary agent, Anne Sibbald of Janklow and Nesbit Associates, did something special: she kept the faith—giving me unwavering support and encouragement over the many years it took to research and write this book. Anne never doubted the project, even when I had occasion to doubt it myself. Thank you, Anne.

Robert Dallek, a steadfast mentor since my graduate school days at the University of California, Los Angeles, nearly twenty years ago, offered incisive comments on an early version of the manuscript and wise counsel from beginning to end. I feel very fortunate to call him not just my teacher but my friend. The same holds true of Robert McNamara, whom I had the privilege of assisting on his Vietnam memoirs. Although a busy man, he always found time to share keen insights into the people and policies addressed in this book during conversations over the years.

I am thankful to the many archives and libraries—and the dedicated people who work in them—where I have been privileged to conduct research: the Niels Bohr Library at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland; the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego; the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago; the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; the Lamont and Pusey Libraries at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware; the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Archives of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico; the National Archives in Washington, D.C.; the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England; the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California; the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and the University Archives at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

I also profited from discussions during my stints as Freeman Professor of History at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies from 1999 to 2000 and as a Visiting Fellow at St. Catherine’s College and the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford in 2002. I had the privilege of lecturing on this book at both universities. In Nanjing, I benefited from discussions with economics professor emeritus Clark Reynolds of Stanford University; and in Oxford, with Daniel Walker Howe, recently retired Rhodes Professor of American History.

Toby Godfrey, who transcribed the tape recordings of my interviews (and spotted unseen errors in them), proved as before — when we worked together with Richard Holbrooke on Clark Clifford’s memoirs—that she is a secretary without equal. Walter Montano, a graduate history student at American University, independently and thoroughly reviewed the manuscript of this paperback edition.

Among many others who helped in various ways, I wish to acknowledge the administration of the U.S. Naval Academy, which supported a sabbatical that allowed me to finish the book; the Naval Academy Research Council, for summer research stipends; my colleagues in the history department at Annapolis—especially Ernest Tucker—all of whom offered valuable friendship and useful suggestions; and—not least—my lively and intelligent students at Annapolis, past and present, whose commitment to service inspired me to do my best.

My wife, Dian, and our son, Grey, gave me their love, their support, and above all their patience for many—too many—years. All the while, they never questioned that “the book” would someday be finished. How can I adequately express my admiration and gratitude for all they have done?

NOTES

Preface

1
. I am thinking here especially of Richard Rhodes’s two magisterial works,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
and
Dark Sun
.

2
. I have used primary sources wherever feasible, but I have also relied on a large body of work by other writers for historical and biographical information, general guidance, and many insights and references. In addition to the two books by Richard Rhodes, the following works were indispensable throughout:

On Bethe: Bernstein,
Hans Bethe, Prophet of Energy
, and Schweber,
In the Shadow of the Bomb
.

On Bohr: Moore,
Niels Bohr
, and Pais,
Niels Bohr’s Times in Physics, Philosophy
,
and Polity
.

On Compton: Blackwood,
The House on College Avenue
, and Johnston,
The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton
.

On Fermi: Fermi,
Atoms in the Family
, and Segrè,
Enrico Fermi, Physicist
.

On Lawrence: Childs,
An American Genius
; Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer
; and Heilbron and Seidel,
Lawrence and His Laboratory
.

On Oppenheimer: Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
; Kunetka,
Oppenheimer
; and Michelmore,
The Swift Years
.

On Rabi: Bernstein, “Profiles: Physicist,” and Rigden,
Rabi
.

On Szilard: Grandy,
Leo Szilard
, and Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
.

On Teller: Blumberg and Owens,
Energy and Conflict
, and Blumberg and Panos,
Edward Teller
.

Four general works—one of scientific history and three of political history—were particularly germane: Kevles,
The Physicists
; Bundy,
Danger and Survival
; Herken,
Brotherhood of the Bomb
; and Sherwin,
A World Destroyed
.

Prologue: Nine Physicists and the Discovery of Fission

1
. Quoted in Kevles,
The Physicists
, p. 324.

2
. Ernest O. Lawrence to Enrico Fermi, February 7, 1939, Ernest O. Lawrence Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (hereafter cited as EOLP, BL, UCB).

3
. Quoted in Smith and Weiner,
Robert Oppenheimer
, pp. 208–209.

Chapter 1: Exodus

1
. Weisskopf,
The Joy of Insight
, p. vii.

2
. Quoted in Bernstein, “Profiles: Physicist—I,” p. 70.

3
. Paul Ewald interview with Charles Weiner, May 17–24, 1968, Oral History Collection, Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics (hereafter cited as OHC, NBL, AIP), College Park, Md.

4
. Quotes are in William L. Shirer,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
(Simon and Schuster, 1960; reprint, Fawcett Crest Books), pp. 345–346.

5
. John von Neumann to Oswald Veblen, June 19, 1933, Oswald Veblen Papers (hereafter cited as OVP), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (hereafter cited as MDLOC), Washington, D.C. Hitler quote is in Edward Y. Hartshorne, Jr.,
The German Universities and National Socialism
(Allen and Unwin, 1937), p.112.

6
. Quoted in Weart and Szilard,
Leo Szilard
, p. 5.

7
. Ibid., p. 4.

8
. “Outline,” Leo Szilard Papers, Mandeville Special Collections Department, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego (hereafter cited as LSP, MSCD, GL, UCSD).

9
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, p. 49.

10
. Leo Szilard to I. I. Rabi, July 1, 1932, I. I. Rabi Papers (hereafter cited as IIRP), Box 7, MDLOC.

11
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, p. 116.

12
. Quoted in Weart and Szilard,
Leo Szilard
, p. 17.

13
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, pp. 134–135.

14
. Leo Szilard to Hugo Hirst, March 17, 1934, quoted in ibid., p. 38.

15
. “Atom Energy Hope Is Spiked by Einstein,”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, December 29, 1934.

16
. Quoted in the
New York Times
(hereafter cited as
NYT
), April 13, 1935.

17
. Lord Rutherford,
The Newer Alchemy
(Cambridge University Press, 1937), p. 65.

18
. Maurice Goldhaber interview with Gloria Lubkin and Charles Weiner, January 10, 1966, OHC, NBL, AIP.

19
. Leo Szilard to Gertrud Weiss, March 26, 1936, quoted in Weart and Szilard,
Leo Szilard
, p. 38.

20
. Author’s interview with Rose Bethe and Jane Wilson, Ithaca, N.Y., June 8, 1997.

21
. Quoted in Segrè,
Enrico Fermi, Physicist
, p. 98.

22
. Lanouette with Silard,
Genius in the Shadows
, p. 175.