War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Bertrand Goldschmidt, 1986 [1]
Description:
Bertrand Goldschmidt was a French physicist, the only Frenchman to work on the Manhattan Project. He later became an international authority on nuclear policy. In this interview he recollects his early career with the Curies in the 1930s and reflects on the timing of the discovery of fission and its implications for the war. In 1940, because of anti-semitic laws, he left France for the United States where he hoped to work with Enrico Fermi but was unable to initially, apparently because of restrictions on hiring foreigners. Ironically, the British accepted his services and sent him to Chicago where he was able to collaborate with Fermi after all, and where he was part of the team that first isolated plutonium. He notes Gen. Leslie Groves' concern that French scientists who had worked on the bomb would go back to France which might be led by a Communist. He notes the bitter opposition of non-American scientists, including himself, to the U.S. decision in 1943 to stop collaboration with allies on nuclear matters. Similarly, he believes France was essentially forced to go it alone by the secrecy of other Western allies. He describes witnessing the Bikini test, which he says was mainly a function of the U.S. Navy seeking to share the "prestige" of the other branches. The use of the bomb on Japan, he recalls, led him to believe world politics would be changed forever.
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![War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Hans Bethe, 1986 [1]](https://bpldcassets.blob.core.windows.net/derivatives/metadata/commonwealth-oai:0v83cb51d/image_thumbnail_300.jpg)