Post Begins Conant's Biography, Describes Work on Atomic Bomb

President Conant's important part in the development of the atomic bomb is detailed in an article in the current Saturday Evening Post. Written by Kermit Roosevelt '37, and entitled "Harvard's Prize Kibitzer," it describes how the President was responsible for the decision to continue the Manhattan Project as militarily feasible.

In the first of two installments, the Post story tells of Conant's appointment to the wartime National Defense Research Council, and his subsequent chairmanship of a sub-committee on Atomic Energy. "In this capacity he made the crucial decision on the bomb," Roosevelt writes.

According the article, Conant determined the future development of the bomb on the night of December 6, 1941, a few hours before the Pearl Harbor attack. "The best men...minds...scarce materials could be spared only for something of supreme importance...the importance of the decision was obvious. It fell to Conant to make it."

"He said 'yes', and the Atomic Age was born at that moment." Roosevelt goes on to tell of Conant's jobs on the Top Policy Group in charge of atomic energy, his administrative work on the Manhattan project, and his emotional reaction to the New Mexico test of the bomb, which he watched huddled face down in a trench with his associates, "violently intense."

The article also describes Conant's background, and his career at Harvard. "Before entering College he had graduated brilliantly from Roxbury Latin, and had already done the equivalent of freshman and sophomore work in chemistry and physics. At Harvard he completed the four-year course in three years with high honors, making Phi Beta Kappa, holding an Honorary John Harvard Scholarship, and working as an editor of the CRIMSON."

Conant took a quick shot at the Chemical business. He returned to the University for his Ph.D. and "he has remained there ever since." The choice of Conant for President by the Corporation in 1933 is also described. "The story is that Conant...spoke so eloquently of a friend's qualifications that the committee was given seriously to think of...him. It was the old New England story again, of the courtship of Myles Standish...the Corporation indicated that it would be interested in hearing further from Conant in his own behalf."

The job went to Conant; Roosevelt describes him as "a physically unobtrusives sort of man...painters have seized his two most distinctive features--a wide mobile month and long-fingered, sensitive hands--and distorted them for emphasis. Only a few photographers have been able to get representative and impressive pictures of the man."

Among the other wartime experiences of Conant brought out in the article is his December 1945 trip to Moscow with Secretary of State Byrnes, to discuss atomic energy control with the Russians. He was entertained at a Christmas Eve dinner, "a supergala performance," in which Molotov served as toastmaster. After wading through a large number of toasts in "oceans of vodka, champagne, wine, and brandy," Molotov allegedly stood up and said "here is this man Conant, who probably has an atomic bomb in his pocket with which he could blow us all to tiny pieces..." He never finished. Stalin jumped to his feet, Roosevelt states, and sternly exclaimed that this was no joking matter." American scientists had done a great job in winning the war...now we must develop atomic energy for peace." Then he raised his glass. "Here's to Professor Conant!"