It Took a Village to Build a Bomb: The People and their Lives in the Shadow of the Becky Jager / History

Before dawn on July 16, 1945 the world was irrevocably changed in the flash of an instant. Only those who planned and executed the nuclear test explosion understood the gravity of that moment, as an enormous mushroom cloud ascended over the desolate New Mexican landscape (eerily named Jornada del Muerto or

Journey of the Dead). Attending scientists and engineers stood in awe of their accomplishment, the successful construction and detonation of the world’s most powerful weapon of mass destruction. While the nation slept, the race for the bomb had been won and the atomic age had arrived.

Two hundred and fifty miles north of the test site, in the remote village of Los

Alamos, wives of the scientists huddled together to await news of their husband’s mysterious project. Some of the women knew more than others, but most understood the objective was a definitive bomb to end the war. Several of the wives hoped to catch a glimpse of the blast from atop Sawyer Hill (an abandoned ski hill) near the laboratories where the atomic research had been conducted.

The men who formed the scientific nucleus at Los Alamos were previously involved in America’s scattered atomic program, collectively called the Manhattan

Engineer District. It was an honor to be chosen to join the team assembled at “Site

Y,” as Los Alamos was called. The research facility was established as the nerve center of America’s nuclear development in the spring of 1943. One wife described:

“There was some compensation in the fact that the mesa was a ‘celebrity land’. To the scientific community, Los Alamos stood for the same sort of thing that

1 Hollywood represented to an aspiring starlet.”1 The isolated mountain village was transformed into a clandestine atomic boomtown filled with eccentric scientists from around the globe, a continuous stream of laborers to carry out their vision, and military personnel to provide security and daily operations. The diverse community often had difficulty understanding one another, yet they managed to put aside their differences in order to complete the project.

America’s commitment to a nuclear frontier, and the opportunity to build a technological community devoted to scientific research, excited the highly educated migrants who came to wartime Los Alamos. Many were steeped in American mythologies of building a utopian city upon the hill and Manifest Destiny. Their

“city on the hill” was based on scientific collaboration and dedicated to ending the horrors of WWII.

Ruth Marshak remembered receiving her husband’s news that the family was moving to an undisclosed location in the West. Robert Marshak was recruited to the theoretical physics division at Site Y. Ruth described feeling “akin to the pioneer women accompanying their husbands across the uncharted plains westward, alert to the danger, resigned to the fact that they journeyed, for weal or woe, into the unknown.”2 Leslie Groves, the general in charge of the site, used a similar metaphor.

He recalled: “I came to know many of the old soldiers and scouts who had devoted

1Ruth Marshak was the wife of a Robert Marshak (deputy head of the theoretical physics division). She worked in the Housing office in Los Alamos during the war years. See Serber and Wilson. Standing By and Making Do: Women of Wartime Los Alamos, Los Alamos Historical Society (2008) p26. 2 Standing By and Making Do, p.16.

2 their lives to winning the West… I wondered what was left for me to do now that the

West was won… Yet those of us who saw the dawn of the Atomic Age that early morning in Alamogordo will never hold such doubts again. We know that when man is willing to make the effort, he is capable of accomplishing virtually anything.”3

These twentieth century pioneers opened an atomic world and a military industrial frontier in the “The Land of Enchantment”.

Like earlier pioneers, these newcomers relied on local communities to offer practical solutions for living and working in an unfamiliar landscape. Native

American and Hispanic communities contributed thousands of workers who helped build and sustain Site Y. For local New Mexicans, the Manhattan Project provided new employment opportunities and infused cash into one of the poorest regions in the country. This particular area of New ’s mountainous north was largely neglected by conquering Spaniards in the seventeenth century, and again by

American settlers in the nineteenth century. Both groups found the landscape difficult and remote, leaving the area on the periphery of settlement.4 The Parajito

Plateau had long been a place of isolation and sparse population; that seclusion attracted organizers of the Manhattan Project in the 1940’s. The harsh and arid landscape was not the only distinct New Mexican characteristic that determined conditions in wartime Los Alamos.

A tradition of cultural accommodation, an evolution of New Mexico’s frontier past, was critical to wartime Los Alamos. While locals took advantage of jobs, money, and career advancements, the newcomers enjoyed the area’s ancient native

3 Leslie Groves. Now It Can Be Told, New York: Harper and Row (1962) p. 415. 4 Hal Rothman. On the Rims and Ridges: The Los Alamos Area Since 1880 (1992).

3 ruins and tri-cultural heritage (Native, Hispanic, and Anglo). The imposing landscape and cultural traditions of northern New Mexico offered a pleasant diversion from the intensity of dangerous work, work conducted in oppressive secrecy and isolation. Natives and Hispanics taught outsiders about New Mexico’s ancient indigenous past and how to survive in its challenging landscape. The diverse population of wartime Los Alamos shared facets of there own culture and partook in others according to their needs and interests. 5

Tolerance and accommodation were necessary to a successful outcome to the

Manhattan Project. Two bureaucratic institutions, academic and military, were forced to tolerate the other’s customs and idiosyncrasies. The University of

California at Berkeley was responsible for scientific organization and research. The military oversaw security, construction, and daily operations. Wartime anxieties required the community to delicately negotiate a variety of social tensions.

Together the people of Los Alamos endured an oppressive sense of isolation, unrelenting urgency, and desperately inadequate resources. They overcame these hardships to complete the project, bring an immediate end to the war, and ensure

American military supremacy. Wartime Los Alamos provides a unique case study to examine community cooperation, despite extraordinary diversity and dissention. It was a polyglot society under tremendous pressure. There were, however, a few important commonalities that held the village together. One wife described the community: there were no old people, no infirmed, no unemployed, and no poor.6

5 Jon Hunner described this New Mexican tradition of “cultural switching” in Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community (2003) p. 6. 6 Eleanor Jette, Inside Box 1663 (2008), p.207.

4 Everyone had special permission and a specific reason to be there. More importantly, everyone trusted American stewardship of the mysterious research.

Scientific histories of the Manhattan Project have been offered many times.

Heroes have been selected, celebrated, and occasionally debunked. Unsettling consequences of nuclear technology have been continually debated in political, academic, and popular venues. This study provides a more intimate view of the people who lived and worked in wartime Los Alamos by examining the community they built, their interactions with each other, and their difficulties in coping with the complexities and legacies of their controversial war-work.

The world’s most distinguished were invited to Los Alamos; you had to know someone to be involved. Most of the scientific geniuses knew and respected one another’s work. They were not military men and they rejected enlistment. They did agree to live and work on a scientific reservation under military guard, in one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. Only

American citizens were eligible to reside at the site, forcing several emigrant scientists to become US citizens. These esteemed scientists demanded wives and children be allowed to join them in the cloistered community behind tall fences.

Military officials relented; hoping the presence of families would defuse the anxieties of exceedingly stressful work. Families offered an emotional refuge in a fearful world during WWII and during the Cold War that followed.

Larry Johnston

The genius and fascinating personalities of men like Robert Oppenheimer,

Edward Teller, and have often been the focus of Manhattan project

5 histories, yet a mission of this magnitude required more than the extraordinary talents of a few men. In the summer of 2011, far removed from wartime Los

Alamos, I sat with a frail man in his nineties as he reconciled his life and prepared for the inevitable. Larry Johnston (1918-2012) was a young man in his mid twenties when he arrived in Los Alamos with his wife and young daughter. He had not completed graduate school, but was recognized as a young man with extraordinary talent and potential. He came of age, established a career, and raised his family in the shadow of the bomb.

Johnston earned his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of

California at Berkeley in 1940. During his time at Berkeley, the physics department was a vibrant environment where giants in the field (Oppenheimer, Teller,

Larwence, Kistakowski, and Alvarez) considered the wartime implications of their work. Johnston modestly recalled being outside the stellar group of physics students who clung to their favorite professor, whom they called “Oppie”. Larry remembered sitting in the back of Professor Oppenheimer’s class struggling to understand the complicated equations and theoretical discussions. “Oppenheimer scribbled on the board so fast. He lectured with an eraser in one hand, chalk in the other, and a cigarette bouncing in his mouth. He gave me a C.”7 Larry’s favorite professor was Luis Alvarez who joined the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley as a research fellow in 1936. He was on leave from the Radiation Laboratory at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he returned in 1940 taking Larry

(after graduation) with him to Boston.

7 Author’s interview with Larry Johnston, summer of 2011.

6 At MIT Alvarez made Larry the Project Engineer for Ground Control

Approach (GCA), a research team working on a blind radar landing system for planes. This radar technology was used during WWII and later during the Berlin

Airlift. After years of working together, mentor and student developed a mutual respect and fondness that lasted for the rest of their lives. Larry remembered a particular day in 1941 when Alvarez asked him why he seemed despondent. Larry responded honestly. He left the love of his life at Berkeley and her letters were getting few in number and distant in content. Days later Alvarez asked Larry to pick up plane tickets from the MIT travel office. He was instructed to deliver an envelope marked “top secret” to Ernest Lawrence in the physics department at Berkeley.

When Larry delivered the envelope, he waited and watched as Lawrence’s face released into a broad smiled. Lawrence instructed young Larry to stop by the

Berkeley travel office and pick up two tickets back to Boston.

Larry was unsure whether Lawrence would be returning with him to MIT, but he was going to make the most of his trip to Berkeley. He found Milly in her sorority house and proposed. Larry and Milly, like many young couples in 1941, rushed for the altar. Milly remembered: “We prayed together and then started planning a quick wedding in the student center.” Both Larry and Milly grew up with religion at a center of their existence; they met years earlier at a church group on campus. Larry’s father, a pasture, married the couple immediately. Larry had only a few days before he was expected back in the labs at MIT. The newlyweds skipped the honeymoon and hastened to Boston.8 The second ticket had been for Milly, not

8 Ibid

7 for Lawrence. (The elderly Johnston chuckled as he gazed at his wife of 70 years and said: “We were ordered to get married.”)

Larry’s focus and happiness were restored. At 24 years old he was recently graduated, recently married, and had a meaningful job that kept him out of the draft.

Milly was 22 and suddenly thrown into a world of science geeks at MIT. She knew no one else in Boston. Milly earned Alvarez’s trust and was invited along on the testing mission for the GCA system. While the research team conducted tests along the eastern seaboard, Milly provided the group with dinner and domestic tranquility in the evenings. She was the only woman and the only person not directly involved with the project; she learned to not ask questions. As the wife of a scientist involved in sensitive research for military application, she respected the obligation to maintain secrecy, trust, and loyalty. The nation was at war and Milly was indoctrinated as the wife of an up and coming . This was the start of a hectic few years for the young couple.

In June of 1943 the Alvarez family and the Johnston family began preparations for a move to Los Alamos. By then, Larry and Milly had a baby girl.

They had only weeks to prepare. Larry knew Alvarez brought him to Los Alamos for one purpose, to develop detonators for the Fat Man plutonium bomb. He knew the engineering would be complex. Traditional six-volt cap detonators would not work with the bomb’s plutonium core: thirty-two fuses needed ignition simultaneously to implode and compress the plutonium to the necessary density. “Alvarez was the idea man,” Larry recalled. “I was suppose to make the six-thousand volt bridge-wire

8 actually work.” 9 Unlike most young men in service to the country during WWII,

Larry had the opportunity to take his wife and baby with him as he served. The

Johnston family arrived in Los Alamos in the July of 1943.

Like everyone who signed on for scientific duty at Site Y, the Johnston’s were subjected to rigorous background checks and required to completely disappear from their social circle and extended family. They were committed until the war’s end and were allowed no excursions beyond a 100-mile radius of the site. They were unable to tell friends and relatives where they had moved, and could not receive visitors for the duration of the project. All residents (including children over six years old) were finger printed, inspected for identifying body irregularities, and given color-coded identification badges to enter the compound. Only a select few were issued white badges allowing access to the “tech area,” a fenced area within the fenced area. Homes on “The Hill” had no phones and mail was censored to ensure no clues were divulged in personal correspondence. The men and women of wartime Los Alamos were completely isolated; they had only each other.

Site Y went by many names: “Project Y,” “Box 1663,” “The Hill,” “The Mesa”

“Shangri-La,” and “Lost Almost.” It was a temporary home for scientific elites

(physicists, chemists, mathematicians, metallurgists, engineers) and their families. A continuous deployment of labor was brought to the Hill between 1943 and 1945.

Machinists, craftsmen, and construction workers were typically young single men capable of a substantial workload. There were military men and WAC women

(Women’s Army Corp) who administered the scientific army base. Hispanics and

9 Ibid

9 Native Americans from nearby pueblos worked as day laborers in the commissary and the post-exchange; they provided transportation services, construction work, janitorial services, and domestic help. Most of the workers and residents in wartime

Los Alamos had little knowledge of the inner workings of the project.

Social divisions (regional, ethnicity, race, class, and education) separated perspectives and challenged interactions among the various groups assembled in

Los Alamos. The military organization and the intellectual organization were frequently at odds. Scientists were often annoyed by military protocol. The seemingly overindulged intellectuals irritated service men and women who were assigned to serve and protect them. Scientists’ wives were shocked by rustic living conditions and occasionally mystified by local apathy toward their educational and civic reforms. Local Natives and Hispanics seemed aloof, as they selectively embraced changes brought by the outsiders. The diverse population of wartime Los

Alamos (an international scientific community, an omnipresent military administration, a multi-cultural local population, and a national migrant labor force) struggled to coexist. Ultimately they came to rely on each other and mingle amicably. Together they lived and worked in extreme conditions, in remarkable secrecy, and maintained a feverish pace. All of them were necessary for a speedy and successful outcome.

Two men were accountable for the organization the Manhattan Project.

Robert Oppenheimer was a genteel and likeable theoretical physicist from the

University of California Berkeley. He was a leading figure in America’s atomic research and he spoke several languages. He was responsible for recruiting the

10 most brilliant physicists and organizing the intellectual community. Leslie Groves was an intense and irritable head of the Army Corps of Engineers, in charge of

America’s WWII military buildup. He was responsible for construction and military organization in Los Alamos. The two men were vastly different in temperament but eventually learned to appreciate one another’s leadership skills.

Together Oppenheimer and Groves estimated a necessary workforce to be under a hundred, which proved a considerable miscalculation. The project immediately grew beyond their initial projection. There was relentless expansion as more and more experts, in various fields, were brought to the Hill. Homes and buildings were thrown up quickly and shabbily to accommodate a continuous stream of new arrivals. There was an incessant rumble of bulldozers, leaving a treeless and dusty/muddy village in their wake. Every ramshackle building was painted monotonous army drab. There were no paved streets, no street names, and no sidewalks. Residents (over 6,000 by war’s end) were crowded in dormitories, apartments, duplexes, trailers, Quonset huts, and tents. Fences, mud, dust, and soot

(from antiquated stoves and inefficient coal furnaces) were in abundance. The supply of housing, water, and electricity were critically inadequate, often requiring austere rationing. Los Alamos was not a visually appealing community as workers arrived; yet the mountainous views were stunning.

Los Alamos sits on the Pajarito Plateau, 7,200 feet above sea level. The plateau (named for the small birds that flutter about) was formed by an ancient caldera and is surrounded by mountains. The Jemez and Sangre de Cristo mountain

11 ranges provided visual serenity for the hectic community. The spectacular views and outdoor recreational opportunities seemed a godsend to the young population.

The average age of Hill residents during the war was 27 years old. The robust men of the project were severely over worked and wives worried for their health and safety. Milly recalled: “Larry came home only to sleep. He worked all hours of the day and night, and he worked alone [on explosives] in a wooden shack located on top of a mesa overlooking the Rio Grande.”10 Larry added: “I think they didn’t want me to blow up anyone els.” All workers were required to work six days a week, yet scientists and engineers spent much of their off hours with co-workers discussing work related complications. After a long and intense workweek, the community spent Saturday night through Sunday venting anxieties through a variety of social amusements.

Young residents let loose and partied like college students at dorm parties.

There were more formal affairs and dinner parties for division leaders and their wives. Alcohol flowed in abundance at both. Procuring booze required monthly supply trips to Santa Fe. Santafeans eventually grew to resent the mysterious Hill residents (speaking a variety of languages) as they came to town and cleared entire liquor store shelves.11 On Sundays workers and their families investigated ancient

Indian ruins, explored the surrounding wilderness, and jerry-rigged a towrope to improve the deserted ski hill. The motor pool provided jeeps and horses were available from the stable. The entire mountain playground was closed to all but

10 Author’s Interviews with Larry and Milly Johnston, summer of 2011 & 2012. 11 See Eleanor Jette jet was the wife of Eric Jette, a prominent metallurgist from . See her autobiography Inside Box 1663 (Los Alamos Historical Society) 2007 p.110.

12 those who were part of the project; they had the mountainous paradise to themselves.

Wartime Los Alamos was a highly educated international community that appreciated upper crust pursuits. Residents enjoyed a wide variety of amateur (yet impressive) performances. They organized musical groups, theater troops, and choirs. There was an orchestra and a popular square dancing group. Volunteers ran a secured radio station that offered live musical hours and classical programs, thanks to the generosity of those who provided their treasured records. Sports minded members of the community developed basketball, softball, and hockey leagues. Announcements regarding recreational opportunities and performances were advertised in the Daily Bulletin, the newsletter distributed three times a week.

Every issue had the same bold headline across the top: “Do Not Remove from the

Site.”

The vigorous and youthful community worked hard and played hard for the duration of their frontier adventure. Wartime Los Alamos presented a tense life that was punctuated by danger and uncertainty. The community lived with scheduled explosions and worried about the unscheduled explosions. They lived with the ever-present fear of fire in the barren New Mexican landscape, aware of an acutely deficient water supply. The community was completely cut off from the outside world, yet for many participants like Larry and Milly, life on The Hill was an exciting and defining moment in their lives.

Oppenheimer’s Ideal Scientific Community

13 Oppenheimer recommended the beautiful area in New Mexico’s Pecos

Mountains, having known and loved the area since childhood. As a boy he spent his summers in a family cabin, exploring the wilds of New Mexico. The peaceful seclusion of the area seemed a perfect location for Oppenheimer to merge his love of

New Mexico and his love of science. The sparsely populated community was accessible by only one arduous mountain road. The site encompassed approximately 54,000 acres and all but 8,900 acres was public land, already under the jurisdiction of the federal government. In November of 1942 the military bought an exclusive boy’s ranch school for $275,000 and then set out to acquire adjacent private land. Only a few Hispanic families needed to be bought out, costing the federal government an additional $440,000.12 The boys ranch consisted of 27 housing structures and 27 miscellaneous buildings. Oppenheimer thought the school compound provided an adequate start for the project. This miscalculation was immediately obvious. The scientific community grew to 500 residents within months.13

The young and driven community was remarkably productive. There were nearly a thousand babies born in Los Alamos between 1943-49 (208 were born between 1943-45).14 The medical director was forced to request additional staff in

1944, noting that one fifth of married women on the Hill were in some state of

12 Hunner, Inventing Los Alamos p.17. 13 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California (1956-1957). Special Collections, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, box 21 file 19. 14 The impressive birthrate during the war years was an issue that many wartime Los Alamos residents commented on, including Oppenheimer, Groves, and many of the autobiographies written by scientists’ wives.

14 pregnancy.15 Half of the medical facility was converted to maternity care. Amy

Komadian Gibson, a nurse in wartime Los Alamos, recalled the most pressing medical need was obstetrics.16 The impressive birthrate was an irritation to General

Groves, who struggled to provide accommodations on the Hill. Some of medical staff resented the scientists who enjoyed the comforts provided by their spouses. Milly, who had her second daughter in Los Alamos, recalled: “The WAC nurses seemed irritated that they had not been sent to the European front to care for wounded soldiers.” Oppenheimer, whose wife also delivered a baby in Los Alamos, insisted the scientists’ comfort was essential to maximum efficiency in the labs. He was relentless in his demands that resources and services be available and organized to ensure the scientists’ productivity.

Oppenheimer’s commitment to those he recruited was admirable. His fall from grace in the 1950’s should not dilute his contribution to the scientific achievement in Los Alamos. He was a tormented soul. Early in his academic career at Berkeley he was reluctant to publically commit to his leftist ideals, fearing tenure and advancement would be denied him. His project in Los Alamos was an opportunity to design his ideal intellectual society. Yet he was unsettled in his mission to organize atomic research for military application. Oppenheimer was troubled by warnings of prominent international physicists who were reluctant to pursue nuclear technology as WWII ravaged Europe. Beginning in the 1930’s many

European physicists fled Europe rather than conduct atomic research for emerging

15 See Hunner, Inventing Los Alamos p. 39. 16 This question was presented to Gibson during a 1992 interview with Theresa Strottman. See Remembering Los Alamos: World War II, Los Alamos Archives.

15 fascist regimes. Several of these emigrant scientists influenced Oppenheimer during his time in Los Alamos. The most adamant were Lise Meitner, Niels Bohr, and Isidor

Rabi.

Lise Meitner was a German physicist, from a Jewish family, who was forced out of Germany in 1939. Her theory on “Nuclear Fission” launched the nuclear race, yet she refused the offer to collaborate with the prestigious team in Los Alamos saying: “I will have nothing to do with a bomb.”17 Rabi was a naturalized Jewish

American of Austrio-Hungarian descent and a specialist in nuclear magnetic resonance from MIT. Like Meitner, Rabi refused to officially sign on to the

Manhattan Project due to his fundamental doubts regarding military control of atomic technology. He was, however, a consultant and frequent visitor in Los

Alamos where he counseled Oppenheimer (his friend and former professor).18 Niles

Bohr was one of the most knowledgeable physicists in quantum mechanics. He was flown out of Nazi controlled Denmark to escape eminent arrest in 1943 (for helping

Danish Jews escape). He spent considerable time at Site Y and contributed enormously to solving many theoretical mysteries of the project, yet he too was uneasy with military control of nuclear development.

Bohr composed a memorandum in April of 1944 in which he described the research at Site Y as a great triumph of science that would deeply influence the future of mankind. The memo, which he gave to Oppenhiemer, argued for openness in both science and diplomacy. Bohr believed international cooperation was the

17 Ruth Lewin Sime. Lise Meitner: A life in Physics, University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles & London (1996) p.305 18 See Kai Bird &Martin J. Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A Knoph (2005)p.211-213.

16 only hope to forestall a postwar nuclear arms race. “Unless, indeed, some agreement about the control of the use of the new active materials can be obtained in due time, any temporary advantage, however great, may be outweighed by a perpetual menace to human security.”19

These difficult ideological questions regarding atomic technology haunted

Oppenheimer in Los Alamos. Yet he was bogged down by administrative duties and under constant pressure to prove his patriotism.20 The immediacy of war and the intricacies of the scientific work took precedence over philosophical idealism. The urgency to master atomic energy first and bring an end to WWII forced

Oppenheimer to submerge troubling aspects of nuclear development, including the likelihood of a postwar nuclear arms race. Despite Bohr’s calls for openness and international cooperation, the Manhattan Project remained a secret mission, although with critical British involvement. The Trinity test explosion was nearly invisible to the outside world, and the war ended a month later. After the war these concerns divided scientists as they left Los Alamos to begin their post war careers.

Oppenheimer’s personal anguish intensified after the explosions over

Hiroshima and Nagasaki; he struggled to reconcile his role in nuclear warfare and introducing the atomic age.21 After the war, he was among the first to leave the Hill.

He headed to Washington DC to advise the highest levels of government about the dangers of a new nuclear world. At the official ceremony in Los Alamos, as

19 Ibid, p. 273 20 Ibid, p. 274 21 See Mark Wolverton, A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of Robert Oppenheimer. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008; and Bird & Martin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (2005).

17 Oppenheimer handed the reigns to Norris Bradbury (his successor), the following testimonial revealed the appreciation and warmth that scientists felt for their intellectual leader:

He selected this place. Lest us thank him for the fishing, hiking, skiing, and for the New Mexico weather. He selected our collaborators. Let us thank him for the company we had, for the parties, and for the intellectual atmosphere… He was our director. Let us thank him for the way he directed our work, for the many occasions where he was the eloquent spokesman of our thoughts. It was his acquaintance with every single little and big difficulty that helped us so much to overcome them. It was his spirit of scientific dignity that made us feel we would be in the right place here. We drew much more satisfaction from our work than our consciences ought to have allowed us.22

Oppenheimer created a community environment that was conducive to scientific collaboration. He was a persistent advocate for the scientists and their families, and he devoted all of his energy to the project. His naturally slight physique diminished by 40 pounds during his time in Los Alamos. He finished the project a shadow of himself, but was celebrated as the father of the bomb. The distinction haunted him.

Oppenheimer’s public downfall began in the late 1940’s when he endorsed international control of atomic power, which conflicted with the nation’s emerging

Cold War leadership.23 His pacifist views made him suspicious during the anti- communist hysteria and rapid nuclear build up of the Cold War. Eventually

Oppenheimer was brought before the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954, where he was publically humiliated and stripped of his security clearance. He lived the rest of his life as a patriotic recluse, occasionally lecturing and writing (on physics, the

22 Hunner, Inventing Los Alamos, p.94. 23 American Prometheus, p. 274.

18 Manhattan Project, and diplomacy).24 Many of the scientists involved in the

Manhattan Project faced regret on some level, either publically or privately.

Larry Johnston dealt more privately with questions regarding his contribution to nuclear weapons. The baby girl that Larry and Milly took to Los

Alamos in 1943 grew up and attended Berkeley in the 1960’s, by then the epicenter of the counter culture and antiwar movement. The campus Ginger encountered in the mid 1960’s was drastically different than the Berkeley campus her father attended in the late 1930’s. Larry admitted with reserved pride that he and his daughter experienced some difficulties, but over time they “came to understand each other and the circumstance of their lives.”25 For years, decades, or entire lifetimes, men of the Manhattan Project negotiated complicated questions. Were they scientific geniuses that ended WWII? Did they represent the dark side of science? Were they responsible for infecting the world with nuclear proliferation?

For better or worse the scientists accomplished their objective, American development of the world’s first atomic weapon. The decision to use the bomb on a civilian population was the responsibility of others.

When the Japanese surrendered in early September of 1945, Oppenheimer was the most admired scientist in the United States. He graced the covers of Time and Life magazines. The nation was relieved the war was over and proud of the scientific ingenuity that established America as the Global Superpower. Historian

24 In 1955 Oppenheimer published The Open Mind, a collection of lectures on nuclear weapons in which he rejected America’s Cold War Gunboat diplomacy. See: A life in Twilight; American Prometheus; and Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer died of cancer in 1967 at the age of 62. 25 Author’s interview with Larry Johnston, summer 2011.

19 Stephane Groueff described Oppenheimer’s celebrity image: “Of all the atomic scientists, Oppenheimer became the most intriguing, the most adulated. His former students imitated him. Junior scientist admired him fervently, and young secretaries blushed in his presence.”26

Family and Community Life

Dorthy Scarritt Mckibbin was a forty-five year old widow when she met

Oppenheimer for a job interview in 1943. She remembered feeling an immediate connection to him. “I never met a person with a magnetism that hit you so fast and so completely as his did… I just wanted be allies and have something to do with a person of such vitality and radiant force.”27 The handsome and mysterious

Oppenheimer introduced himself as Mr. Bradley and hired Mckibben to be the gatekeeper to Los Alamos. From her non-descript office in Santa Fe (at 109 East

Palace Avenue), McKibbin greeted or turned away all visitors headed to Los Alamos.

If Oppenheimer was the father figure in Los Alamos, McKibbin was recognized as the nurturing mother figure for the young scientific community.

For the incoming specialists, Dorothy was the friendly face at the end of a long journey to Santa Fe. Everyone headed to The Hill stopped at her desk to arrange for the last 25 miles of the trip. A penciled drawn map led the weary travelers over the foothills, across the Rio Grande, up the last assent clinging to the edge of a mesa, before finally arriving at their destination. A military bus was

26 Groueff, Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb, Boston: Little, Brown & Company (1967) p. 257. 27 American Prometheus, p.214.

20 available; it made several routine, yet hellacious, trips between Santa Fe and The

Hill every day.

Santa Fe provided a fascinating diversion for Hill residents. Project workers were given one day off each month to shop for supplies, have a nice meal, and visit

Dorothy in New Mexico’s quaint capital city. Her office was always lined with packages and children as they awaited the next bus. Dorothy was the resident expert on all things New Mexican. You went to her with questions on where to buy what ever was needed. Francoise Ulam, wife of a project mathematician, recalled:

“There wasn’t a thing she wasn’t willing to help you with from where to buy a spool of thread to how to go about getting an abortion. Remember abortions were illegal in those days. She would help with everything.”28 Everyone loved Dorothy. She was invited to all Hill dinner parties. During her time as gatekeeper, her Santa Fe hacienda provided a beautiful setting for 30 young Los Alamos couples to exchange wedding vows.

Oppenheimer organized a synergetic intellectual community where the needs and comfort of resident scientists were paramount. Milly described the community structure as “socialist,” in which knowledge and resources were shared and divvied out according to need.29 He devised a graduated pay scale for the specialists. Salaries were based on most recent income, prior to arrival on The Hill.

His system was not without inequities. Young men in lucrative industrial jobs

28 See Ulam’s 1991 interview with Theresa Strottman titled Remembering Los Alamos: World War II. Interviews are held at the Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Special Collections. 29 Author’s oral interview with Larry and Milly Johnston, summer 2011. See also American Prometheus.

21 benefited over scientific graduate students (like Larry) who had no work experience beyond the ivory tower.

Aside from this matter of subsistence allowances, salaries will be paid according to the present status of each individual: Salaries of those on leave from universities will be paid on the basis of 12/10 of the university salary; those at present under O.S.R.D. contract will be paid the amount of their present salary, without subsistence allowance; Salaries of the younger men without academic positions will be based on the following schedule: BS $200 MS or BS plus 1 yr. of education or experience $220 MS plus 1 yr. or BS plus 2 yrs. $240 MS plus 2 yrs. Or BS plus 3 yrs. $260 PhD or MS plus 3 yrs. Or BS plus 4 yrs. $280 PhD plus 1 yr. $305 PhD plus 2 yrs. $330 PhD plus 3 yrs. $355 PhD plus 4 yrs. $380 PhD plus Maximum (maximum of this scale) $40030

Larry was in his first semester of graduate school when he was invited to join the project; he was at the bottom of the pay scale.

Wives of prominent science professors, who were accustomed to attending university teas in dresses and white gloves, were horrified by the accommodations on the Hill. These women had been instructed to leave their party dresses at home, that slacks and a good pair of boots were more suitable. In 1943 Milly Johnston was unfamiliar with fancy university galas. She grew up in Bishop, CA, a rural mountain setting in the Sierra Nevadas. She explained: “I was use to mud and dust. Where I grew up, there were only dirt roads. I was used to making do and going without, having been raised in a modest family during the depression. I knew Larry was working for the war effort. We were trying to win the war. Families [in Los Alamos]

30 Declassified government document, Los Alamos Historical Society Archives, File copy 1472.115 fius M30D7.

22 had all they needed, with few luxuries, and I was use to that.”31 Milly described the living conditions on the Hill as adequate.

Homes on The Hill were assigned according to need (not rank) and rent was charged according to salary (not dwelling size). Because Larry was married with one small child and a baby on the way, the family qualified for one of the more spacious homes on the Hill, yet they paid the minimum of $19.00 a month. They lived in a two-story fourplex, next door to the Alvarez family. Milly remembered: “I think Luis felt responsible for our marriage, and wanted to make sure I was ok.”

There are several books and remembrances penned by wives on The Hill during the war.32 Most of the women recognized they were part of an important historical moment, regardless of how much they actually knew about the project.

The scientific work done at Los Alamos was on a need to know basis. Milly did not need to know, and Larry was remarkably faithful to the mandatory secrecy. She did have her own methods to determine and assess her husband’s work. She certainly knew that he was involved in military research during a war and that explosives were within his expertise. While preparing for their relocation to Los Alamos, Larry was issued a book on nuclear physics titled Los Alamos Primer. He was told to read it before arriving.33 Once he finished, Milly picked up the book and began reading. “I

31 Author’s interviews with Milly Johnston, summer 2012. 32 See Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi; Eleanor Jette, Inside Box 1662; Bernice Brode, Tales of Los Alamos: Life on the Mesa; Jane Wilson & Charlotte Serber, Standing By and Making Do: Women of Wartime Los Alamos. 33 All scientific personnel were assigned this reading. See Server and Rhodes. Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build an Atomic Bomb, Berkeley: University of California Press (1992).

23 made it half way before I understood the basics of what Larry would be working on.

I also listened to some of the other wives, several of whom knew more than I did.”

Many of the wives were highly educated and were recruited to work on the project as administrative and lab assistants. Some worked as computers (operators of pre-computer computation machines). A few worked as librarians tending to top- secret reports, and several worked as schoolteachers. Security and a housing shortage made resident wives an attractive labor alternative. Every effort was made to facilitate workingwomen’s life on the Hill. Domestic help, grocery shoppers, and a nursery school were quickly arranged. The military provided all maintenance and upkeep of homes; they delivered wood and coal for fireplaces and antiquated cook stoves (sarcastically called “Black Beauties”). GIs reluctantly provided occasional babysitting, often returning wayward children who wondered through holes in the fences to explore nearby canyons.34 Nearly all of the women who wrote about their time in wartime Los Alamos mentioned the military personnel often resented the pampered lives enjoyed by the scientific elite.

Resources and benefits were arranged to keep the project on schedule and ensure workers were not distracted by peripheral problems. Medical services on

The Hill were impressive. There were three doctors. Dr. James Nolan was the resident surgeon. He spent much of his time delivering babies. Dr. Henry Bennett was the popular pediatrician who made regular house calls to inspect children, hoping to eliminate potential infectious outbreaks. Even a flu outbreak could cause

34 Some of those canyons served as dumping grounds for the labs and were exceeding dangerous and toxic. This was a problem that was not corrected until the 1960’s. See Jon Hunner’s Children of Los Alamos.

24 a set back in the labs.35 Dr. Louis Hempleman was a radiologist reserved for industrial accidents, of which there were amazingly few. Much of his time was spent theorizing with scientists on the medical impacts of radiation exposure. Medical services were free except for a hospital stay, which cost $1.00 a day for food. Like the community in general, the medical facility was in a constant state of expansion in order to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population.

Of all of the services provided on the Hill, the maid service was one of the most contentious. Peggy Corbett ran the Maid Service from inside the Housing

Office. She was responsible for establishing a priority system to organize incessant demand. The highest priority went to fulltime workingwomen with children, followed by mothers returning home from the maternity ward. Part-time workingwomen with children were third in line, and nonworking women with children were next. Unemployed wives with no children rarely received help, unless she was a prominent wife who frequently entertained dignitaries from Washington.

One hundred local Indian and Hispanic women came to The Hill to clean residences

Monday through Friday. Although that number dwindled to a mere handful in the winter, when a one-way bus ride might be hours long.

The maid service required continuous recruitment efforts in nearby Indian pueblos (San Ildefonso and San Juan) and Hispanic villages (Espanola and Chimayo).

Dorothy McKibben helped establish and maintain these local connections. Maids reported to the housing office for daily assignment. Their 8-hour day consisted of

35 According to civilian nurse, Amy Komadina Gibson, there were amazingly few contagious outbreaks. See Strottman interview, Remembering Los Alamos.

25 two shifts, for which they were paid $1.50 per shift ($3.00 for the day).36 The

Manhattan Project provided recruitment, administration, and transportation for the maid service, but individual families were responsible for the maid’s modest fee.

Many of the families reminisced about their close relationships with the local women who served in their homes. Unfortunately, there are few records from the maids themselves. In 1984 the Los Alamos newspaper published an article on this neglected facet of the Manhattan Project. Roybal (from San Ildefonso pueblo) was interviewed about her domestic job on The Hill. She recalled: “…they were nice people up there. There was a physicist, Dudley Williams, who still sends me

Christmas cards. But there is no return address. I took care of his two little kids. I practically raised them. I’d like to know what happened to those kids.”37 William’s cards suggest gratitude for Roybal’s nanny service; yet also his reluctance to maintain an intimate connection.

Helen Garcia was a maid from the neighboring Hispanic town of Espanola.

She worked as matron in a men’s “barrack” that housed “single machinist and college young boys.”38 She supervised four maids who cleaned 40 rooms. She was responsible for all items inside the dorm (furniture, linins, light bulbs, everything).

Before leaving the maids were checked for government property after one maid attempted to smuggle a light bulb through the security gate. As a supervisor Helen

36 Jean Kilezer interviewed several maids from San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1984. See “Maid on The Hill” in the Los Alamos Chronicle (1984), held at the Los Alamos Historical Society. Most of the wives who wrote about their time in wartime Los Alamos discussed the maid service. 37 See Kilezer’s “Maid on the Hill” in Los Alamos Chronicle. 38 See Helen Garcia’s transcribed, 1991 interview with Theresa Strotman, part of the “Remembering Los Alamos: World War II,” in the Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Special Collections.

26 was paid slightly more than other maids; her salary was $110.00 a month. Her situation was unique; her husband also worked at the site.

Like many New Mexican Hispanics at the outbreak of WWII, Mr. Garcia first migrated to California for war-work in the aircraft industry. He returned to New

Mexico in 1944 and took a construction job in Los Alamos. The Garcia family was one of few native families that obtained clearance to live on the Hill (they had 6 children). Most of the Hispanic laborers came as single men; some commuted and others took up residence in temporary dormitories and huts. Helen’s family lived in a two room military trailer, with access to a common latrine. They paid $26.00 a month for their accommodations.39

Helen Garcia characterized her experience on the Hill: “…it was wonderful living here in those days. No worry, none, nothing.” She indicated the money was good and the work was better than farming. She claimed to know nothing of the bomb. “All we knew was that it was an army base.” Helen’s first clue came when her husband was selected to join the construction crew that built the “atomic tower” at the Trinity site, where he worked for three months. She distinctly remembered the celebrations after the successful test explosion.40

Helen expressed appreciation for her family’s experience on the hill. She and her husband had good jobs that provided a livable income for their large family.

Both Garcia’s were gradually given more responsibilities: Mr. Garcia was assigned to a top-secret construction crew and Helen was eventually responsible for five barracks. She was also grateful for the education her children received on The Hill;

39 Ibid. 40 Ibid.

27 “It improved their value of education.” All of her children went on to college, and one earned an advanced degree. In a 1990 interview Helen said: “It was an honor to live up here.”41

There were two other prominent Hispanic families on The Hill, both lived on the Parajito Plateau for generations. Bences Gonzales and Johnny Martinez worked for the Los Alamos Boy’s Ranch and stayed to work for the government in 1943.

Bences Gonzales and Johnny Martinez were more engaged in the scientific community than most Hispanic laborers. They provided vital information on available water sources and locally grown produce. The fruits and vegetables the military shipped in by train often arrived inedible. This was a considerable frustration to residents and to military personnel who dealt with frequent complaints. Bences took charge of improving the situation, soothing disgruntled residents and benefiting local growers.42 He and Johnny participated in the school

PTA, both having previous experience with the Anglo boys ranch school. Both men served terms as Hispanic representatives on the Town Council. The Council had no real authority, but it was an important outlet for venting tensions. Bences and

Johnny participated in community life and were generous with their knowledge regarding the area and its resources with the newcomers.

Complaints of all kinds were aired before the Town Council. It organized committees to investigate issues and draft proposals for military authorities to consider. The council was made up of 8 representatives from different sectors of the community. Eleanor Jette represented non-working wives. Her husband was

41 Ibid. 42 See Hunner, Inventing Los Alamos p.49 and Jette, Inside Box 1662.

28 head of the metallurgy division. She refused pressure to work for the project indicating: “I was sure the wives, who should be home taking care of the children were intimidated or encouraged to work because the penny-pinching Washington administration didn’t want to build housing. I theorized that properly qualified teachers weren’t hired for the same reason. I set forth my obligation to my child first and finished with Eric [her husband].”43 She was a consistent critic of military red tape, a tenacious advocate for families, and an involved citizen on The Hill.

Eleanor’s community involvement began when she established a Cub Scout Troop; her son Bill was 10 when they arrived. She joined the PTA where she was assigned to a committee charged with encouraging Hispanic involvement in community affairs and school functions. There were few Hispanic children in the school and their families seemed aloof to school officials.

Eleanor, who had experience in the League of Women Voters prior to coming to the Hill, was well versed in community organizing. She had her own keen since of democracy, but was unfamiliar with New Mexico’s tri-cultural heritage. Native and

Hispanic people in this region had centuries of experience with Anglo outsiders, and a long tradition of determining their own limits of cultural adaptation. Bences attempted to convey this to Eleanor on several occasions. He informed Eleanor that individual Hispanics would choose their level of interaction and that the Hispanic community would come together as a group to fight their own battles when necessary. Bences tried to temper Eleanor’s zealous activism when she came to him

43 Jette, Inside Box 1663, p.55.

29 for strategies in promoting what she called “inter-American relations” on the Hill. 44

Eleanor struggled to understand why local Hispanics were unresponsive to what she considered obvious (Anglo) educational benefits.

Oppenheimer insisted a superior school helped in the recruitment of stellar scientists, and many in the community were thrilled at the opportunity to establish a model educational system in Los Alamos. Yet establishing a premier educational system turned out to be exceedingly difficult in the absence of educational experts.45

Wives filled in as teachers and most had no specific training as educators. Many of them started with optimism, but gave up before the school year concluded.

Eleanor’s son Bill had a succession of five fourth grade teachers. The school operated under continually changing superintendants, each coming in with new philosophies and methods that resident wives/teachers struggled to incorporate.46

The school presented daunting and relentless problems for the scientific community. These educational challenges were further complicated by New

Mexico’s unique pattern of cultural accommodation.

Education had long been a contentious issue in New Mexico’s tri-cultural heritage; federal stipulations on compulsory education delayed statehood in 1912.

Many Native and Hispanic New Mexicans were hesitant to lose control over their children’s schooling. This latest group of Anglo’s on the plateau, with their grandiose (yet disorganized) educational plans, could do little to alleviate this longstanding concern. Eleanor explained in her autobiography: “Up until these last

44 Ibid, p.77. 45 See Bernice Brode, Tales of Los Alamos: Life on the Mesa 1943-1945, Los Alamos Historical Society (1997); Wilson and Serber, Standing By and Making Do. 46 See Hunner, Inventing Los Alamos p. 51.

30 few years, the schools were taught in Spanish. Today, New Mexico is the only state in the union with a bilingual ballot. We live at a faster tempo than the Spanish

American, and they resent Anglo competition. The Spanish Americans and the

Indians have feuded ever since the Conquistadors invaded New Mexico – they still do – but today they’ll stand together to fight Anglo ideas of progress.”47 Eleanor could not understand that New Mexicans did not universally value Anglo ideas of progress and were accustomed to determining their own level of interaction with outsiders.

Bences tried to temper Eleanor’s cultural biases as they worked together on the PTA and Town Council. In 1945, as an investigator for the Town Council, she inspected the army’s latest housing project. She was appalled. The new residences were one room, 300 square foot huts equipped with only a sink and faucet. A latrine was placed every ten huts. Eleanor wondered: “Who are the wretched souls condemned to live here?” She soon discovered that Hispanic laborers were being relocated to the huts; their tiny one-room apartments were needed for a new wave of industrial workers. She explained: “There weren’t enough apartments left to take care of the scientific commitments. The administration says that the Spanish

American laborers in the apartments live in only one or two rooms and don’t understand modern sanitary facilities. They [the administration] say this type of housing will be adequate for them.”48 Eleanor spoke to Bences about the move of

Hispanic workers. He assured her that the Hispanic community would fight for their needs without her help. He explained the Hispanic workers agreed to give up their

47 Jette, Inside Box 1663 p. 77. 48 Ibid, p. 147.

31 small apartments in exchange for larger accommodations, and their demands were met.

Milly Johnston never involved herself in the quarrelsome affairs of the Town

Council. She was a young mother with two babies under 4 years old. Unlike

Eleanor, Milly was not a wife of an academic elite. She was unaccustomed to luxury and prestige. Despite Larry’s modest income, however, the Johnston family qualified for a spacious three-room duplex to accommodate their family of four. Milly also qualified for domestic service after the birth of her second child, Margi. Milly fondly remembered Isabel from San Ildefonso; who was one of the most sought after post delivery nursemaids on The Hill. The two women maintained a relationship for decades after the Johnstons left Los Alamos. With a toddler and a newborn, Milly was uninterested in a job on the Hill. She did find other ways to contribute. She organized a lending kitchen for incoming wives to use, as they waited for their personal items to arrive. It was typically a long wait that lasted several weeks.

Milly also began a Sunday school for the community’s children. “Everyone assumed the children of such esteemed physicist and engineers were exceptional, but they were just normal kids.”49 Milly enjoyed taking the kids on frequent hikes to explore the rugged wilderness and ancient Indian ruins.

Milly remembered her time at Los Alamos fondly and reminisced about her excursions into the countryside, the Christian sing-a-longs in her home on Sunday evenings, and her daughters sitting on the floor playing with the explosive casings that Larry brought home for them. Toys were luxury items that were hard to find

49 Author’s interview with Milly Johnston, summer 2012.

32 during the war, particularly in Los Alamos. She remembered the atmosphere in Los

Alamos as “vibrant and socialist.” “Families had all they needed, there were few extras, and availability was based on need.” Resources and services in Los Alamos were arranged to ensure the maximum efficiency of the scientific elite.

Dissention in the Scientific Community

The group of scientific geniuses that Oppenheimer assembled in Los Alamos, like the community as a whole, was diverse and dealt with conflicting ideologies.

They came from all corners of the globe and each came with unique skills, motives, and perspectives. General Groves opened a 1944 meeting with army officers stationed at the site with: “At great expense we have gathered on this mesa the largest collection of crackpots ever seen.”50 He then instructed the officers to take good care of the “crackpots.” Many of the scientific geniuses fled Europe as the war intensified, and were looking for a place to continue their research. Ultimately they entrusted the United States with the responsibilities of nuclear technology.

Oppenheimer, an amiable and well-respected physicist, rallied the diverse team to harness nuclear energy first. Niels Bohr and his son Aage, after escaping from Nazi occupied Denmark, contributed greatly to the theoretical discussions during early development. The older Bohr continuously argued for an open international dialog based on the universal values of science. Italian Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi came to US in 1939 after Mussolini’s fascist regime issued the

50 Fermi, Atoms in the Family, p. 226.

33 Manifesto of Race, a threat to his Jewish wife Laura.51 In the US Fermi immediately began the process of naturalization while continuing his research (he ignited the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago in 1942). He was unique among Manhattan Project physicists; he understood both the theoretical and the experimental side of the bomb’s development. He was also the light-hearted scientist of the group, for whom no one seems to have had a harsh word (unlike

Oppenheimer and Groves who both made enemies and were critically judged after the fact). was an Austrian born Jewish American who came to the

US in 1931. He was a specialist in quantum electrodynamics and was called to the

Manhattan Project to help solve numerous mathematical problems. Weisskopf would later campaign against the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the 1960’s, as a founding member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Stanislaw Ulam was a

Jewish American of Austrio-Hungarian descent. He was among the most knowledgeable mathematicians in Los Alamos. He solved the hydrodynamic calculations necessary for the plutonium implosion. Edward Teller was the

Hungarian born controversial genius that went on to develop the H-bomb. Isidor

Rabi was the theoretical physicist who refused to officially join the project, but was a friend and troubleshooter to whom Oppenheimer frequently turned. John von

Neuman was born to wealthy Jewish parents in Budapest; he came to Princeton

University in 1930. He was the leader in large-scale electronic computers, needed for complicated calculations. was a German physicist, the son of a

Jewish mother, who fled to the US in 1933. He was head of the Theoretical Division

51 Laura Fermi wrote about her family’s transition to American citizens and her time in Los Alamos. See Atoms in the Family: My life with Enrico Fermi.

34 at Los Alamos and was in charge of predicting how the ball of fire might react.

Ukrainian-American George Kistiakowsky led the Explosives Division with the help of Luis Alvarez (Larry’s mentor). Kistiakowsky and Alvarez’s expertise in explosives was particularly important to the implosion style plutonium bomb. In addition to these distinguished professionals, there were numerous others who were (like

Larry) just starting their scientific careers in 1943.

Due to the secretive nature of the program and the international composition of the community, Groves insisted that all work be strictly compartmentalized.

Workers were to complete their particular task without a full understanding of the project, nor complete knowledge of the intricate workings of the bomb.

Compartmentalization was a matter of considerable disagreement between Groves and Oppenheimer. In the end Oppenheimer won. Compartmentalization would not work in a project that required collaborative problem solving. Over Groves’ reluctance the first weekly General Colloquium was held in May of 1943. These meetings updated scientists on progress at the labs and provided a forum for brainstorming solutions. Larry reported on his progress before a General

Colloquium meeting in 1944, to get input from much more distinguished physicists than himself. Larry remembered standing firm in defense of his bridge-wire.52

Even after 68 years, competition between theoretical and experimental scientists was obvious.

52 Author’s interview with Larry Johnston, summer, 2011.

35 Military management irritated scientists at Los Alamos. They frequently complained valuable time was wasted by over zealous military procedure.53 Waiting for Groves’ decisions, he lived and worked in Washington, added to scientist’s frustrations. Groves and resident military personnel often resented catering to the pampered scientific geniuses and their demands. These annoyances and disagreements were curtailed by the urgency to harness atomic power before the

Nazis. In retrospect Groves and Oppenheimer were a perfect team to lead this group of over achieving eccentric individuals, many of whom had over endowed egos. Oppenheimer’s genial style tended to breed consensus and Groves’ style was pragmatic and authoritative. These two men came to tolerate, if not appreciate, the other and the necessary skills each contributed. The Manhattan Project operated under two parallel goals. The goal for Oppenheimer (and others) was collaborative scientific discovery and an end to world war. The goal for Groves (and others) was

American military supremacy. Those who worked to bring an atomic end to WWII managed to submerge significant ideological differences that bred hostility; tolerance and accommodation were vital to success.

Trinity Test Explosion

Work progressed rapidly in Los Alamos as the war in the Pacific reached unfathomable levels of death and destruction. From May to November of 1944, scientists at Los Alamos were occupied with another contentious debate on whether the implosion plutonium bomb should be field-tested. Scientists working on the

53Bird and Sherwin, American Prometheus, 223-409.

36 uranium bomb (being produced elsewhere) were confident, making a test explosion unnecessary. The plutonium bomb, on which Larry had been working to ignite, was much more troublesome. Groves was hesitant to allow a field test; he worried such a test might reveal the project an expensive and colossal failure. He was perpetually nervous about congressional questions regarding his rampant spending.54

Kistiakowsky and Oppenheimer eventually convinced Groves that a test explosion was necessary.

There were eight possible test sites. The location needed to: be in a low population area, have reliable calm and dry weather, provide a relatively flat landscape, and near Los Alamos for easy transport. The Jornada del Muerto is ninety-miles of high desert in southern New Mexico, extending from Socorro to El

Paso. Spanish conquistadors named the area “Journey of the Dead” in the 1600’s as an ominous warning, that this desert stretch of the Camino Real was exceedingly perilous. In 1945 the Jornada del Muerto was still nearly empty, home to only a few ranching families and their cattle. It was isolated, enclosed by mountains (the San

Andres to the East and the San Mateos to the West), and it was only a four-hour drive from Los Alamos. Groves ultimately decided on the site, which Oppenheimer named Trinity, because it met most of the conditions and the federal government owned much of the surrounding land. The Alamogordo Bombing Range (established in 1942) was adjacent to the site.

Before 1944 came to a close, Jornada del Muerto had been chosen, and preparations to gage the explosion’s aftermath began immediately. Post explosion

54 See Racing for the Bomb, p. 395-409.

37 measurements would be far easier to gather at Trinity, than over enemy territory.

The data collected would be invaluable to future improvements. The effects of ground shock, neutron and gamma ray flux, the release of hot gasses, and the distribution of radioactive residue were the main effects to be measured.55 Luis

Alvarez volunteered to run the post blast tests and Larry accompanied his mentor.

Milly sensed the end was near and remembered the entire community seemed in a state of “overdrive”.

Alvarez and Larry got to work designing parachute gages to measure the energy yield of the blast. They attached microphones to small parachutes that were dropped from a plane directly after detonation. Alvarez and Larry were making final preparations at Kirkland Air Force base in Albuquerque when

Oppenheimer phoned Alvarez. Larry remembered: “Oppenheimer got cold feet”.56

He was nervous, uncertain of the force that would be released from the plutonium explosion. There were ongoing discussions in Los Alamos on whether the bomb could ignite the atmosphere. This question haunted scientists for months prior to the test. Top physicists considered the possibility: Oppenheimer, Fermi, Bethe,

Teller, and others. Fermi, the prankster of the group, lightened the mood by starting a betting pool on the exact energy yield of the blast.57 In the end Hans Bethe gave the most definitive answer, suggesting the extreme pressure and temperature of the explosion would not ignite the atmosphere. All faith was placed in Bethe’s mathematical calculations. Johnston admitted from the hindsight of his nineties,

55 Manhattan Project public lecture given by Larry Johnston at the University of Idaho, April 5, 2011. 56 Author’s interview with Larry Johnston, summer 2011. 57 See Fernic Szasz, The Day the Sun Rose Twice.

38 “scientists are capable of incredible faith when needed.”58 Yet Oppenheimer was pensive and ordered Alvarez’s plane to remain at least 25 miles away from the blast.

It was an order that infuriated Alvarez and Larry. The two men were frustrated with

Oppenheimer, who already seemed hesitant to use what had been painstakingly created.

In the wee hours of July 16, 1945 wives gathered to listen to the countdown on a secured radio frequency and compare what they knew of the project. Alvarez and Johnston listened to the countdown at 25,000 feet and then headed toward the mushroom cloud, yet remaining the designated 25 miles away. Their parachute gages were dropped and successfully recorded important information. The gages were used again over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Larry was the only man to have witnessed and measured the aftermath of all three atomic explosions (Trinity,

Hiroshima, and Nagasaki). At the end of a long productive life, he remembered the explosion at Trinity as having the most profound impact on him personally. He recalled an extreme and immediate sense of relief and exhaustion; his bridgewire detonator successfully imploded the plutonium core.

The quest to beat the Nazis in development of atomic weapons had been accomplished, yet the bombs were not ready (nor needed) to force German defeat.

The Pacific theater, however, was ongoing and particularly gruesome. Fear that the

Japanese would fight to the last man influenced Truman’s decision to bomb

Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki three days later. The practical reality that the US would prove itself the technological powerhouse of the world was an

58 Ibid.

39 added benefit. On August 14, the Japanese asked for a ceasefire. On September 2 the devastated enemy formally surrendered and the war was finally over. Los

Alamos went from top-secret scientific military reservation, to national and international curiosity over night.

The end of WWII made the future of Los Alamos uncertain. Many scientists and technicians were eager to leave. Residents of wartime Los Alamos described a great exodus, in which hundreds left immediately. By spring of 1946 the labs employed only 1200. Many tenured staff returned to their academic posts and the comfort of university life. A few, including Oppenheimer, involved themselves in pressing debates over international diplomacy and global security in a new atomic world. Many of the younger scientists, including Larry, left to purse advanced degrees.59 During the great exodus, scientists and government officials debated the laboratory’s future. These negotiations lead to the creation of the Atomic Energy

Commission. The military turned over operational control to the civilian agency in

1946. The separation of science and military seemed comforting in an unsettling post war world.

American leadership sponsored the Manhattan Project (1942-1946). It required a team of international physicists, a remote construction site, military supervision, and a loyal work force. The diverse community of wartime Los Alamos negotiated deep ideological differences, complex technical problems, and critical shortages of necessary resources. Scientists, their wives, local and migrant laborers

59 Larry earned his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1954. He went on to teach physics at the University of Minnesota before moving on to teach physics at the University of Idaho for 30 years.

40 ultimately trusted American stewardship of atomic power and worked toward US military superiority. Together they endured long hours, a frantic pace, and over- crowded austere conditions. And together they launched a nuclear reality with important legacies for the nation and the world. Niels Bohr referred to a lasting

“nuclear contradiction,” and those who worked intimately on the bomb began a life long endeavor to reconcile the irony of peace through human annihilation.

American citizens also learned to accommodate conflicting feelings of pride and angst over their nuclear ingenuity. Los Alamos opened a nuclear frontier and established a military industrial complex in the American West devoted to maintaining military superiority.

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