Genius in the Shadows

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Genius in the Shadows Page 79

by William Lanouette


  57. Szilard to Khrushchev, November 25, 1962. MIT Vol. III, pp. 310–11.

  58. Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev on Khrushchev (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1990), p. 128.

  59. Allan Forbes interview, November 11, 1986.

  60. Herken, 1987, p. 183. Thomas Powers, “Seeing the Light of Armageddon,” Rolling Stone, April 29, 1982, pp. 13–17.

  61. Szilard to Bundy, December 26, 1962 (JFK White House Names Box 2745 Szil). See also note on this letter, which was only that the two had met. McGeorge Bundy interview, December 8, 1987.

  62. Szilard to Kaysen, January 7, 1963 (JFK NSF Box 369 #1, 1/63). Szilard’s January 11, 1963, Memorandum (JFK NSF Box 369 Kaysen Disarmament Szilard, Leo 1/63 #3).

  63. Szilard’s January 15, 1963, Memorandum (LSP). York to Szilard, February 11, 1963 (LSP 21/19). Szilard to Kaysen, February 14, 1963 (JFK NSF Box 369 C Kaysen Disarmament Szilard, Leo 2/63 to 4/63 items # 3 and 3a).

  64. Szilard’s February 20, 1963, meeting with Bundy (JFK/CO55 White House Names Szil) and follow-up letter that day (JFK NSF Box 369 C Kaysen Disarmament Szilard, Leo 2/63 to 4/63 item 6a).

  65. Szilard’s March 20, 1963, “Modus operandi” (LSP). Szilard “Letter (Progress Report) to Council Members,” March 25, 1963, MIT Vol. III, pp. 480–82.

  66. Szilard remarks to the Women Strike for Peace, September 21, 1962. My thanks to Leo Orso for a tape recording of this event.

  67. Bernard Gwertzman, ‘The World Has Six Years to Live,” Sunday magazine, Washington Star, March 24, 1963, p. 7.

  In the 1962 elections, the council raised $79,318.65: $20,938.84 in general contributions and $36,379.81 in checks sent for transmittal to candidates. McGovern was the council’s principal candidate, receiving $20,091.55 in direct contributions and $2,000 from the general fund— financing one-fifth of his campaign.

  The council also earmarked some $10,400 to Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania, $4,675 to Wayne L. Morse of Oregon, $2,500 to J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, and $1,500 to Frank Church of Idaho (JGC Council for a Livable World Files). George McGovern interview, May 18, 1988.

  68. Szilard to Spitz, March 29, 1963 (LSP).

  69. Harold Orlans interview, September 8, 1986.

  70. The International Affairs Seminars of Washington, meeting of April 26, 1963; Szilard’s speaking notes, pp. 3 and 5 (LSP).

  71. Szilard to Wiesner, May 9, 1963 (LSP 21/3).

  72. Szilard’s “Why America May Come to Grief” said on March 27, 1963, that the United States and the Soviet Union “might conceivably live with saturation parity” (LSP 34/17). Szilard to Salk, March 29, 1963 (JSP Salk Institute Papers, Szilard, Leo).

  73. Szilard to Salk, April 30, 1963 (LSP 17/6). In 1962, Szilard dabbled in biology by writing two papers: about how “spitting-image” children develop, “Homologous Suppression in Man” (LSP 26/1), and “On the Occasional Dominance of the ‘Perceptible Phenotype’ in Man” (LSP 29/13). He also edited “The Aging Process and the ‘Competitive Strength’ of Spermatozoa,” a study related to his own vague theories about aging (LSP 22/6).

  74. Szilard-Salk correspondence for May 21 and 23, 1963 (LSP 17/6).

  75. See, for example, Szilard to C. F. von Weizsäcker, January 14, 1963 (CERN #1 cc. to Weisskopf, CERN Archive file 20683). See also CERN Report dated August 20, 1963 (No. 6808, CERN No. 1). Dakin to Weisskopf, July 19, 1963 (CERN book #1). Szilard managed to raise support for EMBO through his approaches to the French government and the Volkswagen Foundation.

  76. See Kennedy-Hoagland correspondence, June 12 and 15, 1963 (JFK NSF Box 369 C Kaysen Disarmament Szilard, Leo 5/63 to 7/63 items 6–6a and numbers a–c). Kaysen to Fisher, ibid.

  77. Details of the confusion appear in Szilard to Roger Fisher, July 27, 1963 (LSP 8/11). See also Szilard-Kaysen telegrams (JFK NSF Box 369 C Kaysen Disarmament Szilard, Leo 5/63 to 7/63 item 9a).

  78. Szilard to Fisher, August 4, 1963 (LSP 8/11 and 71/4). MIT Vol. III, p. 329 n 1.

  79. See September 5, 1963, draft (LSP).

  80. Szilard to Edward Levi, July 6, 1963, Appendix (LSP 12/2). Pugwash Proceedings (LSP 60/17).

  81. Szilard to Edward Levi, July 6, 1963, with Appendix (source of Washington speculation) and a later August 2 Appendix on his movements and activities in Europe (LSP 12/2).

  82. Szilard to Edward Levi, August 1, 1963, Memorandum (LSP 12/2).

  83. Szilard’s September 26, 1963, Memorandum for the Vatican (LSP).

  84. Szilard to Eldon Griffiths, May 19, 1964 (LSP). In London, Szilard met Dennis Healy, had lunch with Richard Crossman, and spoke with physicist Patrick M. S. Blackett. After Szilard’s visit, maverick MP Anthony Wedg-wood-Benn (later just ‘Tony Benn”) praised his ideas on minimal deterrence. Szilard to Muller, Healy, etc., December 6, 1963 (LSP).

  85. Szilard to Kennedy, November 14, 1963; Bundy to Szilard, November 21, 1963 (JFK White House Names Box 2745 Szil).

  86. December 16, 1963, draft of “Farewell to Arms Control” then changed to “Let Us Put Up, or Shut Up” (LSP 27/21).

  CHAPTER 30

  1. Patricia Murphy, “Szilard Papers in Her Trust,” Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1973, Part IV, p. 12.

  2. Szilard to Cecil Green, January 27, 1964 (LSP).

  3. “Summary,” p. 4. MIT Vol. III, p. 421.

  4. The Del Charro was located northeast of where Torrey Pines Road and La Jolla Shores Drive meet.

  5. Murphy, “Szilard Papers in Her Trust,” p. 12.

  6. Szilard to Bundy, February 7, 1964 (LSP).

  7. Szilard pocket diary, February 11, 1964 (LSP).

  8. Szilard to Robert McNamara, February 10, 1964 (LSP).

  9. Attached to “Memorandum” (LSP).

  10. Tristram Coffin, “Leo Szilard: The Conscience of a Scientist,” Holiday, February 1964, pp. 64ff.

  11. Szilard to Carl von Weizsäcker, March 2, 1964 (LSP 20/27).

  12. Szilard to Kogel, March 16, 1964 (LSP).

  13. Szilard began dictating this paper on March 3. See Transcription from Shorthand Notebooks of Dr. Leo Szilard’s Paper “On Memory and Recall,” p. 1 (SIA), hereafter called “Transcript.” My thanks to Sylvia Bailey and June Gittings for a copy of this transcription.

  14. “Memorandum on the Induction of B Galactosidase” (LSP) and “Memorandum on Antibody Formation” (Transcript, p. 4).

  15. (Transcript, p. 5).

  16. Szilard to Wigner, March 13, 1964 (LSP 21/4).

  17. Jonas Salk interview, March 23, 1985.

  18. Melvin Cohn interview, August 11, 1987.

  19. Jonas Salk interview, March 23, 1985.

  20. Melvin Cohn interview, August 11, 1987.

  21. Ibid.

  22. (Transcript, p. 99).

  23. Rita Bronowski interview, January 22, 1986. Jacob Bronowski diary 1964.

  24. (Transcript, p. 100). Szilard to Bernard L. Horecker, May 5, 1964 (LSP).

  25. All quotations are from “On Memory and Recall,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 1092–99 (June 1964). Reprinted in MIT Vol. I, pp. 497–504.

  26. MIT Vol. I, p. 392.

  27. Nicholas Kurti interview, May 26, 1986.

  28. Bronowski to Salk, June 10, 1964 (Salk Institute Files, Dr. Szilard Resident Fellow, JSP).

  29. Freeman Dyson interview, December 1, 1986. Melvin Cohn interview, August 11, 1987.

  30. Melvin Cohn interview, August 11, 1987.

  31. Salk to Szilard, March 2, 1964 (EWP).

  32. Szilard to Spanel, May 6, 1964 (LSP).

  33. “Proposed Conference on Research Prospecti in Biological Ageing,” undated (LSP). Leslie Orgel interview, February 12, 1987.

  34. Ralph O’Teary, “Dr. Teller’s One Regret,” Houston Post, May 19, 1963. Edward Teller, whose “one regret” in this interview was that he had received the prize before Oppenheimer did, had tried to arrange for Szilard to receive it in 1960. See Aaron Novick to Cyril Smith, January 14, 1960 (Aaron Novick Papers).

  35. Tabin to Gertrud Weiss Szilard, July
31, 1964 (LSP). Julius Tabin interview, December 19, 1985.

  36. Jonas Salk interview, March 23, 1985.

  37. Invitation declined by Szilard, January 22, 1964; April 6, 1964, correspondence; Szilard to Bronowski, May 27, 1964 (LSP).

  38. Gertrud Weiss Szilard to Herbert Anker, January 15, 1965 (LSP 86/7).

  39. Szilard to F. C. Stewart, May 13, 1964 (LSP).

  40. Szilard to Betty Goetz Lall, May 13, 1964 (LSP).

  41. Boston Herald, March 3, 1964, p. 32. Boston Herald, March 9, 1964, p. 24.

  42. H. A. Crosby to Szilard, March 10, 1964 (LSP).

  43. Correspondence in LSP 6/35.

  44. Szilard to Burdick, May 28, 1964 (LSP 5/18).

  45. Anna Beck to Szilard, May 30, 1964. Beck to the author, 1983.

  46. Whitmore follow-up note, June 1, 1964 (EWP).

  47. San Diego County Certificate of Death, No. 8009, Dist. 3449; CC 940-64; signed June 1, 1964.

  48. Associated Press dispatch A22LA, May 30, 1964.

  49. Associated Press dispatch A30LA, May 30, 1964.

  50. James M. Whisenand to Willet F. Whitmore, June 4, 1964 (EWP).

  51. Whitmore to Whisenand, June 24, 1964. James J. Nickson to Trude Szilard, June 27, 1964 (LSP 85/4).

  52. “Leo Szilard Dies, A-Bomb Physicist,” The New York Times, May 31, 1964, pp. 1 and 77. London Times, June 1, 1964.

  53. Alice Danos interviews, June 10 and September 4, 1986.

  54. Wigner to Gertrud Weiss Szilard, May 31, 1964; John Polanyi to Gertrud Weiss Szilard, June 14, 1964 (LSP 85/5). “Special Report. This was Leo Szilard. Remembrance of a Genius,” Life, June 12, 1964, p. 31.

  55. Disarmament and Arms Control, Autumn 1964, p. 453.

  56. Jonas Salk’s June 1, 1964, statement (Salk Institute Files, JSP).

  57. Gertrud Weiss Szilard release, June 1, 1964. J. C. Stoddart (La Jolla Mortuary) to Edwin Lennox, June 3, 1964 (Gertrud Weiss Szilard, May 30, 1964, file, EWP).

  58. “Leo Szilard,” June 13, 1964 (Salk Institute Files, Dr. Szilard Resident Fellow, JSP).

  59. James Arnold interview, February 11, 1987. Leslie Orgel interview, February 12, 1987. Szilard to Trude, August 4, 1960 (EWP).

  EPILOGUE

  1. James D. Watson to the author, May 7, 1987. Szilard to Trude, August 4, 1960 (EWP).

  2. Nobel Lecture by Evgeni Chazov, December 11, 1985. He was referring to Szilard’s 1949 story “Calling All Stars,” which appeared in The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stories.

  3. “A Message from Gorky” by Andrei Sakharov, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June/July 1983, p. 2.

  4. Nicholas Wade, Science, November 1972.

  5. Jonas Salk interview, March 23, 1985.

  6. Rita Bronowski interview, January 22, 1986.

  7. “Ever See a Paper Grade a Scholar?” San Diego Tribune ad, Editor & Publisher, March 25, 1989, p. 2.; “The Salk Institute at a Crossroads,” Science, June 27, 1990, p. 360.

  8. Jonas Salk interview, March 23, 1985.

  9. “Strong Inference” by John R. Platt, Science, October 16, 1964, pp. 347–53.

  Bibliography

  This list includes the published sources that I found most useful when researching and writing Szilard’s biography and is not a compilation of all references cited.

  ARTICLES

  Abir-Am, Pnina G. “Themes, Genres and Orders of Legitimation in the Consolidation of Biology.” History of Science 23 (1985): 73–117.

  Ackland, Len. “Dawn of the Atomic Age.” Chicago Tribune Magazine, November 28, 1982, pp. 10ff.

  Bennett, Charles H. “Demons, Engines and the Second Law.” Scientific American, November 1987, pp. 108–16 and 150–51.

  Bernstein, Barton. “Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941–1945: A Reinterpretation.” Political Science Quarterly 90, no. 1 (Spring 1975): 23ff.

  Brown, Harrison. “The Beginning or the End: A Review.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 3 (March 1947): 99.

  Ehrenberg, Werner. “Maxwell’s Demon.” Scientific American, November 1967, pp. 103–10.

  Feld, Bernard T. “Nuclear Proliferation—Thirty Years After Hiroshima.” Physics Today, July 1974, pp. 24–25.

  Gruber, Carol S. “Manhattan Project Maverick: The Case of Leo Szilard.” Prologue (Journal of the National Archives) 15, no. 2 (Summer 1983): 73–87.

  McClaughry, John. “The Voice of the Dolphins.” The Progressive, April 1965, pp. 26–29.

  Reingold, Nathan. “MGM Meets the Atomic Bomb.” The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1984, pp. 154–63.

  Rider, Robin E. “Alarm and Opportunity: Emigration of Mathematicians and Physicists to Britain and the United States, 1933–1945.” History of Science and Technology Program, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 15:1 (1984).

  Schaffner, Kenneth F. “Logic of Discovery and Justification in Regulatory Genetics.” Salk Institute, February 17, 1971.

  Shils, Edward. “Science and Scientists in the Public Arena.” American Scholar, Spring 1987, pp. 185–202.

  Szabadváry, Ferenc. “Leo Szilard’s Studies at the Palatine Joseph Technical University of Budapest.” Periodica Polytechnica, 31, no. 187 (1987): 187–90.

  Teller, Edward. “Seven Hours of Reminiscences.” Los Alamos Science, Winter/ Spring 1983, pp. 190–95.

  Weart, Spencer R. “The Road to Los Alamos.” Journal de Physique, Colloque C8, supplement au n° 12, Tome 43, décembre 1982, C8-301–21.

  Yavenditti, Michael J. “Atomic Scientists and Hollywood: The Beginning or the End?” Film and History, December 1978, Vol. 8, No. 4.

  Yoxen, Edward. “Where Does Schrödinger’s What Is Life? Belong in the History of Molecular Biology?” History of Science 17 (1979): 17–52.

  PAMPHLETS, THESES, AND REPORTS

  Azimov, Isaac. Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy (three volumes). US Atomic Energy Commission, 1972.

  Badash, Lawrence, Elizabeth Hodes, and Adolph Tiddens. “Nuclear Fission: Reaction to the Discovery in 1939.” Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego. IGCC Research Paper No. 1, 1985.

  Forman, Paul. “The Environment and Practice of Atomic Physics in Weimar Germany: A Study in the History of Science.” Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1967. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc., 1970.

  Krivatsy, Christina Maria. “Goethe’s Faust and The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madach: A Comparative Analysis.” Duke University, Department of Germanic Languages and Literature, 1973.

  A Memorial Colloquium Honoring Herbert L. Anderson, August 31, 1988. Los Alamos National Laboratory. LALP-89-14, August 1989.

  Titus, Alice K. “Collective Conscience: A Short Study of the Beginnings of the Scientists Movement.” Network, pp. 6–7 and 10–11.

  US Atomic Energy Commission. “Nuclear Terms, A Glossary,” 1967.

  US House of Representatives, Committee on Military Affairs, Atomic Energy, Hearings on H.R.4280, 79th Congress, 1st Session, October 9, 18, 1945.

  US Senate, Special Committee on Atomic Energy, Hearings on S. Res. 179, Part 2, December 5, 6, 10, and 12, 1945.

  Walker, Mark. “Uranium Machines, Nuclear Explosives, and National Socialism: The German Quest for Nuclear Power, 1939–1949.” Department of History, Princeton University, October 1987.

  BOOKS

  Alperovitz, Gar. Atomic Diplomacy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.

  Amrine, Michael. The Great Decision. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959.

  Ashmore, Harry S. Unseasonable Truths: The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989.

  Badash, Lawrence. Kapitza, Rutherford, and the Kremlin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

  Bernstein, Barton, ed. Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1972.

  The Atomic Bomb: The Critical Issues. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1976. Beveridge, William A. A Defence o
f Free Learning. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

  The London School of Economics and Its Problems 1919–1937. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1960.

  Blackett, P. M. S. Fear, War and the Bomb: The Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1949.

  Blumberg, Stanley A., and Gwinn Owens. Energy and Conflict: The Life and Times of Edward Teller. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976.

  Boorse, Henry A., and Lloyd Motz. The World of the Atom. 2 vols. New York: Basic Books, 1966.

  Boyer, Paul. By the Bomb’s Early Light. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.

  Brians, Paul. Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1914–1984 (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1987). [BAS March 86, p. 53].

  Brillouin, Leon. Science and Information Theory. New York: Academic Press, 1965.

  Brodie, Bernard. The Atomic Bomb and American Security (Yale University, Memorandum No. 18), 1945.

  The Absolute Weapon. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1946.

  Escalation and the Nuclear Option. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966.

  Bronowski, Jacob. The Ascent of Man. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1973

  Brown, Harrison. The Challenge of Man’s Future. New York: Viking Press, 1954.

  Budapest Anno. Gyorgy Klosz Archive. Budapest: Corvina, 1984.

  Byrnes, James. All in One Lifetime. New York: Harper, 1958.

  Cairns, J., G. S. Stent, and J. D. Watson, eds. Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology, 1966.

  Clark, R. W. The Birth of the Bomb. London: Phoenix House, 1961.

  Einstein: The Life and Times. New York: Avon Books, 1972.

  The Scientific Breakthrough. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974.

  Cline, Barbara L. The Questioners: Physicists and the Quantum Theory. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., Inc., 1965.

  Compton, Arthur H. Atomic Quest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.

  Conant, James B. Modern Science and Modern War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952.

  Congressional Quarterly Service. Congress and the Nation, 1945–1964. Washington, DC, 1965.

 

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