16. Pfau (1984), 129.
17. Entry, Aug. 6, 1950, Glennan diary, Keith Glennan papers, AEC/NARA.
18. Bernstein (1990), 1414 fn; Anders (1987), 117–18.
19. Oppenheimer to Dean, Oct. 13, 1951, no. 74703; minutes, GAC no. 27, Oct. 13, 1951, no. 74703, CIC/DOE.
20. Thomas Murray: Hewlett and Duncan (1990), 466; Thomas E. Murray, Nuclear Policy for War and Peace (World Publishing, 1960), 15–17, and The Predicament of Our Age: The Impact of the Atom on the Relationship Between Man and the World in which He Lives (n.p., 1955). The author thanks Bradley Murray for a copy of his father’s privately published book of speeches, and Jack Crawford for access to Thomas Murray’s personal papers.
21. Teller and Brown (1962), 53.
22. “From the looks of the faces around me, one would think I had exploded such a device in the conference room,” Murray wrote in his diary. Diary of Thomas E. Murray (TEM diary), vol. 2, pt. 1, 4, Thomas Murray papers, Rockville, Md. (private collection).
23. Ibid., vol. 2, pt. 2, 7–8.
24. Murray to Dean, June 21, 1951, AEC/NARA; TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 12.
25. Smyth et al. to Dean, Aug. 15, 1951, no. 74410, and Dean to Snapp, Aug. 28, 1951, no. 74407, and “Status Report,” n.d., no. 74402, CIC/DOE; TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 23–24.
26. That fall, McMahon shepherded through the Senate a nonbinding resolution to “go all-out in atomic development and production.” “Biography,” McMahon papers; Dean to Lawrence, Sept. 19, 1951, folder 32, carton 30, EOL.
27. “The Deterrent Value of Atoms,” May 20, 1952, no. 2812, JCAE.
28. TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 1, 8.
29. Joe-2 was the first indigenous Soviet design and was similar to the Mark IV implosion bomb exploded by the United States in the 1948 Sandstone tests. Joe-3 was the Russians’ first composite core—utilizing enriched uranium and plutonium—and had twice the yield of the Nagasaki bomb. “H-bomb Status Report,” Sept. 28, 1951, no. CDXVIII, JCAE. Joe-2 and Joe-3: Rhodes (1995), 482 fn.; Holloway (1994), 219; “Preliminary Analysis…,” Nov. 27, 1951, series 26, USAF/NARA.
30. McMahon to Dean, Oct. 5, 1951, no. 2392, JCAE; TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 27; “Meeting with the President,” Oct. 5, 1951, Murray papers.
31. Anders (1987), 176.
32. Minutes, Dec. 14, 1951, GAC no. 28, no. 73278, CIC/DOE; Teller and Brown (1962), 59.
33. TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 41–43. Oppenheimer’s summary of the meeting neglected even to mention the second lab discussion. Oppenheimer to Dean, Dec. 14, 1952, no. 74702, CIC/DOE.
34. TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 43–44.
35. Minutes of meeting, June 30, 1951, folder 15, carton 33, EOL; transcript of interview with Cliff Bacigalupi, LLNL.
36. Walker to files, Nov. 19, 1951, no. 2472, JCAE.
37. Mansfield to files, June 15, 1951, no. 2141, JCAE.
38. Asked if he would be willing to personally lead the effort for six months to a year, Lawrence “offered no strenuous objection.” TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 45.
39. Minutes, Dec. 14, 1951, folder 3, box 171, Neylan papers.
40. Neylan interview, May 6, 1960, box 2, Childs papers.
41. Oppenheimer once compared the university’s administering of a weapons laboratory to the monastic orders that made a profit from the manufacture of liqueurs. Daniel Kevles, “Cold War and Hot Physics: Science, Security, and the American State, 1945–56,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 20, no. 2 (1990), 243.
42. Herbert York, “The Origins of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory,” 17, May 1975, unpublished manuscript, Herbert York papers, Special Collections, University of California, San Diego (La Jolla), Calif.; York (1987), 62–64.
43. York added research on fusion as a source of energy—an area which many physicists, including Teller, regarded as promising—to his list as a recruiting tactic. Untitled document, n.d., “Herb York: Personnel Notes on Establishing LLNL” folder, box 184, LLNL; Childs (1968), 443.
44. Teller (2001), 337. Lawrence told Duane Sewell that the laboratory he envisioned would not be building bombs. Hewlett and Duncan (1990), 582; interviews: Fidler (1992), Sewell (1993), and Teller (July 30, 1993).
45. Teller to Lawrence, Feb. 7, 1952, folder 9, carton 17, EOL; Teller to Murray, Feb. 7, 1952, Murray papers.
46. TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 52.
47. Minutes, AEC no. 639, Dec. 19, 1951, AEC/NARA.
48. TEM diary, vol. 2, pt. 2, 47–53; H-bomb Chronology, 74, and “Status of Hydrogen Project,” Feb. 21, 1952, no. CDLXIX, with attachments, JCAE.
49. H-bomb Chronology, 71–72, JCAE.
50. Walker to Borden, Feb. 21, 1952, no. 2665, JCAE.
51. Griggs: Ivan Getting and John Christie, “David Tressel Griggs, 1911–1974” (National Academy Press, 1994); author interview with Ivan Getting, La Jolla, Calif., Mar. 13, 1997.
52. Polonium airplane: Walker to file, May 28, 1952, no. DXIII, and June 19, 1952, no. 2890, JCAE.
53. “Mr. X loses his job if the fact of the interview … becomes known,” Borden cautioned McMahon. Walker and Borden to McMahon, Apr. 4, 1952, no. CDXCIX, JCAE.
54. Griggs notes, n.d., file 360.11, series 10, USAF/NARA.
55. Teller (2001), 336–37; Teller and Brown (1962), 59; Walkowicz to Assistant Chief of Staff, Aug. 3, 1951, file 334.5, series 10, USAF/NARA.
56. Lovett to McMahon, Mar. 9, 1952, no. CDLXII, JCAE.
57. Teller briefing: Mansfield to file, Feb. 12, 1953, no. DXCIII, JCAE; Griggs notes, n.d., file 360.11, series 10, USAF/NARA; RAND R-237, “Implications of Large-Yield Nuclear Weapons,” July 10, 1952, 1952 file, box 3, Fred Kaplan donation, National Security Archives, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
58. RAND R-237, Kaplan donation, National Security Archives; Teller and Brown (1962), 60–61.
59. “Memorandum for the Record,” Mar. 11, 1952, folder 3, series 18; and Griggs’s notes, n.d., file 360.11, series 10, USAF/NARA.
60. Lovett’s memo was drafted by Griggs. Alexander et al. to Lovett, Mar. 27, 1952; and Foster to Acheson, Mar. 28, 1952, Thermonuclear Weapons Program file, series 184, OSD/NARA.
61. Dean wrote in his diary: “Teller has end-runned it again. He is taking the occasion to go off on the second lab question again. These poor guys topside … don’t know what it is all about. I live with it every day and I think I do know.” Anders
