February 3, 2023 Newsletter
This issue highlights the exoneration of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. In December, the Secretary vacated the Atomic Energy Commission’s 1954 decision to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
In recognition of Black History Month in February, the issue notes the challenges and contributions of Black people who worked on the Manhattan Project.
An In Memoriam pays tribute to Manhattan Project veteran Benjamin Bederson who died at 101 in January. Of the 16 million World War II veterans, 167,000 are still alive, less than 0.01 percent. We are losing the last of the Greatest Generation.
This newsletter also features the moving of the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been since the clock’s debut in 1947. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in August, the war in Ukraine poses a nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.
With the new “Oppenheimer” movie opening in July, we are expecting a big surge of interest in the Manhattan Project. Recently, the three Manhattan Project sites were recognized by the Department of Interior as World War II Heritage Cities.
Finally, on March 18, 2023, the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History is hosting its 25th annual Einstein Gala. This year’s honoree is Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. For more details, read on!
OPPENHEIMER EXONERATED
In October 1949, J. Robert Oppenheimer was chairman of the Committee of Scientists reporting to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The nine scientists unanimously opposed a crash program to develop the “H” (hydrogen) or thermonuclear bomb, potentially a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb.
The Committee of Scientists believed the program was both technically premature and morally irresponsible. The decision infuriated Lewis Strauss, one of the five AEC commissioners, and triggered Oppenheimer’s undoing.
A Republican banker and businessman with little nuclear expertise, Lewis Strauss had a deep personal dislike for Oppenheimer. Strauss allied himself with Edward Teller who is often called “the father of the H-bomb.”
A brilliant Hungarian-born physicist, Edward Teller had been obsessed with a “Super” bomb while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Teller deeply resented Oppenheimer’s opposition to the H-bomb.
After the war, Teller collaborated with Ernest O. Lawrence, director of the University of California’s Berkeley laboratory, to create the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This was a second nuclear weapons laboratory to rival the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In 1953, Fortune magazine published an anonymous story, “The Hidden Struggle for the H-Bomb.” Full of inaccuracies, the article accused Oppenheimer of obstructing the H-bomb program, allegedly blocking Teller and the Air Force at every turn.
In 1954, Strauss led the AEC’s hearings on Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
The 19 days of secret hearings were riddled with unfair and illegal procedures as Priscilla McMillan documents in The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race (2005). At the hearings, Edward Teller condemned Oppenheimer by testifying, “I would feel personally more secure if public matters would rest in other hands.”
The three-person commission revoked Oppenheimer’s security clearance by a 2-to-1 vote. The decision irreversibly damaged Oppenheimer’s career, barring the “father of the atomic bomb” from being part of national deliberations on nuclear issues.
The results of the hearing provoked outrage within the scientific community. David Lilienthal, a former Chairman of the AEC, wrote in his diary, “It is sad beyond words. They are so wrong, so terribly wrong, not only about Robert, but in their concept of what is required of wise public servants.” Los Alamos scientist Fred L. Ribe wrote a one-page letter, signed by 493 other colleagues, to President Dwight Eisenhower and the AEC commissioners objecting to the decision.
Tom Ribe, Fred’s son and currently chair of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee, and many others worked for decades to exonerate Oppenheimer. Attorney Jim Fitzpatrick of Santa Fe and Washington, DC worked pro bono on the case and was probably instrumental in the release of the redacted materials in 2014.
In 1954, the US had around 300 nuclear weapons. By the end of the 20th century, the US arsenal of nuclear weapons was around 70,000, a figure matched by the Soviet Union. As Richard Rhodes writes in Arsenals of Folly, a few hundred Super weapons were more than enough to wipe out most of the world.
On December 16, 2022, the Department of Energy’s Secretary Jennifer Granholm vacated the Atomic Energy Commission’s decision. The Department needed “to correct the historical record and honor Dr. Oppenheimer’s profound contributions to our national defense and the scientific enterprise at large.”
RECOGNIZING BLACK CONTRIBUTIONS
Thanks to vigorous lobbying by A. Philip Randolph and other Black leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 in 1941. The order barred discrimination in defense industries because of “race, creed, color, or national origin.” A clause prohibiting discrimination was written in all defense contracts.
While the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) placed a cap of 10 to 15% Black employees at any one site, over twenty-two thousand worked on the Manhattan Project. The prospect of higher-paying jobs and a better future drew many members of the Black community to the Manhattan Project. While their experience varied, racial discrimination often made life difficult.
As Jackie Peterson explains in “Jim Crow at Hanford,” there was no formal segregation in the Tri-Cities of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland. But through handshake deals between banks and real estate agents, Black people were forced to live in Pasco. Because the MED provided only one barrack and one bunkhouse for “colored personnel,” the rest had to live in makeshift residences such as trailers, tents, and shacks.
Kennewick was a “sundown” town where Black people were not permitted after sunset, a policy that was enforced by the Kennewick Police Department. Even in downtown Pasco approximately 80% of restaurants, soda fountains, and lunch counters would not serve Black people. They could not even get a hot meal in the place where they lived.
Black scientists working at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory run by the University of Chicago had a more equitable experience. Below is Jasper Jeffries pictured in his laboratory coat with Met Lab colleagues. Jeffries earned a MS in physical sciences from the University of Chicago and worked as a physicist at the Met Lab from 1943 to 1946.
Black workers, technicians, and scientists were integral to the project. Their contributions, from the plants of Hanford and Oak Ridge to the laboratories of Chicago and Columbia, helped bring World War II to an end. Their experiences are an essential part of the Manhattan Project story.
To learn more about the many Black contributions to the Manhattan Project, read our History page on African Americans and the Manhattan Project and watch the documentary films on “African-Americans and the Manhattan Project.”
IN MEMORIAM: BENJAMIN BEDERSON
Dr. Benjamin (“Ben”) Bederson of New York City passed away on January 6, 2023, at the age of 101. The Atomic Heritage Foundation was fortunate to know him well through two interviews (2011 and 2018) taken in his home in New York City and several Manhattan Project events.
Ben was born on November 15, 1921, to Lena and Abraham Bederson in New York, Jewish immigrants from Kyiv (Ukraine) and Minsk (Belarus) who fled Tsarist Russia just before the Revolution in 1917. Ben grew up on the Lower East Side in an “almost Communist neighborhood,” joining the Young Pioneers of America and selling the Communist “Daily Worker” newspaper. When he was only six or seven, he was already giving speeches on street corners about capitalists.
During the Depression, his father had trouble keeping a job as a restaurant worker. In 1932, he agreed to go back to Russia to work in the cafeteria of a ball bearing factory outside Moscow. The family soon discovered that the country was not the worker’s paradise of Soviet propaganda. Instead, the family was assigned a three-room apartment with another family and could barely afford enough to eat.
As a 12-year-old, Ben attended the Anglo-American School for children of foreigners. Much later he learned that most of his classmates amd their families perished in Siberia. Visiting an aunt in Kyiv, Ben was horrified by the starving children he saw in the streets. The Soviets deliberately starved the Ukrainian people for opposing Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s collectivization and other policies. An estimated 3.9 million Ukrainians, about 13 percent of the population, died. See photo below.
Ben longed to go back to New York City. Presciently, his mother had secretly sewn about $400 into the fly of Ben’s pants. Purchasing third-class tickets on The America, the family sailed home in 1934. Landing near the Statute of Liberty, Ben literally kissed the earth.
Ben developed a passion for science and studied physics at tuition-free City College of New York (CCNY) before volunteering for the draft in 1942. Immediately, the Army assigned him to become a tail gunner on a B-17, a job with a short life expectancy.
Fortunately, Ben was selected to be part of the Special Engineer Detachment and began working on the Manhattan Project. At Los Alamos, he worked with Philip B. Moon, a top British physicist, and Don Hornig, a distinguished young chemist. Eventually, he was assigned to Tinian Island. To his amazement, the streets were named and laid out like his beloved Manhattan.
As his obituary describes, Ben had an illustrious career in physics, becoming Chairman of the Physics Department and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University. He was editor-in-chief of Physical Review for ten years and helped scientist “refuseniks” in the Soviet Union publish their work and emigrate to the U.S.
In 2007, Ben took the train to Washington, DC with just a small backpack to do research on the life of Samuel A. Goudsmit for a monograph. Born in the Netherlands, Goudsmit was a theoretical physicist who became the scientific head of the Alsos Mission at the end of World War II.
Describing Goudsmit as intensely energetic, compassionate, and humble, Ben could have been writing about himself. His wife Betty, their four children and their families, remember Ben’s joy in life. Ben will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
90 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT
On January 24, 2023, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made its annual Doomsday Clock announcement. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight since its inception in 1947.
The Clock signifies the dangers posed by the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the breakdown of global institutions needed to address these risks. The Doomsday Clock committee wrote: “Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict—by accident, intention, or miscalculation—is a terrible risk.”
The Bulletin was founded after the end of World War II by Manhattan Project scientists in Chicago. Suzanne Langsdorf, daughter of the Bulletin co-founder Alexander Langsdorf, said the scientists were concerned to let the public know of the grave risks posed by nuclear weapons.
The Doomsday Clock first appeared on the cover of the Bulletin in 1947. The design was created by artist Martyl Langsdorf, Alexander Langsdorf’s wife. The clock has now become an iconic symbol of the nuclear age.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S OPPENHEIMER
“Oppenheimer” will be released in theaters on July 21, 2023! Already millions have watched the trailer online. Written and directed by award-winning Christopher Nolan, the film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as Kitty. Matt Damon plays General Leslie Groves Jr., and Robert Downey, Jr. is Lewis Strauss, who led the Atomic Energy Commission’s hearings in 1954.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, “Oppenheimer” should galvanize interest in the Manhattan Project and bring visitors to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park sites. Los Alamos County has organized a “Team Oppie” to coordinate activities in anticipation of the release. Great expectations!
WORLD WAR II HERITAGE CITIES
Under the World War II Heritage Cities program, the Secretary of the Interior may designate up to one city from each state and territory as a American World War II Heritage City. The hometowns of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park–Los Alamos, NM, Oak Ridge, TN, and Tri-Cities, WA–were each designated a World War II Heritage City. Congratulations!
The National Award of Nuclear Science and History is hosting the 25th Annual Einstein Gala on Saturday, March 18th, 2023. This year’s awardee is Maria Korsnick, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) in Washington, D.C. See photo below.
At NEI, Korsnick promotes greater understanding of nuclear energy’s economic and environmental benefits among policymakers and the public. Before joining NEI, she was senior vice president of Northeast Operations for Exelon and served as chief nuclear officer (CNO) at Constellation Energy Nuclear Group.
Recent recipients of the Einstein Award include Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD, 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2022); and Cynthia C. Kelly, founder and president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation (2021). Click here to learn more about past recipients.
For further information regarding the 2023 Einstein Gala, please contact Jennifer Thompson, Director of Development 505-245-2137, extension 110, or jthompson@nuclearmuseum.org. Proceeds support the Museum’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education programs for K-12 students and professional workshops for teachers.
Thanks again for your invaluable contributions to upgrading the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s websites (www.atomicheritage.org). We are very pleased to have the sites on a secure platform that is easier to navigate. Progress!
We also grateful to our partners in the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History for managing the websites and collaborating for nearly four years.
Looking forward to the arrival of “Oppenheimer” this summer. Lots of complementary documentaries and programs are in the works, too. Stay tuned!