The Manhattan Project

Soviet Atomic Bomb Program

Robert Lamphere's Interview - Part 1

Robert Lamphere: One of the British newspapers speculated about allowing the FBI into see this guy [Klaus Fuchs], because we might actually use the third degree against him – which we thought was funny as hell. But right off the bat, he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell me anything, because of what we filed against ‒ particularly his sister, Kristel Heineman, and her husband, and others. So he and I fenced a little bit back and forth before we ever showed him the pictures or anything else. As to whether he was going to talk at all‒

J. Carson Mark's Interview

Carson Mark: We shouldn’t have been making this damn bomb without trying to keep it secret from [Joseph] Stalin. We should’ve been talking to him like [Niels] Bohr said. [Klaus] Fuchs believed and took it into his own hands to make sure that the conversation went on. Of course, he didn’t need to because Stalin knew anyway. Not the technical details, but the general facts.

Raemer Schreiber's Interview (1993)

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

Richard Rhodes: Groves decided not to ship it. I’ve seen the document.

George Cowan's Interview (1993)

George Cowan: What you’ve learned from the Russians, for example?

Richard Rhodes: The main thing I have learned is that their first bomb was a carbon copy of Fat Man.

Cowan Cowan: Well of course. I knew that in 1949, about the middle of September of ’49 because we analyzed the debris from that and it was clear that it was a carbon copy.

Hans Bethe's Interview (1993)

Richard Rhodes: Did David Holloway show you the documents that the Russians published?

Hans Bethe: Not the documents, but I got recent documents like [Yulii] Khariton.

Rhodes: Ah. They also published what [Klaus] Fuchs gave them. And, I have some of it here. I wanted to show you. You may not be able to comment. I think it is probably classified material in the United States.

Bethe: I do not know.

Harold Agnew's Interview (1994)

Rhodes: I am working on a book that would try to cover the years ’45 to ’55. I just finished the first 400 pages; it is all the Soviet bomb story, because so much has come available, including the espionage part of it. But, now I would like to get going and just simply try to deal with the development of the hydrogen bomb. And, most of all, I would like to describe the Mike shot, when you guys all came to put that together. But you also worked later, right, on Romeo? What was Romeo?

Robert S. Norris' Interview

Cindy Kelly: I am Cindy Kelly and we have our guest, Robert S. Norris.

Stan Norris: Right. 

Kelly: Do you want to say your name and spell it?

Norris: I am Robert S. Norris, R-o-b-e-r-t, middle initial S, last name Norris, N-o-r-r-i-s. It is February 13, 2013. We are here in the offices of the Atomic Heritage Foundation. 

Richard Rhodes' Interview

Cindy Kelly: We are with Richard Rhodes at Atomic Heritage Foundation’s studio in Washington, D.C. Can you start by telling us your name?

Richard Rhodes: I’m Richard Rhodes.

Kelly: Can you spell that, please?

Rhodes: Yes, R-H-O-D-E-S.

Kelly: And Richard spelled the usual way?

Rhodes: Yes.

Alex Wellerstein's Interview

Cindy Kelly: This is Wednesday, February 13, 2013. I’m Cindy Kelly, and we have with us Alex Wellerstein. Alex, could you say your name and spell it, please?

Alex Wellerstein: Alex Wellerstein, W-E-L-L-E-R-S-T-E-I-N, and it’s just Alex, nothing fancy.

Kelly: Great. Thank you, Alex. Alex, give us a little background as to your education and how you come to know about the Manhattan Project and related subjects.

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