59. “One extraordinary thing about this case is that, while I seem to occupy such an important role in it, no one has seen fit to ask me to contribute my two-bits worth,” Chevalier wrote to Oppie’s lawyer after the hearing. Chevalier to Garrison, Aug. 5, 1954, courtesy of Priscilla McMillan.
60. The AEC’s historians remarked upon this fact in their account of the Oppenheimer hearing: “Curiously, Robb had been inexplicably gentle when it came to pressing Oppenheimer, Groves, and Lansdale for the facts concerning Frank Oppenheimer’s involvement in the Chevalier affair.” Hewlett and Holl (1989), 100. Garrison thought that Oppie was just “a bad liar and he got confused and the story bit by bit crystallized into something he had not intended to portray.… I tried to get him to let me argue this way to the Board, but for some reason which I have never quite understood he was reluctant to have me do so.” Garrison to Charles Curtis, Aug. 17, 1954, courtesy of Priscilla McMillan.
61. Bernstein (1990), 1463.
62. Belmont to Boardman, Apr. 17, 1954, sec. 26, JRO/FBI.
63. Apr. 16, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
64. Hewlett and Holl (1989), 89–90; “Dr. Oppenheimer Suspended by AEC in Security Review,” New York Times, Apr. 13, 1954.
65. Strauss was attempting to “head off” a Senate investigation of Oppenheimer, David Teeple informed the bureau. Belmont to Boardman, Apr. 22, 1954, sec. 30, JRO/FBI; Hoover to Waters, May 3, 1954, file C, vol. 9, box 3, JRO/AEC; Crouch to Jenner, n.d., sec. 32, JRO/FBI.
66. Boardman to Hoover, Apr. 23, 1954, sec. 32, JRO/FBI; Waters to Hoover, May 1, 1954, box 3, JRO/AEC.
67. In an attempt to prove that Oppenheimer could not have been at the Kenilworth Court meeting, Garrison produced Hans Bethe, who testified that he had been at Perro Caliente with the Oppenheimers in July 1941. As Dorothy McKibben’s notebooks confirm, however, Bethe spent only one day at the ranch, departing Friday morning, July 25, when Kitty drove Oppie to St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe. My thanks to Nancy Steeper for allowing me access to McKibben’s notebooks.
68. Hoover later sent a transcript of the interview to the attorney general. Hoover to Brownell, Apr. 16, 1954, sec. 25, JRO/FBI.
69. Apr. 19, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers. Wyman was on vacation in Italy when the hearing began. The diplomat, when finally located, refused to implicate Oppenheimer in a plot to assist Chevalier. Legal attaché, Paris to FBI, Apr. 17 and 19, 1954, sec. 30, JRO/FBI.
70. The Oppenheimer wiretaps also prompted an internal debate within the FBI, but “Strauss requested that ‘tech’ be continued for about 2 weeks, till after hearing,” Belmont wrote. Branigan to Belmont, Apr. 9, 1954, sec. 25; Branigan to Belmont, Apr. 7, 1954, supplemental releases, and Feb. 2, 1954, memo, sec. 19, JRO/FBI.
71. Belmont to Boardman, Apr. 21, 1954, sec. 28, JRO/FBI.
72. Bush to Conant, June 17, 1954, Conant folder, box 27, Bush papers, MIT.
73. ITMOJRO, 562–67. Transcript of Vannevar Bush interview, reel 10, Bush papers, MIT; Oppenheimer to Bush, n.d. [Jan. 1952?], box 23, JRO.
74. Hershberg (1993), 680.
75. Teletype, Apr. 23, 1954, sec. 31, JRO/FBI.
76. Hennrich to Belmont, Apr. 23, 1954, supplemental releases, JRO/FBI.
77. Apr. 23, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
78. “Summary for Apr. 6, 1954,” sec. 25, JRO/FBI.
79. Apr. 23, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
80. Apr. 24, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
81. Strauss to Teller, June 6, 1961, folder 3, box 4, Edward Teller papers, Hoover Institutution Library, Stanford, Calif. Lawrence-Teller meeting: Lawrence day books, folder 9a, carton 11, EOL; Teller interview (July 30, 1993). Tolman affair: Molly Lawrence, May 20, 1997, personal communication. In 1957, following a conversation with Lawrence, Strauss wrote that Oppenheimer “first earned [Ernest’s] disapproval a number of years ago when he seduced the wife of Prof Tolman at Caltech. According to Dr. Lawrence, it was a notorious affair which lasted for enough time for it to become apparent to Dr. Tolman who died of a broken heart.” Strauss to file, Dec. 9, 1957, box 1, LLS/HHPL. Tolman died in Sept. 1948 at age 67, following a stroke.
82. ITMOJRO, 468.
83. Author interview with Clarence Larson, Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 1992, Rabi to Strauss, Aug. 24, 1953, no. 73455, CIC/DOE.
84. Bethe to Oppenheimer, Apr. 22, 1954, box 20, JRO.
85. Apr. 26, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
86. Transcript of Alvarez interview, box 1, Childs papers.
87. Larson interview (1992); Childs, (1968), 471.
88. Alvarez (1987), 180; Alvarez to Nichols, Apr. 27, 1954, folder 11, carton 32, EOL.
89. ITMOJRO, 662.
90. Teller interview (July 30, 1993); Teller (2001), 373.
91. Teller interview (July 30, 1993).
92. Jan. 31, 1954, TEM diary, Murray papers.
93. Heslep to Strauss, May 3, 1954, LLS/HHPL.
94. Apr. 24, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers.
95. Apr. 27, 1954, Nichols diary, Nichols papers; Teller to Strauss, Dec. 15, 1963, LLS/HHPL; Robb, “Memorandum for the Files,” July 24, 1967, folder 80, box 4, Nichols papers.
96. Hans Bethe’s hope that he might persuade Teller to speak on Oppenheimer’s behalf was promptly shattered that night, when Hans and Rose encountered Teller at the APS meeting, fresh from meeting with Robb. It was, Bethe would later recall, “the most unpleasant conversation of my whole life.” Cited in Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe (Harper and Row, 1979), 90.
97. ITMOJRO, 710.
98. Ibid., 726; Teller (2001), 352–53, 396.
99. ITMOJRO, 679.
100. Ibid., 969.
101. Belmont to Boardman, May 3, 1954, sec. 32, JRO/FBI.
102. Belmont to Boardman, May 10, 1954, sec. 33, JRO/FBI.
103. Hoover-SAC Newark, May 12, 1954, sec. 33, JRO/FBI.
18: Like Going to a New Country
1. Hoover to Waters, May 20, 1954, sec. 34, JRO/FBI.
2. ITMOJRO, 981.
3. Ibid. 887–88.
4. Stern (1969), 303; Bernstein (1990), 1470.
5. Hennrich to Belmont, May 20, 1954, sec. 40, JRO/FBI.
6. Gray board to Nichols, May 27, 1954, sec. 37, JRO/FBI.
7. Belmont to Boardman, June 2, 1954, sec. 37, JRO/FBI.
8. Evans’s draft opinion was so poorly written and was so weak in argument that Gray feared it might discredit the whole proceeding. Accordingly, he asked Robb to rewrite it. Bernstein (1990), 1472–73; Stern (1969), 386–88.
9. Belmont to Boardman, May 24, 1954, sec. 36, JRO/FBI.
10. Transcript, May 12,
