Reflections on the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Richard Groves: I’m Richard Hulbert Groves, G-R-O-V-E-S. Paul Williams: What memories do you have of family life, at least when you were at home? Groves: I came home from Princeton occasionally. But then I went to West Point and we didn’t get out of West Point for a year and a half. I came home […]

Val Fitch: My name is Val Logsdon Fitch. It’s V-A-L L-O-G-S-D-O-N F-I-T-C-H. And the Logsdon is my mother’s maiden name. Where Val comes from, I have no idea. Except it was a favorite name of my mother’s. Cindy Kelly: Tell us a little bit about your background and how you happened to end up at Los Alamos […]

Raemer Schreiber: Yes, there was at least one [bomb core], and people back here worked furiously taking the plutonium as it arrived and converting it into another core. I don’t know the answer to it. I have heard stories another core was on its way out at the time of the surrender. Richard Rhodes: Groves […]

Richard Rhodes: This will be a tape of an interview with Doctor Segrè. That’s E-m-i-l-i-o, S-e-g-r-e at his home in Lafayette, California on the 29th of June 1983.  I have been, for example, through the Oppenheimer Papers, I’ve been through the [Leo] Szilard Papers in La Jolla. All of the books, most of the books […]

Cindy Kelly: Terrific. I am Cindy Kelly, President of the Atomic Heritage Foundation and we are in Rockville, Maryland. The date is Wednesday, October 1st, 2014. I have the privilege of interviewing Rosemary Maiers Lane. The first question is to ask please tell me your name and spell it. Rosemary Lane: Spell it? Well it’s […]

Richard Rhodes: Interview with Dr. Kistiakowsky in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 15, 1982. I have done a great deal of reading into the literature; there are probably two hundred books that are built around the subject that I’ve looked at, including yours, which I enjoyed. Can I go back to some very early things?  George Kistiakowsky: […]

[We would like to thank Robert S. Norris, author of the definitive biography of General Leslie R. Groves, Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, for taking the time to read over these transcripts for misspellings and other errors.] Stephane Groueff: We were talking about President Truman.  General Leslie Groves: […]

Richard Rhodes: Did David Holloway show you the documents that the Russians published? Hans Bethe: Not the documents, but I got recent documents like [Yulii] Khariton. Rhodes: Ah. They also published what [Klaus] Fuchs gave them. And, I have some of it here. I wanted to show you. You may not be able to comment. […]

Rhodes: I am working on a book that would try to cover the years ’45 to ’55. I just finished the first 400 pages; it is all the Soviet bomb story, because so much has come available, including the espionage part of it. But, now I would like to get going and just simply try […]

Cindy Kelly: I am Cindy Kelly and we have our guest, Robert S. Norris. Stan Norris: Right.  Kelly: Do you want to say your name and spell it? Norris: I am Robert S. Norris, R-o-b-e-r-t, middle initial S, last name Norris, N-o-r-r-i-s. It is February 13, 2013. We are here in the offices of the […]