109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos

Ten years ago, I taught part-time at the University of New Mexico's small Los Alamos campus. One day a huge thunderstorm marooned me in the lobby of the building along with a cheerful elderly woman who, I soon learned, had come to Los Alamos as a WAC to work on the Manhattan Project. For the next half-hour, I heard her fascinating stories about the laboratory and the community during the early years. When the rain finally stopped and we parted, I reflected that, although the scientific aspects of the project had been amply documented, there was another human story still waiting to be written. I'm glad that Jennet Conant has written that story. Besides having an "inside track" through her grandfather's involvement in the Manhattan Project, she was able to access Dorothy McKibbin's memoirs, and she also makes good use of other unpublished materials as well as interviewing the people involved. This isn't a scientific account of the project, it's the story of the people behind it: from the unlikely team of Oppenheimer and Gen. Groves, to the locals who worked as maids and construction workers in the secret community on the hill -- and Dorothy, who held it all together, and whose story is used to structure the book. Bringing together a motley collection of physicists, engineers, and military experts to construct "the Gadget" was impressive enough -- but the project didn't exist in a vacuum. The technical staff were people who had to be housed, fed, and clothed, and many of them brought families and children whose needs had to be accommodated too. As director, Oppenheimer had to deal with both the scientific and the personal aspects of the project, and this book well describes the human dynamics that he contended with on both fronts. It's gossipy, just like my ex-WAC acquaintance, but it's an enthralling story. And when Dorothy, like the other locals, finally comes to realize what the project was all about, the author well conveys their ambivalence: upon viewing the blast from Sandia Peak, Dorothy reflects, "Everything had changed." The book is an easy read, but it's by no means lightweight, and I recommend it highly as a necessary supplement to the many good "scientific" books on the Manhattan Project.

The World War II decision to build the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, NM was odd. Why, in heaven's name, would anyone locate a huge scientific laboratory on top of a mesa reached only by a dirt road, tens of miles from a town, a railroad, and an airport? The selection of Los Alamos by the dynamic duo of leaders, General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, probably cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs and may have delayed the completion of the bomb itself. Well, if Los Alamos was a poor choice on economic and scientific grounds, it was a great dramatic and artistic choice. Author Conant in "109 East Palace" does a wonderful job depicting the clear air and casual culture of New Mexico and the makeshift colony of nuclear physicists living up on the magic mesa. The book is based on the observations of Dorothy McKibbin, a social secretary, gatekeeper, and "Girl Friday" of the Los Alamos Lab, a widow who loved extravagantly -- although perhaps platonically -- the charismatic scientific leader, Robert Oppenheimer. Author Conant, however, although admiring of Oppie, does not hesitate to point out his warts -- of which he seems to have had an epidemic. This book is not a scientific account of the building of the bomb, but a social history of the wartime community of Los Alamos and the scientists and military officers who made up its population. Oppenheimer is the enigmatic center of the group, but the author also paints portraits of the blunt Groves, the appealing Fermi, the spy Fuchs, and many others of the cast of characters inhabiting Los Alamos. "109 East Palace" concludes with the dramatic story of the Trinity test of the atomic bomb, the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, and Oppie's post war political problems which led to him being denied a security clearance by the government. This is a serious book about the making of the most destructive weapon ever used, but it's also entertaining and instructive for those of us who never could remember the difference between fusion and fission. The tale of Oppie and the bomb is one of the most intriguing and controversial chapters in all of American history. Smallchief

109 East Palace presents a surprisingly engaging story about the members of the atomic bomb project in Los Alamos. The author, Jennet Conant, states early on that she is focusing on the human side of project's history: the technical aspects have been well covered elsewhere. The brilliant and colorful denizens of Los Alamos threw wild parties, worked long hours, and chafed under mandates of government secrecy. In the midst of World War II, an undertaking this monumental had to remain strictly secret. The community was built atop a small school in the middle of the desert. The only link to civilization was across a long, unreliable road and an inadequate bridge. Naturally, logistics were strained. An entire town was built from scratch, and it was in constant construction for years. Scientists, engineers, their families, and soldiers streamed into Los Alamos. They crammed into small apartments with thin walls, and all housing for miles around was filled. Electricity was usually unavailable, and cooking took hours using ancient stoves. Rules limited their ability to leave town or communicate with the outside world. Although these conditions caused some conflict, the citizens responded amazingly well. The insular community became very intimate. They worked at an exhausting pace, anxious to develop the bomb that could end the war and save American lives, and then released their tension by engaging in wild parties. Entranced with their beautiful environment, they went on long hikes and skied in the winter. Los Alamos became a wonderful and sociable place to live. Although Conant describes many people, she focuses mainly on Robert Oppenheimer and Dorothy McKibbin. Oppenheimer was the intensely charismatic director of Los Alamos. McKibbin held an office in Santa Fe and served as the link between the top-secret community and the outside world. She handled many administrative issues and addressed everyone's complaints with superhuman patience. Oppenheimer and McKibbin contributed greatly to the Project's unity and success, and they rise up as heroes during the story. The rest of the story provides great drama. After completing the bomb, the scientists reflect on the responsibility of creating a destructive weapon. Later, the weary Oppenheimer faces anti-communist wrath. 109 East Palace is definitely worth reading. It presents an inspiring tale of citizens coming together during great adversity and proving triumphant. -Zach Zelmar

Everybody knows J. Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller and many of the military minds that directed the effort to develop the atomic bomb. Nobody outside of Los Alamos knew Dorothy McKibben. McKibben who ran 109 East Palace was like the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of this war time "Hamlet"-like drama; she viewed the action not from the heart of the research but from the outside at the gateway where she issued security passes, helped new personnel settle in, dealt with complaints about water pressure, food supplies, etc. She knew everything and nothing about the community she helped as she wasn't privy to the secret goal of the Los Alamos community. While author Jennet Conant doesn't ignore the work they were trying to accomplish, she focuses on the human element that made it possible for the work to occur. Conant provides a detailed and intimate look into the insular community that labored to build the ultimate bomb to finish the "ultimate war". One of the most fascinating sections of the book called "Summer Lighning" deals with Klaus Fuchs who arrived at Los Alamos after doing research for the Manhattan Project on gaseous diffusion. He came to help figure out the implosion problem at the request of Peierls a German physcist working in the US. McKibben never had a suspicion that Fuchs might be betraying the secret work at Los Alamos to the Soviets until it was too late. Conant who it is noted is the granddaughter of James B. Conant (the chief administrator on the Manhattan Project)has a unique insider's perspective. Conant doesn't shy away from the issue about Oppenheimer's loyalty; she reports that Captain Peer de Silva took an immediate dislike to Oppenheimer and believed, based on his file, that Oppenheimer would betray the United States in a hot second. De Silva went so far as to write a memo to Washington stating that very point creating havoc for General Groves the military head of the operation who knew how much they needed Oppenheimer to make the project work. Illustrated with 16 pages of photos showing what life was like inside the camp, Conant's book looks at a pivotal time in history from a very different perspective--the human perspective and she wisely allows this perspective to dominate her book differienating it from others that examine much of the same time and material.

If you received your Ph.D. in Physics along about 1939 or 1941 you stood a good chance of getting a train ticket to Santa Fe, New Mexico with instructions to go to 109 E. Palace upon arrival. Once there you would meet Dorothy McKibbin. She would give you a badge and arrange transportation up a thirty five mile treacherous, twisting mountain road to a place where your working companions were as rarified as the high desert atmostphere. This was a time when the changes in the world of physics were exploding. And of all the changes, those being made at Los Alamos were the greatest. This book, told through the eyes of Dorothy McKibbin, written by the granddaughter of the head of the project, comes out in Robert Oppenheimer's centennial year. In today's revisionist history mood, some people lament the dropping of the bomb. They forget the feelings in this country going back to Pearl Harbor. They also ignore the fact that if the Germans had been successful in driving the D-Day invasion back into the sea or at the Battle of the Bulge, the first to receive Atomic Honor would likely have been Berlin. Splendid Book.