Read Online Bomb by Steve Sheinkin - Free Book Online Page B

Gold.
    â€œOne evening in New York City,” Gold remembered, “about October-November 1942, Semyonov asked me if I had heard anything of a military weapon.” It was a bomb, Semyonov said, a weapon of almost unimaginable power.
    â€œI was puzzled,” Gold said. “I had no idea that anything was going on in regard to atomic energy in the United States.”
    Semyonov knew it was a long shot, but he was desperate. He asked Gold to keep his eyes and ears open.
    *   *   *
    M EANWHILE, Moscow officials reminded their West Coast agents that they’d been sent a list of scientists to cultivate. Moscow was particularly annoyed that no contact had been made with Robert Oppenheimer. The Soviets had no way of knowing that Oppenheimer had just been named the scientific director of the American atomic bomb project, but they knew he was a top American physicist. They knew it was probable he was involved.
    Peter Ivanov, a KGB agent in San Francisco, thought about how he could get close to Oppenheimer. As a Soviet agent, watched closely by the FBI, it would be too risky for him to make a direct approach.
    Ivanov went to see George Eltenton, a chemical engineer known to be sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Ivanov pointed out to Eltenton that the Americans and Soviets were allies in World War II, but the Soviets were the ones doing the fighting against Hitler. Why, Ivanov asked, was America keeping secrets from its ally?
    Eltenton agreed; the Soviets deserved better.
    Ivanov then asked Eltenton what he knew about atomic bomb research being done at the University of California, Berkeley.
    â€œI, personally,” said Eltenton, “know very little of what’s going on.”
    â€œDo you know any of the guys?” asked Ivanov. “Any others connected with it?”
    â€œNot very well,” Eltenton said.
    Ivanov tossed out names of well-known Berkeley physicists: “Ernest Lawrence? Luis Alvarez? Robert Oppenheimer?”
    Eltenton said he knew Oppenheimer casually. They’d been at a few political meetings together over the years.
    Ivanov asked Eltenton to talk with Oppenheimer, to subtly feel out his interest in sharing information with the Soviets. Eltenton said he didn’t know Oppenheimer well enough to do it. Ivanov wouldn’t give up—wasn’t there anyone Eltenton knew who could be trusted to approach Oppenheimer?
    â€œOn thinking the matter over,” Eltenton remembered, “I said that the only mutual acquaintance whom I could think of was Haakon Chevalier.”
    Chevalier was a professor of French literature at Berkeley and the host of the Communist discussion group at which Oppenheimer had been spotted by the FBI about two years earlier. Chevalier and Oppenheimer were good friends. Eltenton asked Chevalier to approach his friend on behalf of the Soviets. Chevalier agreed.
    *   *   *
    T HE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY arose a few weeks later, when Robert and his wife, Kitty, invited Haakon and his wife, Barbara, over for dinner.
    â€œHaakon was one hundred percent in favor of finding out what Oppie was doing and reporting it back to Eltenton,” Barbara remembered. “Haakon also believed that Oppie would be in favor of cooperating with the Russians.” Barbara strongly disagreed. They fought about it in the car on the way to dinner.
    As soon as the guests arrived, Oppenheimer announced it was time to mix a batch of his famous martinis. He walked toward the kitchen. Chevalier followed.
    As Oppenheimer began carefully pouring the liquor, a nervous-seeming Chevalier announced, “I saw George Eltenton recently.”
    Oppenheimer looked up from his work.
    Chevalier continued, saying that Eltenton had a contact with Soviet intelligence. If Oppenheimer ever wanted to share any scientific information with the Soviets, he could use this connection.
    Oppenheimer was visibly disturbed by the suggestion. “That would be a frightful