American Prometheus

by Kai Bird

The sense of urgency that everyone came to share was reflected in the plan’s endorsement by businessmen like Monsanto’s Charles Thomas and the Republican Wall Street lawyer John J. McCloy. Herbert Marks later remarked, “Only something as drastic as the atomic bomb could have got Thomas to suggest that the mines be internationalized. Don’t forget he’s the vice president of a hundred-and-twenty-million-dollar firm.” Soon afterwards, Oppenheimer’s report—which became known as the Acheson-Lilienthal Report—was submitted to the White House. Oppenheimer was pleased; surely, the president would now understand the urgent need to control the atom. But his optimism was misplaced. While Secretary of State Byrnes made a pretense of saying that he was “favorably impressed,” he was, in fact, shocked by the sweeping scope of the report’s recommendations. A day later, he persuaded Truman to appoint his (Byrnes’) longtime business partner, the Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch, to “translate” the Administration’s proposals to the United Nations. Acheson was appalled. Lilienthal wrote in his diary, “When I read the news last night, I was quite sick. . . . We need a man who is young, vigorous, not vain, and who the Russians would feel isn’t out simply to put them in a hole, not really caring about international cooperation. Baruch has none of these qualities.” When Oppenheimer learned of this appointment, he told his Los Alamos friend Willie Higinbotham, by then president of the newly cre...