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

What a great read. I can’t say enough about the insight Jennet Conant puts into this work. She has done a masterful job weaving the intricacies of the bomb development, political up-heavel and meshing of over inflated egos into a precise, easy to digest, complex subject matter. We all know Oppenheimer was dubbed, the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” but how was he able to do it is the real story. We were in a race to beat Germany to the draw. Everyone knew, if Hitler got there first, he’d waste no time nuking Moscow, London, Warsaw or any other target in Europe. General Groves chooses Oppenheimer to lead the charge at Los Alamos. Talk about two diametric individuals, Oppie is the quintessential academian while Groves is hardcore military. War does make strange bedfellows. But the glue that holds this tenuous détente together is Dorothy McKibbins whom Oppie hired. Without her organizational skills and calm demeanor, it’s questionable whether the Manhattan Project would have succeeded. She was the prop master behind the curtain that allowed the performers to shine. You name it and she saw it was handled even it wasn’t in her job title: housing, food, transportation, entertainment, lost luggage, passes, credentials. No one stepped foot into the compound until she vetted him or her. The only time she allowed a stranger onto the base was when a B-29 pilot arrived late for a meeting. She sized him up in a few minutes and decided, he was okay. The pilot? None other than Colonel Paul Tibbets. I’d say she was a good judge of character. No matter what task Oppie asked Dorothy to perform, she never balked. She, like many women were mesmerized by this soft spoken giant in the world of Physics. Whether he knew it or not, he had quite an effect on the female persuasion, yet stay true to his wife Kitty. Without going into too much detail, she loved this man for his energy, kindness, compassion and wit. Oppie’s drawback was his intelligence and superior attitude. Many of his colleagues embraced it while others, who felt his harsh wit, held high resentment, including the military. After the war, we are aware of the McCarthy hearings and how they were designed to weed out any and all people who were remotely connected to the Communist Party. Many of the scientists who worked on the bomb, for whatever reasons had joined the party, but were not active. It was the thing to do. The identification of Fuchs and the Rosenbergs as Russian spies added salt to the wound. Oppenheimer would be grilled at congressional hearings for not releasing the name of a would-be informant. His naivety of political workings would be his temporary downfall in the public eye. No textbook or theorem could prepare him for the inner workings of Washington. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the inner workings of Los Alamos and the individuals who launched the world into the atomic age. Five Stars!

I am amazed at the work that Ms. Conant put into this book. It is a marvel of both research and writing. However, for me, there is one major flaw: the type is so small that I had to put on reading glasses two times stronger - and then got eyestrain if I read for too long. What a shame to make an amazing piece of journalism such a trial to enjoy! Still - I highly recommend this book. If you have strong reading glasses!

There are a lot of books about the the Manhattan project . This book concentrates solely on Los Alamos which most people think was the entirety of the Manhattan project; it wasn't. Los Alamos was an isolated boys school whose location was known to Robert Oppenheimer who thought it would be an ideal spot for a secret project. The initial plan was for a laboratory of just a few people. This is the story of how this plan grew into a facility with several thousand people who all first came to the site through a small office based at 109 East Palace in Santa Fe. How the chaos was managed by a small staff was another endeavour that is often overlooked when contemplating the achievements of Los Alamos itself. This is full of very human and personal stories woven together in a very enagaging style by Jennet Conant. I found it very a enjoyable and illuminating book which added colour and flavour to the story of Los Alamos. I did feel it went a bit past its remit by talking about the post-war story of Oppie and McCarty but this didn't spoil the book. If you have an interest in World War II history and the Manhattan project this is a fascinating book about the period which brings a necessary human scale to the story.

A wonderful book, filling in so many of the blanks. It was written from a personal perspective with so much information that enables you be there while this monumental task was being undertaken. It continues on to the happenings that occurred in the coming years to many of the scientists and to Oppenheimer particularly. McCarthyism played a part in the mood of the country during this time and many jumped on board. It seemed some to make a name for themselves. It calls to mind “No good deed goes unpunished “

Much has been written about the once secret Manhattan Project, the group of scientists who participated, and the 27 months to engineer the first atomic bomb. Jennet Conant's book, "109 East Palace" is unique because it examines the project from the viewpoint of those intimately involved, so to speak, a compendium of the day-to-day diaries of those involved. Conant describes not only the frustrations, deprivations, and petty squabbles, but also the simple pleasures and the lifelong friendships that were established during the enforced isolation of the group. The author tells story after story about the interactions of the scientists with the government, with the locals in nearby Santa Fe, and with each other. Vignettes allow readers to form their own conclusion regarding the character of the individuals. The stories are interesting; some are hilarious. One story about Robert Oppenheimer (Oppy) involved his relationship with a married women Kitty who was, by the time he married her, several months pregnant with his child. With fellow academics at the University of California Berkeley outraged by his behavior, Oppy told his friends that he was thinking about naming the child Pronto. It became evident early on that Edward Teller, jealous of Oppenheimer's appointment to direct the project at Los Alamos, did everything he could to challenge Oppy's authority and to create disharmony among the scientists. In a final act of vindictive betrayel, Teller testified in a government hearing that Oppenheimer should not be trusted. One of the sub-themes of the book was the scientists questioning the purposeful use of the A-bomb on Japanese civilians. After the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the consensus among the scientists, with a few notable exceptions like Edward Teller, was that the bomb should not be used again, and they made their opinion known in writing to the U.S. government. A great many of the scientists, when given the opportunity, quit the project in protest to the government's dropping of the second bomb. The overwhelming majority believed the planned development of the H-Bomb to be unconscionable. A central character in the book and in the lives of virtually everyone at Los Alamos was Dorothy McKibbin who had important and continuous interaction with everyone of the thousands of civilians working on the project. To many, Dorothy was the mother who listened to their problems, to everyone she was their contact with the outside world. Dorothy and Oppy developed a close and enduring friendship that lasted a lifetime. The two had much in common. Both were intelligent and well educated. Both had come years earlier to the Sante Fe tuberculosis sanitarium for treatment, and both after a time came to love the Sangre de Christo hills and surroundings. When they met for the first time, during the planning of the project, in less than a minute, both decided they wanted to work with the other.

I learned about this book while visiting Santa Fe last spring. I waited and waited and waited for the price to drop before buying it. It was an interesting read in that I learned a lot about the behind the scenes politics and personalities of the Manhattan project. It's even more interesting when you compare it to the white-washed version that you see at the museums in Los Alamos. Read it, but if you are kindle reader wait until the price drops below $10. It's not a perfect book. It was rather repetitive. After several chapters describing the same hardships again and again, I started to lose interest in the book. Another thing that was annoying was that the writer often contradicted herself when she described Oppenheimer. In one chapter he is described as hard to get along with and then the next chapter he is described as everyone loves him. When I finished reading it, I still was not clear who he really was. I am still giving it 4 stars, though, because it's about New Mexico, which I love, and it's at times very fascinating.

With family living in the Taos area for some time, we have had the pleasure to travel throughout New Mexico cities and pueblos many times. With each visit we learned more about the history and culture of New Mexico and its people. The story of the Manhattan Project hovers over the Santa Fe area in the same way that Los Alamos looks down on the area from high atop the mesa. Much of the early development of New Mexico in the 20th century stems from the massive government spending and, in particular, the Manhattan Project for development of an Atomic bomb for deployment during the war. The story of the Manhattan Project is one of great American technical genius led by Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer. However, within the genius we have the tragedy. The post deployment era of the bomb, the post war hysteria of the Red menace led to the destruction of Oppenheimer and many of his co-workers. Some of these wounds were self inflicted by Oppenheimer and by the politicians who prosecuted so many before the American people. We also have the tragedy of the Japanese people who still live with the tragedy to this day. Dorothy McKibben was Oppenheimer’s doorkeeper at the small office in Santa Fe. Through her door passed every employee and family member of the project in transit to the Los Alamos site. This story is compelling and shows in the detailed research of the author. This is the book she would have written had she been able to complete the manuscript. With such brilliance on the part of the technical team, we beat the Germans by producing a deployable weapon. However, with its use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we cannot escape the unintended consequences of the Atomic age to this day.

In order to enjoy opera, you have to know the plot in advance. This is a wonderful book… if you are familiar with the story of Los Alamos. The more you know, the better the book is in its descriptions and stories of the principal and lesser players of the amazing Manhattan Project story. If you know little or nothing- then perhaps you need a starter book to introduce you to all involved. Richard Rhodes’ book is certainly best, as is Kai Bird’s and Richard Feynman’s, even General Grove’s. If you have tried those, then 109 Palace is delicious. Especially valuable for younger readers who may be limited in US history before 1985.