JEWISH WORLD

18 JEWISH WORLD • AUGUST 11-17, 2023 uranium] meant or could mean.” There was a second visit, Cooke related, by Leo Szilard, one of the scientists on the first trip, who this time Szilard came with Edward Teller, yet another refugee. A “bold and simple letter” had been drafted, noted Cooke. Ein- stein signed it. “The president got the letter.” And that led to the Man- hattan Project. In my book, “Cover Up; What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power,” published in 1980, I present a facsimile of much of the Ein- stein letter and discuss it and the Man- hattan Project. Through the years since, nuclear technology has been a focus of mine and I have written more than a thousand articles and additional books and have been the presenter of many TV programs on the subject. In 1999, I went to Los Alamos for an event in which the Nuclear Free Future Awards for that year were presented. I had been invited to be a member of a panel of judges for the award given to people in- volved in education about nuclear technology and challenging it. T he setting of the awards cere- mony was right out of the Man- hattan Project, literally. Claus Biegert, head of the Nucle- ar Free Future Awards program, arranged for it to be held in Fuller Lodge, a main building among the original structures used by the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. There are several scenes in “Op- penheimer” filmed in the Fuller Lodge. Among those present was Peter Oppenheimer, son of J. Rob- ert Oppenheimer and an opponent of nuclear weapons who warmly welcomed Biegert to Fuller Lodge. I stayed at a motel in Los Alamos a few blocks aways. Its halls were lined with photographs of nuclear bombs ex- ploding with their mushroom clouds. The morning after the ceremony, I had breakfast at the motel at a ta- ble with the folk singer and social justice activist Arlo Guthrie, who was involved in the awards pro- gram and was a long musical advo- cate of peace. There we were in a building glorifying nuclear bombs that was situated in an area where the glorification of nuclear weap- ons is an ongoing vocation. Not only did Einstein regret his signing the letter to FDR—he fur- ther called it the “one great mistake Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, Princeton University, 1947. ing the use in “Cover Up” of passages from one of his books that claimed “we can survive” nuclear war. I was told no. I quoted from it anyway. Can the nuclear weapons genie be put back in the bottle? Chemical weapons were outlawed—put back in the bottle—through a set of in- ternational treaties after World War I in which their terrible conse- quences were demonstrated. The vehicle today for eliminating nu- clear weapons is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), passed at the United Na- tions by a vote of 122 nations in July 2017. It went into effect in January 2021, after 50 nations rati- fied it. It bans the use, develop- ment, testing and production of nu- clear weapons and also prohibits threats to use them. As of this year, there are 68 states that are party to the TPNW. It has also been signed by another 27 oth- er countries, but they have not yet ratified it. However, the nine coun- tries that now possess nuclear weapons—including the United States, Russia, and China—do not support the treaty and are not likely to in the near future. Karl Grossman, professor of jour- nalism at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, has covered Long Island for 60 years. in my life”—but Szilard was also left with deep concerns about a fu- ture in which nuclear weapons would proliferate. Szilard in 1945 put together a pe- tition to President Harry S signed by 70 other Manhattan Project scientist urging the president not to use the bomb on Japan without first giving it the opportunity to surrender. “The development of atomic power will provide the nations with new means of destruction,” the petition said. “The atomic bombs at our disposal represent only the first step in this direction, and there is almost no lim- it to the destructive power which will become available….” Truman never saw the letter be- fore approving the bombings of Hi- roshima and Nagasaki . According to various accounts, its delivery was blocked by the Manhattan Project’s director Gen. Leslie R. Groves, Jr., and Secretary of State James F. Byrnes. Meanwhile, Teller—then and throughout his life—believed nu- clear war was feasible and winna- ble. He led the development of the hydrogen bomb—what he called the “super”—which is an even more powerful nuclear weapon. His conflict with Oppenheimer over this is repeated throughout the “Oppenheimer” film. I had a run-in with Teller in request- away, or locked up as nuts” if “they had gone in person to the State De- partment or the White House.” T hey needed someone of greater standing. That was when one of the scientists “remembered the old man, another refugee, but better known”—Albert Einstein. “He might carry a little weight,” Cooke went on. “That was it, get to the old man, tell himwhat was meant by the equation: one secret meeting plus one export ban. But where was the old man? Well, one of them had heard that he was down at the end of Long Island, summering in a cottage rented from a local doctor. Doctor... doctor... wait a minute, Moore? That was it. But now the place.” One of the scientists “remem- bered all this, but couldn’t recall the name of the nearest village,” said Cooke. “Now Long Island is 120 miles long and full of place names. And the English names might be forgettable enough to a couple of Hungarians, but how about the Indian names—Aque- bogue and Noyac and Mattituck and Ronkonkoma…and the like.” One scientist said it was spelled “with a ‘P.’ They saw a name 90 miles down the island on the map in red letters, ‘Patchogue, that’s it, that’s the one.’ So they drove off. And they got out, and they asked in stores and petrol stations, ‘Anybody know the whereabouts of Doctor Moore’s cottage?’ Nobody had ever heard of him. They got into the car again and sweated over the map.” Then still driving they neared a bay—Peconic Bay—and one scien- tist said: “Could it be Peconic?” “‘That’s it,’ cried the other, ‘now I remember.’” And they drove on. “Less than two miles fromPeconic” they came to Cu- tchogue and “saw a boy…standing on a corner with a fishing rod in his hand. The old man [Einstein] was a great fisherman. ‘Sure, said the little boy,’ he lives in Doctor Moore’s cottage.’” The boy climbed into the scientists’ car and he led them there. “The old man [Einstein] came out in his slip- pers and they told him their news.And they had a hot hour explaining to him what it all [the splitting of the atom in Germany and the ban on exporting A promotional poster for “Oppenheimer.” In my book ‘Cover Up; What You Are Not Sup- posed to Know About Nuclear Power,’ I discuss the Einstein letter and the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer continued from page 16