15. Birge to Oppenheimer, Apr. 6, 1963, box 20, JRO.
16. Rabi to Oppenheimer, Apr. 5, 1963, box 59, JRO.
17. Lilienthal (1969), 307.
18. Wrote Lilienthal in his dairy, following a visit to Oppenheimer in early 1961: “The tension in him about the problems we were asked to face sixteen years ago is gone. It shows in his manner, in his face and voice. The reason: ‘There is nothing I can do about what is going on; I would be the worst person to speak out about them in any case.’” Lilienthal (1971), 275.
19. Transcript of Childs interview with Oppenheimer, Apr. 27, 1963, Oppenheimer folder, box 1, Childs papers.
20. Bohm to Oppenheimer, Dec. 2, 1966, box 20, JRO.
21. Thomas Cochran et al., Nuclear Weapons Databoook, vol. 1, U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities (Ballinger, 1984), 7–9.
22. Origins of neutron bomb: Morse to Henry Jackson, July 18, 1961, and Strauss to Morse, July 21, 1961, box 1, John Morse papers, Hoover Institution Library. In an appeal to presidential candidates in 1960, Thomas Murray cited the need to develop “a ‘third generation’ weapon, as radically different from the H-bomb as the H-bomb was from the Hiroshima-type A-bomb.” The next day, Rabi and Bethe were among the first to denounce the neutron bomb. Press release, Nov. 4, 1960; “Four Top Scientists Deny Neutron Bomb Potential,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 5, 1960, folder 24, carton 22, EOL.
23. Origins of SDI: Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War (Simon and Schuster, 2000); Herken (1992), 199–216, and “The Earthly Origins of Star Wars,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Oct. 1987, 20–28.
24. William Broad, Teller’s War: The Top-Secret Story Behind the Star Wars Deception (Simon and Schuster, 1992), 245–67; Teller (2001), 535–36.
25. Typed notes for “The Winter of Our Discontent,” n.d., Chevalier papers.
26. Chevalier had evidently come to believe that the premise of his 1965 novel, The Man Who Would Be God, was what had actually happened in Oppenheimer’s case: namely, that Groves used the Chevalier incident to blackmail Oppie into supporting the bombing of Hiroshima. Chevalier’s unpublished memoir was tentatively titled “The Bomb.” Chevalier to Jon Else, Jan. 6, 1981, Chevalier papers.
27. “Do what we may, by your unfathomable folly, you and I are linked together in a cloudy legend, which nothing, no fact, no explanation, no truth will ever unmake or unravel.” Chevalier to Oppenheimer, Dec. 13, 1954, box 200, JRO.
28. The FBI had evidently stopped its physical surveillance of Chevalier by the time he returned to California for his eightieth birthday, on Sept. 10, 1981. Frank attended the party with his new wife, Millie.
29. “Steve Nelson, Ex-Communist Tied to Ruling on Sedition, Dies at 90,” New York Times, Dec. 14, 1993; Robert Nelson and Josephine Yurck, Feb. 1, 2002, personal communication.
30. Lehman interview (1996).
31. Lomanitz interview (1996).
32. Stephen Schwartz, ed., Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 (Brookings, 1998), 3.
33. Cochran et al. (1984), vol. 1, 15; Stan Norris, “Table of USSR/Russian Nuclear Warheads: 1959–70/1971–96” (Natural Resources Defense Council, 1996).
34. Molly’s efforts were vigorously opposed by John Lawrence until his death in 1991. Molly Lawrence interview (1992).
35. Broad (1992), 55–56. Accounts differ on the results, which remain classified. Author interview with Robert Budwine, Livermore, Calif., June 5, 1997.
36. Interviews: Mark (1991) and Gerald Johnson (1991).
37. “Who Built the H-Bomb?: Debate Revives,” New York Times, Apr. 24, 2001.
38. In his memoirs, Edward would argue that he and the others who had first brought the atomic bomb to Einstein’s attention—Wigner and Szilard—had “a shared vision of needing the bomb to deter Hitler’s use of such a weapon,” whereas Oppenheimer had not only approved dropping the bomb on the enemy but had even lobbied for its use. Teller (2001), 376, 395–96.
39. Schweber (2000), 107–14. Bethe once made the observation that there are two things that warped Teller—being denied power and attaining it. Bethe interview (1996).
40. The declassification of Bethe’s 1954 article on the Super and of Teller’s reply revived their decades-old debate over the H-bomb. Bethe, “Comments on the History of the H-bomb,” Los Alamos Science, fall 1982, 43–53; Broad, “Rewriting the History of the H-bomb, Science, Nov. 19, 1982, 769–72; Broad, “Hans Bethe Confronts the Legacy of His Bomb,” New York Times, June 12, 1984.
41. “National Defense and the Scientists: An Open Letter to Hans Bethe from Edward Teller,” Policy Review, Mar. 1987.
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———. Berkeley, Calif., Jan. 21, 1998.
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