Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians

From the Editor: Preserving the Manhattan Project Cynthia C. Kelly, President, Atomic Heritage Foundation......Page 13
Introduction: Richard Rhodes, Author, The Making of the Atomic Bomb......Page 16
Section One: Explosive Discoveries and Bureaucratic Inertia......Page 18
Thinking No Pedestrian Thoughts, Richard Rhodes......Page 20
The Atomic Bombs Burst in Their Fumbling Hands, H. G. Wells......Page 23
If Only We Had Been Clever Enough, Leona Marshall Libby......Page 25
What Wasn’t Expected Wasn’t Seen!, Edward Teller......Page 29
I Had Come Close But Had Missed a Great Discovery, Philip Abelson......Page 32
Enlisting Einstein, William Lanouette......Page 37
Albert Einstein to F.D. Roosevelt, Albert Einsten and Franklin D. Roosevelt......Page 42
A Practically Irresistible Super-Bomb, Otto R. Frisch and Rudolf Peierls......Page 45
Working for Otto Frisch, J. Wechsler......Page 49
Likely to Lead to Decisive Results, The MAUD Report, March 1941......Page 50
Wild Notions about Atom Bombs, G. Pascal Zachary......Page 55
Transatlantic Travails, Andrew Brown......Page 59
Section Two: An Unprecedented Alliance......Page 66
The Rather Fuzzy State of Our Thinking, James G. Hershberg......Page 68
The Stuff Will Be More Powerful Than We Thought, Vannevar Bush......Page 72
You’ll Never Get a Chain Reaction Going Here, Richard Rhodes......Page 74
The Chicago Pile-1: The First Chain Reaction, Enrico Fermi......Page 78
Fermi Was Cool as a Cucumber, Crawford Greenewalt......Page 82
Proceeding in the Dark, General Leslie R. Groves......Page 84
Swimming in Syrup, Robert Jungk......Page 87
The Los Alamos Primer: How to Make an Atomic Bomb, Robert Serber......Page 90
These Were Very Great Men Indeed, Richard Feynman......Page 91
Misunderstandings and Anxieties, Stephane Groueff......Page 94
A Weapon of Devastating Power . . . Will Soon Become Available, Niels Bohr to Winston Churchill......Page 96
One Top Secret Agreement Too Many, Winston Churchill......Page 99
Section Three: An Extraordinary Pair......Page 102
His Potential Outweighed Any Security Risk, General Leslie R. Groves......Page 104
Scientific Director for the Special Laboratory in New Mexico, James B. Conant and General Leslie R. Groves to J. Robert Oppenheimer......Page 107
When You Looked at Captain Groves, a Little Alarm Bell Rang “Caution,” Robert S. Norris......Page 111
Decisive, Confident, and Cool, Robert DeVore......Page 112
A Bureaucratic Warrior of the First Rank, Robert S. Norris......Page 113
The Biggest S.O.B., Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols......Page 114
Not Right—Do It Again., Colonel John Lansdale Jr......Page 116
The Absentminded Professor, Berkeley Gazette , February 14, 1934......Page 117
His Head Wreathed in a Cloud of Smoke, Edward Gerjuoy......Page 119
A Psychiatrist by Vocation and a Physicist by Avocation, Jeremy Bernstein.......Page 122
The Most Compelling Man, Jennet Conant......Page 123
Appeasing General Groves, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin......Page 129
Visions of Immortality, Robert S. Norris......Page 132
An Audacious Gamble, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin......Page 133
When Robert Oppenheimer Walked onto the Page, Joseph Kanon......Page 136
Doctor Atomic: The Myth and the Man, John Adams......Page 140
A Cascade of Different Oppenheimers, Jon Else......Page 142
Section Four: Secret Cities......Page 144
A New and Uncertain Adventure in the Wilderness, Stephane Groueff......Page 146
A Crazy Place to Do Any War Thing, Stirling Colgate......Page 149
Excitement, Devotion, and Patriotism Prevailed, J. Robert Oppenheimer......Page 150
The Case of the Vanishing Physicists, Stanislaw Ulam......Page 151
Learning on the Job, Rebecca Diven......Page 152
Life at P. O. Box 1663, Ruth Marshak......Page 155
A Boy’s Adventures at Los Alamos, Dana Mitchell......Page 159
Something Extraordinary Was Happening Here, Katrina Mason......Page 164
A Relief from the Hubbub of the Hill, Katrina Mason......Page 167
An SED at Los Alamos, Benjamin Bederson......Page 168
A Bad Time to Get a New Boss, Joseph Kanon......Page 171
Making Toilet Paper, Roger Rohrbacher......Page 175
Termination Winds, Michele Gerber......Page 176
Whoever Gets There First Will Win the War, Leon Overstreet......Page 178
The Whole Project Was Like a Three-Legged Stool, Walter Simon......Page 180
Cover Stories, Colonel Franklin T. Matthias......Page 183
K-25 Plant: Forty-four Acres and a Mile Long, William J. Wilcox......Page 184
Tennessee Girls on the Job, Colleen Black......Page 187
Ode to Life Behind the Fence, Clifford and Colleen Black......Page 188
Operating Oak Ridge’s “Calutrons,” Theodore Rockwell......Page 191
Men, Write Home for Christmas, Norman Brown......Page 193
An Answer to Their Prayers, Valeria Steele......Page 195
All-Black Crews with White Foremen, Robert Bauman......Page 198
Manhattan Project Sites in Manhattan, Robert S. Norris......Page 203
Manhattan Project Sites in Washington, D.C., Robert S. Norris......Page 206
Monsanto’s Playhouse for Polonium, Stephane Groueff......Page 208
Mysteries at the Met Lab, Isabella Karle......Page 210
Section Five: Secrecy, Intelligence, and Counterintelligence......Page 213
Unprecedented Security Measures, Robert S. Norris......Page 215
Security: A Headache on the Hill, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin......Page 218
Mrs. Farmer, I Presume, Laura Fermi......Page 221
As If They Were Walking in the Woods, Colonel John Lansdale Jr......Page 223
Electric Rocket Story Fails to Launch, Charlotte Serber......Page 224
A Spy in Our Midst, Laura Fermi......Page 228
Never in Our Wildest Dreams, Lilli Hornig......Page 231
The Youngest Spies, Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel......Page 232
Enormoz Espionage, Gregg Herken......Page 235
Undercover Agents at Berkeley, Gregg Herken......Page 239
Jump Start for the Soviets, David Holloway; Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel......Page 240
Holes in the Security Fence, Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel......Page 243
A Calming Role for the Counterintelligence Corps, Thomas O. Jones......Page 245
The Alsos Mission: Scientists as Sleuths, Robert S. Norris......Page 246
From France to the Black Forest: Seeking Atomic Scientists, Richard Rhodes......Page 248
I Have Been Expecting You, Colonel John Lansdale Jr......Page 251
Section Six: The Trinity Test......Page 254
Leaving the Bomb Project, Joseph Rotblat......Page 256
Anticipating the End of War, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin......Page 259
Scientists Will Be Held Responsible, Arthur Holly Compton......Page 262
Advising Against the Bomb, The Franck Report, June 1945......Page 263
No Acceptable Alternative, The Interim Committee Report, June 1945......Page 266
Scientists Petition the President, Leo Szilard and Other Scientists......Page 267
Watching Trinity, Brigadier General Thomas Farrell and General Leslie R. Groves......Page 270
Babysitting the Bomb, Don Hornig......Page 274
A Handful of Soldiers at Trinity, Val Fitch......Page 276
Eyewitness Accounts of the Trinity Test, Edwin McMillan, Kenneth Greisen, Enrico Fermi, Maurice Shapiro, Robert Serber......Page 284
Violence without Limit, Joseph Kanon......Page 286
Section Seven: Dropping the Bombs......Page 289
Aiming for Military and Psychological Effects, Target Committee......Page 291
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz: Born Too Soon, Frederick L. Ashworth......Page 293
The 509th Composite Group at Tinian Island, Stephen Walker......Page 295
Official Bombing Order, 25 July, 1945, Thos. T. Handy......Page 298
A Very Sobering Event, Operational History of the 509th Bombardment......Page 300
Massive Pain, Suffering, and Horror, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa......Page 302
Miss Yamaoka, You Look Like a Monster, Richard B. Frank......Page 304
For All We Know, We Have Created a Frankenstein!, Paul Boyer......Page 307
The Battle of the Laboratories, President Harry S Truman......Page 309
The Culmination of Years of Herculean Effort, Henry L. Stimson......Page 313
Eyewitness over Nagasaki, William Laurence......Page 316
It Was Over!, Lieutenant Colonel Fred J. Olivi......Page 322
The Atomic Bomb’s Peculiar “Disease,” George Weller......Page 325
Section Eight: Reflections on the Bomb......Page 330
Outwitting General Groves, Harold Agnew......Page 332
Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer......Page 334
You Have Done Excellent Work, J. Robert Oppenheimer......Page 341
A Citizen’s Guide to the Atomic Bomb: The Smyth Report, Henry DeWolf Smyth......Page 342
Hersey’s Hiroshima , John Hersey......Page 344
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, Henry L. Stimson......Page 348
History Is Often Not What Actually Happened, Barton J. Bernstein......Page 354
A Question of Motives, Patrick M. S. Blackett......Page 355
Thank God for the Atom Bomb, Paul Fussell......Page 360
The Return to Nothingness, Felix Morley......Page 364
The Bomb in National Memories, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa......Page 365
Hiroshima in History, J. Samuel Walker......Page 371
Why Does This Decision Continue to Haunt Us?, Gar Alperovitz......Page 377
Section Nine: Living with the Bomb......Page 382
On The International Control of Atomic Energy, Acheson-Lilienthal Report, March 1946......Page 384
Open Letter to the United Nations, Niels Bohr, June 1950......Page 389
I Hope Not a Soul Will Remember My Name, Paul Mullins, “Louis Slotin Sonata”......Page 397
Atoms for Peace, Dwight D. Eisenhower, December 1953......Page 399
A Cold War Warning: The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 1955......Page 404
A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn......Page 408
The Nuclear Threat, Mikhail Gorbachev......Page 413
Thoughts on a 21st-Century Manhattan Project, George A. Cowan......Page 416
Chronology......Page 419
Biographies......Page 425
Bibliography......Page 437
Index......Page 444
Text Credits......Page 466