7. Anne Fitzpatrick, Igniting the Light Elements: The Los Alamos Thermonuclear Weapons Project, 1942–1952 (University Microfilms, 1998), 57–60.
8. Seaborg (1992), vol. 1, 73.
9. Bethe believed that Teller’s personality underwent a change in 1932, when Edward was humiliated by physicist George Placzek while studying in Rome: “Placzek treated Teller very roughly. He made fun of him.” Author interview with Hans Bethe, Santa Barbara, Calif., Feb. 12, 1988.
10. Bethe: Schweber (2000), 76–104; Rhodes (1986), 188–90; Blumberg and Owens (1976), 108.
11. Blumberg and Owens (1976), 75–76.
12. Teller to Fermi, July 17, 1942, “Enrico Fermi, 7/17/42–5/17/44” folder, box 74–17, LANL.
13. Berkeley seminar: Fitzpatrick (1998), 58; Eldred Nelson interview (1999).
14. Serber (1998), 68–69; Eldred Nelson interview (1999).
15. Bethe’s theories of how the stars produced their energy would win him a Nobel prize the following year.
16. Bethe claimed that he and Teller worked together to restrain Serber, “who was trying to make things too complicated.” Bethe interview (1988).
17. Serber interview (1992).
18. Oppenheimer evidently left in such a hurry that the exact purpose of his mission remained unclear to those he left behind. Both the H-bomb and the possibility of setting fire to the atmosphere fit the description of “very disturbing news” that Oppenheimer had hurriedly and cryptically given Compton over the phone.
19. “Better to accept the slavery of the Nazis than to run a chance of drawing the final curtain down on mankind!” was how Compton remembered their thinking in his memoirs. Teller disputes Compton’s version. Compton (1956), 128; Teller (2001), 160.
20. Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 102.
21. Serber subsequently described the seminar as “very lively” and even “a lot of fun.” Serber (1992), xxxi.
22. Teller had not overlooked the inverse Compton effect but believed that it occurred too slowly to have an impact upon the reaction. Bethe claimed that he proved otherwise. Bethe interview (1988).
23. Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 104, 675 fn.; ITMOJRO, 11; Rhodes (1986), 420–21.
24. Rhodes (1986), 421.
25. Oppenheimer evidently belonged to the ranks of the doubters. Jones (1985), 58–59.
26. “The W[ar] D[epartment] has turned thumbs down on O[ppenheimer] by telephone,” Compton’s secretary informed him. Memorandum of conversation, Aug. 18, 1942, box 1, JRO/AEC.
27. Oppenheimer clearance: “Subject: Oppenheimer, J. Robert,” various documents, box 1, JRO/AEC records; “The Counter Intelligence Corps with Special Projects,” vol. 8, 62, History of the Counter Intelligence Corps (U.S. Army Intelligence Center, Fort Holabird, Md., n.d.), Modern Military Records, National Archives.
28. Oppenheimer to Conant, Oct. 12, 1942, no. 140, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA. Wensel to Lawrence, Sept. 1, 1942, and Lawrence to Wensel, Sept. 9, 1942, no. 140, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA.
29. Oppenheimer to Conant, Oct. 12, 1942, no. 140, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA.
30. “Report of S-1 Meeting,” June 25, 1942, no. 120, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA.
31. Aug. 15, 1942, memos, box 39, Sproul papers.
32. Harold Fidler, Jan. 14, 1997, personal communication.
33. “Minutes of Fifth Meeting,” Sept. 13–14, 1942, no. 117, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA; Leslie Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (Harper, 1962), 18.
34. Heilbron, Seidel, and Wheaton (1981), 32; Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 141–44.
35. Childs (1968), 379, 383–84.
36. “Report on Multiple Mass Spectrograph,” Sept. 13, 1942, folder 4, carton 29, EOL; Childs (1968), 336.
37. Smyth (1989), 82–83; Groves (1962), 3–4.
38. K. D. Nichols, The Road to Trinity: A Personal Account of How America’s Nuclear Policies Were Made (Morrow, 1987), 42–43.
39. Groves (1962), 22.
40. Transcript of interview with Vannevar Bush, reel 7, 422, Bush papers, MIT.
41. Lansdale interview; Lansdale, “Military Service,” 23–24.
42. Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 83.
43. Seaborg (1992), vol. 1, 279.
44. Serber (1992), xxxii.
45. ITMOJRO, 12.
46. Groves (1962), 61–62; ITMOJRO, 166.
47. Davis, 146; transcript of interview with Edwin McMillan, 207, Bancroft Library.
48. Lawrence Badash et al., eds., Reminiscences of Los Alamos, 1943–1945 (Reidel, 1985), 13.
49. “Report of Special Agent Robert Stepp,” Sept. 20, 1942, box 1, JRO/AEC.
50. Alvarez (1987), 78.
51. Groves (1962), 61.
52. Compton (1956), 130; Childs (1968), 337.
53. Goodchild (1980), 66.
54. San Francisco field report, Feb. 10, 1943, file, box 1, JRO/AEC.
55. Oppenheimer to Bethe, Oct. 19, 1942, box 20, JRO.
56. Teller (2001), 163–64.
57. Teller to Oppenheimer, Mar. 6, 1943, Teller file, LANL; Rabi to Oppenheimer, Mar. 8, 1943, box 59, JRO.
58. Telegram, Oppenheimer to Dudley, Nov. 10, 1942, folder 29, carton 8, EOL.
59. Badash et al. (1985), 1–20; Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 229.
60. Badash et al. (1985), 13–20.
61. Jones (1985), 85.
62. Conant to Bush, Nov. 20, 1942, no. 140, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA.
63. Oppenheimer’s medical history: Memo to record, Jan. 15, 1943, box 100, series 8, MED/NARA; Harold Fidler, Jan. 14, 1997, personal communication.
64. Smith and Weiner (1980), 247.
65. Oppenheimer to Rabi, box 59, JRO. Bacher agreed to join the lab but promised to quit the day that the army took it over.
66. Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 237.
67. Lillian Hoddeson et al., Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945 (Cambridge University Press, 1993), 57–58; Badash et al. (1985), 21–40.
68. Oppenheimer to Robert Underhill, Mar. 8, 1943, folder 1, box 14, Robert Underhill papers, LANL.
69. Smith and Weiner (1980), 243.
70. Childs (1968), 351.
71. Underhill: Transcript of “Robert Underhill: Contract Negotiations for the University of California,” (Underhill interview) box 2, Underhill papers, Bancroft Library; “Transcript of Robert Underhill Memoirs,” Underhill papers, LANL.
72. “Transcript of Robert Underhill Memoirs,” Underhill papers, LANL.
73 Underhill interview, 18; box 2, Underhill papers, Bancroft Library.
74. Jones (1985), 126; Norton to Groves, Jan. 14, 1943, Organization and Administration file, MED History, U.S. Army Chief of Staff records (Army/NARA), RG 319, National Archives.
75. Sproul to Conant, Jan. 26, 1943, no. 96, Bush-Conant file, OSRD/NARA.
76. Irwin Stewart to Underhill, Jan. 23, 1943, and Sproul to Underhill, Feb. 10, 1943, folder 1, box 14, Underhill papers, LANL.
77. The deal was informally sealed on February 22, 1943. A separate contract was negotiated for Lawrence’s Calutrons. Underhill to Stewart, March 15, 1945, folder 4, box 13, Underhill papers, LANL.
78. Hewlett and Anderson (1990), 109.
79. Lawrence to Conant, Nov. 23, 1942, file 201c, series 5, MED/NARA.
80. Victor Bergeron, Frankly Speaking: Trader Vic’s Own Story (Doubleday, 1973); Harold
