Cold War

Martin Sherwin: Okay, this is the middle of an interview with Norris Bradbury. Norris Bradbury: The fact that I wasn’t particularly involved in these discussions, of the type which the Federation of Atomic Scientists started—they started here, of course. I suppose I was committed to running a laboratory and trying to get people to stay […]

Martin Sherwin: Was there a lot of effort to trying to figure out the psychology that the people who were sitting in judgement [at J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security hearing] would have? That “They will probably be thinking this, so therefore we should do that?” Do you recall any of that? Verna Hobson: No. I remember […]

Jean Bacher: Ruth Valentine said, “I shall take Ruth [Tolman]’s desk.” She always saved letters. She had marvelous long letters from Robert, you know, especially at the time of the hearings. I knew they were just terribly close and shared a great deal. On the drawer of the desk, she’d said, “Destroy these.” Martin Sherwin: […]

Martin Sherwin: You mentioned a point that others have mentioned that intrigue me: [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s summer in Corsica. You said that Oppenheimer had once told you that reading [Marcel] Proust’s Memory of Things Past was one of the great experiences of his life. Haakon Chevalier: Yes. Sherwin: I have two questions about that. One, could you elaborate on that? […]

Martin Sherwin: This is Martin Sherwin, I’m on my way to interview William Fowler at Caltech in Pasadena. Today is March 29, 1983. William A. Fowler: Yes, I came to Caltech just fifty years ago in 1933 as a graduate student, and I have been here ever since. I am now the oldest graduate student […]

Stanislaus Ulam: You know, after forty-five years in this country, my accent is still very hard. Martin Sherwin: That’s all right. I still have a Brooklyn accent. Ulam:  Oh, you do? Sherwin: I left Brooklyn twenty years ago. I think even though I do know a lot of the answers to some of the questions […]

Though not a Manhattan Project location, the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands played an important role in the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Soon after he was stripped of his security clearance in the infamous Atomic Energy Commission hearing, Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty began spending time on the island. They […]

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with Professor Joseph Rotblat, R-O-T-B-L-A-T, at his office in London. Well it really was quite a production. Seven hours! Joseph Rotblat: Yes, oh yes, quite a production. Sherwin: I thought Sam Waterston played a marvelous part. Rotblat: Who? Sherwin: The person who played [J. Robert] Oppenheimer. Rotblat: Oh, yes, […]

Martin Sherwin: President Goldberger, Marvin Goldberger of California Institute of Technology at Caltech in Pasadena, March 28, 1983. This is Martin Sherwin. This is something obviously I should have done three years ago back in Princeton when you had more time, etc. Marvin Goldberger: That’s all right. I have plenty of time. Sherwin: You first […]

Martin Sherwin: I think the opportunity to talk to somebody who served with him on the Harvard— Edward Purcell: Oh, Harvard, that was the thing. No, this episode I was remembering, which must have been the spring of 1953, when Oppie [J. Robert Oppenheimer] was on the Board of Overseers. At that time, we’d had […]