Groves and the Scientists: Compartmentalization and the Building of the Bomb

AUG 01, 1995

The general understood that although the contributions of the scientists were crucial, their work was only one of a host of critical components that made up the totality of the Manhattan Project.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881470

Stanley Goldberg

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the only times that atomic bombs have been used against human targets–at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Over the years since those events, secondary histories of the Manhattan Project have made much of the collective virtuoso performance of the scientists, especially at Los Alamos, where scientists were able to design and manufacture the weapons essentially from scratch in less than three years.

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References

1. The most outstanding book of this genre is R. Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Simon and Schuster, New York (1986).
2. See, for example, S. Groueff, Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb, Little, Brown, Boston (1967);
L. Lamont, Day of Trinity, Antheneum, New York (1965).
For expression by the scientists themselves of their displeasure with Groves, see, for example, S. Goldberg, Smithsonian Videohistory Program “Manhattan Project,” especially collection division 3: Cambridge, sessions 9–12, Smithsonian Inst. Arch., Washington, D.C.
3. W. Lanouette, B. Szilard, Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb, Scribner’s, New York (1992).
4. S. Goldberg, Bull. At. Scientists, December 1992, p. 32. S. Goldberg, in The Atomic West, B. Hevly, J. Findlay, eds., U. Washington P., Seattle (forthcoming). S. Goldberg, “Racing to the Finish: The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” J. American—East Asian Relations (forthcoming).
5. S. Goldberg, Fighting to Build the Bomb: The Private Wars of Leslie R. Groves, Steerforth P., South Royalton, Vt. (forthcoming).
6. R. Hewlett, O. Anderson Jr, The New World, 1939–1946: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, vol. 1, Pennsylvania State U.P., University Park, Penn. (1962).
S. Goldberg, Isis 83, 429 (1992).https://doi.org/ISISA4
7. L. R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project, Harper & Brothers, New York (1962).
8. L. Groves, memo to file, 24 September 1963, record group 200, the papers of Leslie R. Groves, entry 10, interviews, comments, etc., box 4, folder “Oppenheimer, J. Robert,” Nat. Arch. Records Admin., Washington, D.C.
9. Letter from W. A. Akers to M. Perrin, 16 November 1942, Public Records Office, London, document AB1/128.
10. L. Groves, memo to file, 17 November 1963, record group 200, the papers of Leslie R. Groves, entry 2, correspondence, 1941–70, box 10, folder “Stu–Sz,” Nat. Arch. Records Admin., Washington, D.C.
11. Author interview with Robert Bacher, 12–14 April 1990, notes available from author; compare with L. Hoddeson, Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, Mass. (1993), p. 239. Author interview with Glenn Seaborg, 17 April 1990, excerpt available from author.
12. S. Goldberg, Smithsonian Videohistory Program “Manhattan Project,” collection division 2, session 5, “Life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,” Smithsonian Inst. Arch., Washington, D.C. Letter from Leslie R. Groves to Richard H. Groves, 27 June 1958, record group 200, the papers of Leslie R. Groves, entry 2, correspondence, 1941–70, box 4, folder “Groves, Richard H.,” Nat. Arch. Records Admin., Washington, D.C. Letter from Lt. E. H. Marsden to Joseph Stevenson, 28 December 1944, record group 200, the papers of Leslie R. Groves, entry 2, correspondence, 1941–70, box 9, folder “Shi‐Str,” Nat. Arch. Records Admin., Washington, D.C.
13. A. K. Smith, A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists’ Movement in America, 1945–1947, U. Chicago P., Chicago (1965).
14. S. Goldberg, Smithsonian Videohistory Program “Manhattan Project,” collection division 4: Los Alamos, session 15, after time code 08:55:23:00, p. 57 of the transcript, Smithsonian Inst. Arch., Washington, D.C.
15. Record group 200, the papers of Leslie R. Groves, entry 9, speeches, boxes 1–6, Nat. Arch. Records Admin., Washington’ D. C; see, for example, box 2, folder “1956,” speech before the Man‐made Fabrics Division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

More about the authors

Stanley Goldberg, Steerforth Press, South Royalton, Vermont.