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CHAPTER
1 CONTINUED
Security and the Manhattan
Project 149
The leaders of the American atomic energy program, aware of the
tremendous military potentiality of atomic research, recognized
almost from the beginning the need for maintaining a high degree
of secrecy. An important factor in their decision in early 1942
to turn over administration of the program to the Army was their
conviction that it was the organization best prepared during wartime
to enforce a foolproof system of security. Such a system would ensure
that the Axis powers remained ignorant of Allied interest in developing
atomic weapons; reduce the likelihood that the Axis states, particularly
Germany, would accelerate their own efforts to produce atomic weapons
and undertake espionage and sabotage activities against the American
program; and, most significantly, from the standpoint of military
effectiveness, allow the Allies to employ these weapons against
the Axis nations with maximum surprise.150
Early Aspects
First efforts to establish security in atomic matters had occurred
in 1939, when refugee physicists in the United States attempted
to institute a voluntary censorship on publication of papers concerning
uranium fission. American scientists did not accept this suggestion
initially, but the outbreak of World War II brought home to many
of them the need for control over publications relating to atomic
fission. To formalize a censorship program, the Division of Physical
Sciences of the National Research Council in April 1940 established
a committee that succeeded in getting most scientists to withhold
publication of papers on sensitive subjects, particularly those
concerned with uranium fission.
In June, when the government-sponsored Committee on Uranium became
a subcommittee of the newly constituted National Defense Research
Committee (NDRC), it also became subject to the security measures
currently in effect for federal agencies. The NDRC, knowing that
it was to be concerned chiefly with projects for the Army and Navy,
adopted security regulations that conformed to those of the two
military services. Under these regulations NDRC subcommittees were
required to adhere to a policy of strict compartmentalization of
information, to classify all sensitive materials, and to obtain
security clearances for all employees.
Transfer of the NDRC uranium program to the Office of Scientific
Research and Development (OSRD) in November 1941 did not significantly
alter existing security arrangements, because the OSRD patterned
its own security system largely along the lines of the NDRC program.
As the OSRD became more involved in negotiation and administration
of contracts with industrial and research organizations, however,
it expanded its security controls to provide a more adequate coverage,
adding security measures for personnel administration, classified
information, and plant protection.151
Street Scene in Los Alamos.
The barbed wire fence separates
the technical installations from the residential area.
PHOTO
The modest OSRD security system sufficed until, in
the spring of 1942, the start of the uranium program's rapid expansion__the
letting of numerous contracts with industrial firms; the employment
and interaction of ultimately tens of thousands of workers, scientists,
and engineers; and the formation of complex organizations to construct
and operate the large-scale production plants and their atomic communitiesenormously
complicated the pro-blems of security just at the time the Army
under-took its new role as project administrator. Although these
measures were necessary for the more rapid achievement of a successful
fission weapon, they also tended to weaken security.152
Consequently, the Army almost immediately undertook a reorganization
and expansion of the existing OSRD security system and, eventually,
also endeavored to bring the system more directly under control
of the Manhattan District. The system that finally evolved was in
many respects unique and introduced a number of innovations in technique
and organization that subsequently would be adopted as standard
features of government security programs.
The District's Security System
The security system, as it took form in the newly established Manhattan
District, resembled that already in existence in most other engineer
districts. Under Army regulations in force in 1942, the security
program of an engineer district was limited to routine local security
requirements. When broader problems arose, the district engineer
or security officer could call upon the resources of the Assistant
Chief of Staff, G-2, in the War Department. Since June 1939, under
provisions of a presidential proclamation, the War Department's
Military Intelligence Division (MID) had shared responsibility for
matters of espionage, counterespionage, and sabotage in the United
States with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office
of Naval Intelligence. In the latest revision (February 1942) of
this Delimitations Agreementso designated because it set forth
the area of jurisdiction of each agency__the MID's assignment was
to cover the military establishment, including War Department civilian
employees and civilians on military reservations or under military
control, plus a large part of the munitions industry.153
Organization And Scope
Col. James C. Marshall, in organizing the Manhattan District security
program soon after becoming district engineer in June 1942, formed
the Protective Security Section. Under direction of a member of
Marshall's staff, this section emphasized such aspects as personnel,
plant, and military information security. At the same time, to provide
the District security staff with counterintelligence assistance,
Marshall arranged with the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Maj. Gen.
George V. Strong, for security liaison with the MID's operating
element, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). From his staff,
Gen. Strong assigned counterintelligence responsibility for the
atomic project to Maj. John Lansdale, Jr., who had been a lawyer
in civilian life.
Because effective security operations required maximum secrecy,
Maj. Lansdale personally visited the Western Defense Command G-2
and each service command and requested that they each select an
officer to report directly to him, bypassing both the G-2 and the
commanding general of each service command.154 To further
facilitate carrying out the internal security functions for the
atomic project, Lansdale also organized a quasi-clandestine counter-intelligence
group. This group operated under cover of the Investigation Review
Branch, Assistant Chief of MIS for Security, which Lansdale headed.
He reported directly to Gen. Groves, and his group in effect was
answerable to the Manhattan Project commander in all substantive
respects, even though it functioned from the G-2 office in the Pentagon.155
By early 1943, the pace of the District's growth__ both geographically
and in terms of personnel__and its increasing security requirements
emphasized the need for a more comprehensive counterintelligence
program. In February, Gen. Strong transferred Capts. Horace K. Calvert
and Robert J. McLeod to the District headquarters, where they formed
the District's new Intelligence Section. To ensure that this section,
which Cap. Calvert headed, had full access to the intelligence and
security facilities of the Army service commands, Strong requested
that each command designate a staff officer to act as a point of
liaison with the Manhattan District and, to guarantee secrecy, authorized
that each correspond directly with Calvert's section. At the same
time, Groves continued his earlier practice of meeting with G-2
officers to make certain that District security problems were brought
to the attention of appropriate Army officials.156
The counterintelligence program became the foundation for a countrywide
permanent organization of this aspect of the District's security
system. During the course of the year, the District organized its
own Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) and, as its staff increased
in size, assigned new personnel to those areas where there was the
greatest concentration of project activities. Ultimately, the project
had a total of eleven branch intelligence offices at key points
across the United States, from New York to Pasadena (California).
An officer assigned to a branch usually worked out of an area engineer's
office and, in addition to his intelligence duties, served as security
officer on the engineer's staff. While in matters of command these
officers came under control of the Manhattan District intelligence
and security officer and reported to him, they also maintained a
direct liaison channel with the director of intelligence of the
service command that had jurisdiction over their area.157
Expansion and Centralization
Rapid growth also necessitated expansion of other aspects of the
Manhattan Project's security system. In 1942, the District's relatively
modest internal security organization had served well enough for
a program that consisted primarily of administering research and
development activities carried on in university and industrial laboratories;
but, by the summer of 1943, a vast program of plant construction
and operation had begun.
The move of the District headquarters from New York to Oak Ridge
in August 1943 provided an opportune time for reorganization. The
first step was consolidation in July 1943 of the Protective Security
and Intelligence Sections. Capt. Calvert took over responsibility
for the combined unit, designated the Intelligence and Security
Section. Although this change was relatively minor from an administrative
standpoint (the section continued in a distinctly subordinate position
in the District's Service and Control Division), it represented
a significant shift towards centralization in security matters.
This change was consistent with Gen. Groves's conviction that only
through a high degree of centralized control could he and his administrative
staff maintain a close and constant scrutiny over the security program.158
Shortly after the District had completed its move to Oak Ridge,
a reorganization in the Army's administration of counterintelligence
operations in the zone of interior (ZI) posed a threat to Groves's
control and cognizance over the project's internal security functions.
To economize on internal investigative operations and to concentrate
G-2 efforts on expanding counterintelligence operations overseas,
the War Department directed the transfer effective 1 January 1944
of the WDGS (War Department General Staff) G-2 counterintelligence
activities in the ZI to the Office of the Provost Marshal General.
The effect was to decentralize even further the Army's ZI counterintelligence
functions to the service commands including maintenance of data
files on individuals, which Manhattan intelligence officials considered
essential to their operations. The change also seemed certain to
enhance the difficulties the atomic project already was experiencing
coordinating its material security operations with the service commands.159
From his vantage point as head of the atomic project's counterintelligence
group inside G-2, Col. Lansdale endeavored to have the group exempted
from the reorganization requirements. When his efforts failed, Gen.
Groves decided that the only acceptable solution was to move Lansdale's
unit into the Manhattan District. The G-2 sanctioned this change
in December, and Lansdale secured authorization to establish a special
counterintelligence detachment. Groves arranged for Lansdale's transfer
to the Manhattan District; however, instead of placing him in charge
of the new CIC Detachment, he brought Lansdale into his Washington
office as his special assistant for security affairs. Lansdale's
assignment was to keep the Manhattan chief abreast of problems and
developments affecting internal security and foreign intelligence
wherever they might arise in the project.160
The shift of all project counterintelligence activities to the
District required major changes in its security organization. The
Intelligence and Security Section in February 1944 became a full-fledged
division and, in keeping with Groves's centralization policy, moved
from the Service and Control Division into the district engineer's
own office. To replace Capt. Calvert, whom Groves had selected for
a special intelligence mission in London, Col. Nicholsthe
district engineer since August 1943brought in an ex-perienced
intelligence officer, Lt. Col. William B. Parsons, to head the new
division. In this capacity, Parsons administered the District's
security program with the assistance of Maj. McLeod, the deputy,
and Capt. Bernard W. Menke, the executive officer, and with support
from a large operating staff of military and civilian personnel.
Although Parsons officially reported to Nichols, he personally kept
Gen. Groves appraised of all developments.
Expanding intelligence and security activities necessitated procurement
of additional personnel to carry out supportive security functions,
such as plant inspections and technical and undercover investigations,
Col. Parsons drew 25 officers and 137 enlisted men from the War
Department's counter-intelligence manpower pool, and the District's
personnel specialists recruited a large number of civilians. In
May 1944, to provide administrative services for the expanding security
force, Nichols activated the 13th Special Engineer Detachment
(Provisional) and assigned Parsons the additional duty of unit commander.
Concerned about achieving greater efficiency in security operations,
Parsons requested and received permission in January 1945 to combine
the 13th with the CIC Detachment.161
By this time, Parsons' Intelligence and Security Division had become
a highly centralized unit, organizationally divided into six separate
branches: Clinton Engineer Works (CEW), Security, Administration,
Safeguarding Military Information (SMI), Branch Offices, and Evaluation
and Review. The CEW, Security, and Administration Branches, for
which McLeod had direct responsibility, dealt primarily with security
matters at the Tennessee site. The CEW Branch administered the local
civilian guard force and the military police contingent that protected
the Tennessee reservation; coordinated subordinate security offices
in the K-25 (gaseous diffusion), Y-12 (electromagnetic), and X-10
(pile) process areas; and, through a board established for the purpose,
reviewed security cases. The Security Branch chiefly monitored activities
related to security of project manufacturing plants, especially
at the Clinton site, and the shipping of classified materials and
equipment. The Administration Branch was concerned primarily with
personnel security problems, both military and civilian, but also
provided facilities for the special handling of the divisions mail
and records and administered certain confidential funds.
The SMI, Branch Offices, and Evaluation and Review Branches, for
which Capt. Menke had direct responsibility, eventually evolved
as a central clearinghouse for intelligence and security matters
that related not only to the Tennessee site but also to the various
project operations elsewhere. The principal responsibility of the
SMI Branch was that of projectwide monitoring of programs in security
education, censorship, and the handling of classified materials.
The Branch Offices Branch, as its name would indicate, was responsible
for coordinating field security operations in the eleven geographical
areas where atomic energy activities were in progress and for reporting
the area engineers' security problems to the division's Evaluation
and Review Branch. The latter branch concentrated in one office
the functions hitherto performed by several of the branch intelligence
offices__most notably, those concerned with the conduct of subversive
investigations and the preparation of special reports on District
security matters for higher echelons.162
Counterintelligence Activities
Counterintelligence activities constituted one of the most significant
aspects of the District's security program. Through effective counterintelligence
measures, the District sought to provide the shroud of secrecy necessary
to forestall all attempts by the enemy not only to gain information
about the American atomic energy program but also to sabotage it.
Yet by its very nature, the Manhattan Project remained vulnerable
to espionage and sabotage. The District's recruitment of thousands
of individuals with almost every conceivable kind of background
and from all parts of the country made likely the employment of
some potential spies and saboteurs, no matter how efficient its
clearance procedures might be, and its widely scattered installations
made implementation and maintenance of uniform security procedures
throughout the project very difficult. The reality of these conditions
forced project leaders to assume that, sooner or later, Germany
and Japan__ and even the Soviet Union__would learn of the atomic
energy program and, more importantly, use espionage to expand their
knowledge of it and sabotage to destroy America's military advantage.
To detect and counter potential espionage and sabotage activities,
the District's CIC Detachment relied primarily upon extensive intelligence
investigations. The majority of these investigations were of a preventive
character, designed to minimize the likelihood that security might
be breached. Of this type, for example, were the many security checks
into the unauthorized transmission of classified information. In
most instances, CIC personnel found that the information leaks thus
uncovered were the result of carelessness or ignorance on the part
of the employee or individual with knowledge of the project. But
because it was always possible such leaks were surface ramifications
of much more dangerous espionage activity, all cases of careless
handling of classified data received prompt and rigorous corrective
action.
A second type of preventive investigation was the supplementary
and more thorough check into the background of employees earlier
subjected to routine clearance procedures. Most supplementary investigations
were made because preliminary data indicated an employee might be
a potential security risk or routine procedures had not produced
adequate information about the person's background. Typical cases
were those involving scientists or technicians who recently had
come from abroad, especially those who had come from areas under
control of the Axis powers. Faced with a continuing shortage of
scientifically and technically trained personnel, project leaders
early had adopted the policy of weighing the degree of risk against
the contributions an employee with security clearance problems could
make in development of atomic weapons. "All procedures and
decisions on security, including the clearance of personnel,"
Groves recalled, "had to be based on what was believed to be
the overriding consideration completion of the bomb. Speed of accomplishment
was paramount."163
Perhaps the most notable example of the application of Groves's
dictum on employing talented individuals who were security risks
was the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer. When the Manhattan commander
decided to appoint Oppenheimer as head of the Los Alamos Laboratory
in February 1943, he did so with full knowledge that the theoretical
physicist, who had worked on the project since late 1941, had only
an interim security clearance from the OSRD. OSRD Director Vannevar
Bush, S-1 Committee Chairman James B. Conant, and the other scientific
leaders were generally aware of Oppenheimer's past record of association
with Communist-related organizations and individuals. They knew
that during the 1930s he had been attracted to a number of Communist-front
organizations and, while never a member of the party itself, made
fairly regular contributions to Communist-supported causes. Communist
fellow travelers, including his former fiancée, were among
his friends, and his wife and brother and sister-in-law were former
Communists. With the signing of the Nazi Soviet pact in 1939, Oppenheimer
had begun to have serious doubts about the Communists; however,
he continued to contribute to the Spanish War Relief through party
channels until the spring of 1942 and to maintain a casual contact
with his former friends.164
Despite his record of past Communist associations, Groves decided
Oppenheimer was the best choice to direct the bomb laboratory at
Los Alamos, for since 1941, he had been involved in this aspect
of research and development under Metallurgical Laboratory Director
Arthur Compton and in the summer of 1942 had become head of the
project team concentrating on that work. Hardly had Oppenheimer
arrived at Los Alamos in the spring of 1943 when the question of
his clearance arose in a new form. At the request of the Manhattan
commander, Lt. Col. Boris T. Pash, chief of the Counterintelligence
Branch of the Western Defense Command, began an investigation of
suspected Soviet espionage in the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley.
Several men known or thought to be associated with Oppenheimer came
under suspicion and, as a result, so did Oppenheimer himself.165
On 29 June, Pash submitted his conclusion that Oppenheimer "may
still be connected with the Communist Party." He offered three
possible courses: to replace Oppenheimer as soon as possible; to
train a second-in-command at Los Alamos as a possible replacement;
and, Pash's recommendation, to have Oppenheimer meet with Generals
Groves and Strong in Washington so that they could brief him on
"the Espionage Act and its ramifications" and also instruct
him that the government was fully aware of his Communist "affiliations,"
that no "leakage of information" would be tolerated, and
that the entire project would be held under "rigid control."
In recommending this procedure, Pash was of the opinion that Oppenheimer's
"personal inclinations would be to protect his own future and
reputation and the high degree of honor which would be his if his
present work is successful, and, consequently,
that he would
lend every effort to cooperating with the Government in any plan
which would leave him in charge." In any event, he suggested,
Oppenheimer should be told that two bodyguards were being assigned
to protect him against violence from Axis agents. These bodyguards
should be specially trained counterintelligence agents who would
not only serve as bodyguards but also keep a check on Oppenheimer.166
Col. Pash's report did not change Groves's opinion. After a quick
visit to Los Alamos, during which he presumably discussed matters
with Oppenheimer, Groves directed on 15 July that he be cleared.
On his return to Washington a few days later, he directed "that
clearance be issued for the employment of Julius Robert Oppenheimer
without delay, irrespective of the information which you have concerning
Mr. Oppenheimer. He is absolutely essential to the project."
As he wrote the Secretary of War four years later, "it was
apparent to me that [Oppenheimer] would not be cleared by any agency
whose sole responsibility was military security. Nevertheless, my
careful study made me feel that, in spite of [his] record, he was
fundamentally a loyal American citizen and that, in view of his
potential overall value to the project, he should be employed."167
Security sign at the Tennessee
site.
PHOTO
Most security cases investigated by the District's CIC Detachment
involved breaches of classified information or allegations against
employees handling classified work of disloyalty to the United States
or of affiliation with organizations espousing subversive ideologies.
While many such cases presented the possibility of espionage, in
fact, investigations turned up only about one hundred instances
of such activity. When suspected cases appeared on the increase
in 1943, the Manhattan commander selected a number of the District's
own CIC personnel to serve as special undercover agents. They occupied
strategically located positions in project offices, laboratories,
and plants, set up listening posts, checked intensively into personnel
and other records of individuals under suspicion, and took other
measures designed to solve espionage cases.168
The appointment of special agents was a move towards greater formalization
of the procedure for dealing with espionage, which continued to
increase as the project grew in size and scope. Another constructive
measure was the establishment of a group of permanent surveillance
squads to carry out supplemental and nonroutine personnel investigations.
Members of these squads, as well as other District security agents,
soon became adept in employing professional counterespionage techniques
and in using such surveillance equipment as cameras with special
lenses (telephoto and other types) and concealable listening and
recording devices. During their investigations of persons suspected
of espionage activities, either District employees or individuals
who had contact with project personnel, the agents operated in the
guise of diverse roles__to mention only a few, hotel clerks, bell
captains, tourists, electricians, painters, contractors, and gamblers.
To ensure effective functioning and control of the surveillance
squads and other special security agents on a countrywide basis,
District security officials developed new channels of coordination
and communication through Col. Lansdale's counter-intelligence staff
at Groves's Washington headquarters, field security teams at the
various branch intelligence offices had access to information from
the FBI and other government security agencies. These field teams
also had to file written reports of their findings and activities
on a regular basis with the Evaluation and Review Branch of the
Intelligence and Security Division. As these reports accumulated
in the files at District headquarters, they became an important
source of information for operation of the whole counterintelligence
program. Gen. Groves, in particular, made use of the data garnered
from these reports in concert with information acquired from other
government agencies in preparing his periodic Military Policy Committee
and Top Policy Group briefings on intelligence developments affecting
the atomic program.
Espionage Incidents
The most serious espionage activity came not from the enemy but
from America's wartime ally: Soviet Russia. Having in the United
States a large diplomatic and consular staff as well as other officials
for overseeing lend-lease and other assistance programs, the Russians
had a more than adequate reservoir of personnel for maintaining
an extensive espionage apparatus in this country. Soviet agents,
masking as diplomatic and consular officials, turned to members
of the Communist Party of the United States and to party sympathizers
for assistance in penetrating American wartime institutions and
projects. The Russians, making the plea that the American Government
was withholding important information and thus unnecessarily delaying
Allied victory, recruited many native Communists and fellow travelers
to assist them in obtaining vital secrets about wartime activities.169
As early as February 1943, counterintelligence agents of the FBI
and Western Defense Command became aware that the Russians were
obtaining data concerning activities of the Radiation Laboratory
at the University of California. Further investigation revealed
that, in October 1942, a leading member of the American Communist
Party on the West Coast had advised a fellow party member employed
at the Radiation Laboratory to retain his position so he could obtain
knowledge of the secret work under way there. This employee and
other Communists or Communist sympathizers working at the laboratory
were passing on information about the atomic project at Berkeley
to Communist Party members, who promptly turned it over to the Soviet
vice consul in San Francisco. Evidence came to light in early April
that a high official in the Soviet Embassy in Washington had recently
given money to a West Coast Communist leader, to be used for espionage.
Intensive investiga-tion by Western Defense Command counter-intelligence
agents resulted in prompt identification of those Radiation Laboratory
employees who were engaging in espionage activities. The laboratory
discharged the suspects and, where feasible, the Army inducted them
into service, placing them in nonsensitive assignments in which
they could be kept under regular observation.170
The District's CIC Detachment scarcely had completed breaking the
original espionage chain at Berkeley when, in late August, Oppenheimer
reported his suspicion that new leaks apparently had developed in
the laboratory's security system. On the occasion of a visit to
Berkeley, Oppenheimer met with Col. Pash and told him he had learned
that a member of the University of California staff, a man who had
been a close friend, was acting as an intermediary for transmission
of data from certain Radiation Laboratory employees to representatives
of the Soviet Union. By Oppenheimer's account, his friend had been
recruited by an official of the Federation of Architects, Engineers,
Chemists, and Technicians, a CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations)
union currently trying to organize employees of the Radiation Laboratory.
In subsequent questioning, Oppenheimer refused to disclose the name
of his friend on the grounds that he was certain the friend was
no longer passing information to Soviet representatives.
Oppenheimer's uncooperativeness at this juncture resulted in the
Manhattan commander taking personal action. Groves promptly met
with the Los Alamos Laboratory chief and, because the security of
the atomic project was at stake, ordered him to reveal the
name of his friend. Faced with Groves's insistence in the matter,
Oppenheimer named Haakon Chevalier, a professor of romance languages
at the University of California. A short time later, the university
dismissed Chevalier from his teaching post, and he left Berkeley.
In retrospect, the likelihood that Chevalier passed any classified
information about the project to the United States seems remote.171
The Chevalier case was not the final incident of espionage at the
Radiation Laboratory. Less than a year later, another serious security
leak had developed there. With assistance from Communist Party members
living in the San Francisco area, a key scientist from the laboratory
met with officials from the local Soviet Consulate. The scientist
passed on information concerning the pile process, certain chemical
data, and the recently arrived British scientists. The District's
CIC Detachment was able to end this espionage activity effectively
by securing immediate discharge of the offending scientist, after
which, as far as is known, representatives of the Soviet Union made
no further attempts to get information from the Berkeley project.172
Meanwhile, probably acting on the basis of information gained at
the Radiation Laboratory, the Russians had assigned one of their
best men to the Chicago area, with the task of establishing an espionage
channel at the Metallurgical Laboratory. By early 1944, this Soviet
agent, who was a highly trained engineer with working experience
in both Russian and American industry, had made contacts with several
Metallurgical Laboratory employees. By the time the FBI learned
of his activities in April, the Soviet agent had obtained considerable
technical information, which he had passed on to the Russian Consulate
in New York. Once identified, the laboratory summarily dismissed
the suspected employees. Subsequently, the District's CIC Detachment
discovered that one of the discharged workers__a reserve officer
who had been called to active duty and assigned to the Northwest
Territory in Canada__had taken highly classified material with him
when he left the Metallurgical Laboratory. Fortunately, District
security officials were able to arrange for confiscation of this
material (it was located in the officer's baggage) and for transfer
of the officer to a post in the Pacific Theater of Operations where
he would have no opportunity to pass on his knowledge to Russia
or the Axis powers.173
Judged in terms of the ultimate utility of the information gained,
Russian efforts at espionage at the Los Alamos Laboratory in late
1944 and early 1945, the crucial period of bomb development, were
the most successful of the wartime period. But project counterintelligence
agents did not learn of this activity until the late summer of 1945,
after the war was over. In a sensational postwar trial, Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell were convicted of stealing classified
data from the laboratory with the assistance of Mrs. Rosenberg's
brother, David Greenglass, an Army sergeant at Los Alamos, and of
transmitting it to Russian agents. Los Alamos, too, was the place
where the German refugee scientist, Klaus Fuchs, while serving as
a member of the British team sent to the United States under the
interchange program, gained a substantial part of the technical
knowledge of the bomb that he subsequently passed on to the Russians,
first in June 1945 and thence periodically until his arrest by British
authorities in early 1950.174
Project leaders also had anticipated that, as the Russians, the
Axis powers, particularly Germany would launch an equally vigorous
espionage campaign, but they uncovered no evidence of such activity
during the war. In early 1944, at a time when available Allied intelligence
indicated that the Germans might well have attained an advanced
stage in the development of atomic weapons, the Military Policy
Committee reported to the Top Policy Group that "no espionage
activities by the Axis nations with respect to this project have
been discovered, although there have been suspicious indications."175
In a project where the ultimate goal depended upon continuous progress
in intricate and closely related production processes, unscheduled
delays or interruptions of any kind could be disastrous. Sabotage
in any form, whether perpetrated by outsiders or insiders bent upon
slowing down or disrupting a particular process, constituted an
ever- present hazard. Recognizing the seriousness of this threat,
Gen. Groves directed that any suspicion of sabotage be reported
to him immediately. In keeping with Groves's policy of constant
vigilance to detect any hint of sabotage, the District's CIC Detachment
thoroughly investigated every instance of mechanical failure, equipment
breakdown, fire, accident, or similar occurrence not readily attributable
to normal causes, and kept under constant observation all processes
and activities that might attract the efforts of saboteurs. In addition,
other security personnel regularly inspected the security systems
and personnel clearance procedures at the project's various installations,
with the objective of detecting and correcting possible weaknesses
that might invite sabotage.176
Illustrative of Groves's policy was the investigation into the
mystifying failure of the first great magnets installed in the electromagnetic
plant at the Clinton Engineer Works. Following a brief period of
operation, the magnets began to malfunction. After disassembling
one of the magnets piece by piece, Kellex engineers found that in
its oil circulation and cooling system rust and dirt particles were
bridging the gaps between the silver bands forming the coil component,
which they attributed to the manufacturer's failure to maintain
sufficiently rigid standards of cleanliness. The significance of
this incident was that it revealed the inherent vulnerability of
the electromagnetic installations and the need for constant surveillance
in order to thwart possible sabotage.177
Changing of the Guard: Military
Police Contingent at CEW.
PHOTO
The district's continuous and thorough efforts to protect the project's
installations and operations against sabotage were successful. During
the war years, there were no definitely established incidents of
sabotage traceable to enemy agents. In most cases where breakdowns
or other failures occurred under suspicious circumstances, investi-gations
revealed they were probably the result of causes other than enemy
sabotage. For example, during construction of the original gaseous
diffusion plant at the Tennessee site, inspectors discovered someone
had driven nails through the rubber coverings of vital electric
cables leading underground from the power plant to the main production
plant. The perpetrators of this act were never found, although the
evidence indicated strongly it was the work of disgruntled employees.178
A quite different type of interference with plant operation briefly
threatened the Hanford Engineer Works in early 1945. Groves reported
to the Military Policy Committee in February that Army and Navy
intelligence had recorded more than fifty incidents of Japanese
balloons at various sites along the Pacific Coast, some of them
carrying incendiary and fragmentation bombs. While none of these
appears to have been directed specifically against the Hanford installations,
on 10 March a balloon of this type struck a high tension transmission
line running between the Grand Coulee and Bonneville generating
stations and caused an electrical surge through the interconnecting
Hanford line that carried power to the production piles. Automatic
safety devices at the three piles were activated, briefly shutting
down their operation. Fortunately, the bombs attached to the balloon
did not explode and the transmission line was not seriously damaged.179
Compartmentalization Policy
One of the most unusual duties assigned to the District's CIC Detachment
was that of furnishing bodyguards for key Manhattan scientific leaders.
CIC personnel accompanied J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence,
Arthur Compton, and Enrico Fermi almost continuously. They accompanied
other scientists at intervals, when they were at work on projects
that required their special protection.
Col. Marshall had originated the idea of bodyguards, suggesting
that they serve also as drivers, to conceal their true function
and to reduce the likelihood of accidents. Compton's bodyguard,
a former Chicago policeman, traveled with him in the guise of a
special assistant. When Compton was in residence at Oak Ridge, his
guard served as a member of the local police force. District security
officials exercised considerable care in selecting individuals for
bodyguards, seeking those who had demonstrated ability to adapt
themselves readily to the kind of situations in which scientists
were likely to be involved.180
Even though District security officials had planned and implemented
a multifaceted security system to protect all aspects of project
operations and developments, they fully realized that maintenance
of total secrecy in such a vast project was unlikely. What was more
feasible, they believed, was to prevent leakage of any useful knowledge
of the program's special scientific concepts, industrial techniques,
and military objectives or, in Army parlance, safe-guarding military
information."181
Under the provisions of Army security regulations, the basic responsibility
for the protection of classified information rested upon "all
military personnel, civilian employees of the War Department, and
the management and employees of all commercial firms engaged in
classified work or projects for the War Department."182
In applying this principle to the atomic program, District security
officials placed particular emphasis upon limiting the amount of
classified information permitted to any single individual or group
of individuals. District security regulations established two basic
rules, which were to "govern the right to possess classified
information;" a person must need the information in order to
carry out his job and have access only to the amount of information
"necessary for him to execute his function." To make doubly
certain an individual employee was restricted to "the minimum
necessary for the proper performance of his duties," District
regulations further directed that "employees
shall be
organized into small working groups or teams so far as possible,
each working on its own phase of the job and not being permitted
to inspect or discuss the work being done by others."183
This compartmentalization policy became a far more pervasive influence
in the project after the Army assumed full responsibility for its
administration. Where the OSRD had applied compartmentalization
primarily to research and development organizations, the Army incorporated
it into virtually every type of activity undertaken by the project.
Typical was the District's insistence that production plant blueprints
be broken down and distributed in such a way as to reveal as little
as possible to any one individual about the overall character of
the project. Similarly, the District required that equipment orders
to commercial firms specify that an item not be manufactured and
assembled at the same location. And when the production plants reached
the point of startup operations, plant managers received instructions
to split up orders for raw materials among a number of suppliers
so that the purpose for which they were being used could not be
readily ascertained.
While project leaders agreed that some compart-mentalization of
information was necessary, considerable difference of opinion prevailed
on the extent of limiting scientific and technical interchange,
both between sections functioning within a laboratory or plant and
between the various interrelated installations of the project. Military
administrators, in contrast to their civilian counterparts, favored
the enforcement of stricter controls. These generally took the form
of written agreements covering those organizations and installations
that needed to exchange data. The agreements specified in detail
how and what information could be interchanged. Inevitably, occasions
arose when developments required interchange of classified information
not covered in agreements. In such instances, project leaders applied
directly to the district engineer or to Gen. Groves for special
permission to exchange the data needed.184
One of the most important interchange arrangements formed occurred
in June 1943, when Gen. Groves met with Compton and Oppenheimer
for the purpose of establishing "the principles which should
govern the interchange of information between the Chicago [Metallurgical
Laboratory] and Los Alamos projects.
" As a basic criterion
determining what information should be interchanged, they set up
the test that only data that would "benefit work at both Chicago
and Los Alamos" should be exchanged. The agreement that resulted
spelled out, in considerable detail, exactly what information could
and could not be interchanged (the latter included those categories
relating to production piles, military weapons, and the time schedules
of various developments); designated by name those individuals at
each installation who were qualified to carry on interchange; and
outlined exact procedures of exchange__by formal reports, secret
correspondence, or visits and conferences. On the most sensitive
matters, or where there was serious doubt about interchange, the
only channel of exchange was through a visit to the Chicago laboratory
by either Oppenheimer or a specifically designated group leader.
Although negotiators of the agreement must have been aware of the
generally restrictive character of its provisions, they nevertheless
emphasized that its major objective was "to maintain as rapid
and effective interchange of information as possible."185
Compartmentalization of information probably aroused more adverse
criticism__both from partici-pants in the atomic program and
from some of those who, in retrospect, have reviewed its history__than
any other single aspect of the project's security system. Among
the participants, the most vociferous critics were the scientists,
accustomed to working in college and university laboratories where
they could freely interchange the results of their work with scientific
colleagues in all parts of the world. Project scientists, such as
Leo Szilard, held that over-compartmentalization was a primary cause
of extended delays in achievement of scientific and technical objectives
of the program. Testifying before a committee of Congress after
the war, he asserted, for example, that "compartmentalization
of information was the cause for failure to realize that light uranium
U235 might be produced in quantities sufficient to make atomic bombs.
We could have had it eighteen months earlier. We did not
put two and two together because the two two's were in a
different compartment.
"186 On another occasion
he contended also that compartmentalization was not really "too
successful" because "significant matters gradually leak
through anyway."187
Joining Szilard in condemning compartmentalization in the strongest
possible terms was Edward U. Condon, the prominent American physicist
who had come to the atomic project from the Westinghouse Research
Laboratories. In fact, after spending only a month at Los Alamos,
Condon came to the conclusion that he would be of more use to the
war effort at Westinghouse than at the New Mexico laboratory. The
project's security policy, he asserted, had a morbidly depressing
effect on him. "I feel so strongly," he continued, "that
this policy puts you in the position of trying to do an extremely
difficult job with three hands tied behind your back that I cannot
accept the view that such internal compart-mentalization is proper."188
Most other contemporary critics took a somewhat less extreme position.
Concerned about insufficient interchange of data among atomic project
scientists causing delays in the solutions of problems related to
bomb development, Compton suggested to the OSRD S-1 Committee in
December 1942 that it might be wise to increase the number of "responsible
persons who are free of compartmentalization.
"189
Similarly, in June 1943, physicist Richard C. Tolman, in
his role as Groves's scientific adviser, expressed concern that
the "proposed regulations to govern interchange between the
Chicago and Los Alamos scientists were perhaps not quite as liberal
as may later prove warranted." In the weeks following the institution
of these regulations, both Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, who was
working on a part-time basis at Los Alamos, were troubled by what
they viewed as inadequate liaison channels between the New Mexico
laboratory and the other installations where related work was in
progress.190
When British officials and scientists came to the United States
in late 1942, they were surprised to learn that Gen. Groves planned
further compartmentali-zation, which many of them viewed as already
having been applied to an extent that made efficient operation impossible.
Furthermore, the British soon found that the Americans used the
policy as a convenient excuse for withholding information. Thus,
the policy became intermeshed with the whole question of interchange
with the British, a problem that was resolved only after many months
of negotiation.191
By early 1944, most project personnel had come to accept the policy
as a fact of life. In looking back after the war was over, even
some scientists who had found compartmentalization so distasteful
grudgingly conceded it had probably been necessary. The eminent
American (German-born) physicist James Franck, for example, while
speaking at a conference on atomic energy at the University of Chicago
in September 1945, concluded that "so far as secrecy is concerned,
the Army officers were unrelenting and, in all honesty, we have
to admit that they had to be." But, he went on to remind his
listeners that the policy had exacted a "stiff price"
in the "wasting of talent and scientific manpower and the loss
of precious time."192
From the military point of view, compart-mentalization was precisely
what was required, both for security and for achieving the most
efficient functioning of scientists and technologists. As Gen. Groves
expressed his conviction in retrospect:
"Compartmentalization of knowledge, to me, was the very heart
of security. My style was simple and not capable of misinterpretation__each
man should know everything he needed to know to do his job and nothing
else. Adherence to this rule not only provided an adequate measure
of security, but it greatly improved overall efficiency by making
our people stick to their knitting. And it made quite clear to all
concerned that the project existed to produce a specific end productnot
to enable individuals to satisfy their curiosity and to increase
their scientific knowledge."193
The District's policy of compartmentalization of information on
the atomic project, in Groves's words, applied "to everyone,
including members of the Executive Department, military personnel
and members of Congress." No one was to have access "solely
by virtue of his commission or official position." Adherence
to this policy was possible as long as Manhattan's funding came
from sources already earmarked for the War Department. But project
leaders anticipated considerable trouble in the future, because
securing new funds would entail congressional authorization.194
By early 1944, the compartmentalization policy was becoming less
and less feasible with Congress because of the increasing size of
the program, its rapidly rising cost, and the need to begin planning
for its postwar administration. Under the original directive from
the President, the atomic program obtained funds from the money
appropriated under the Engineer Service-Army budgetary category.
Funds from this source sufficed as long as Manhattan's budgets remained
relatively modest. But when project leaders estimated that the program
would need at least $600 million for fiscal year (FY) 1945, they
decided they would have to find a way to provide some information
to selected members of Congress who had a need to know. They consulted
with President Roosevelt, who thereupon directed that Stimson, Bush,
and Gen. Marshall brief the leaders of both parties in the House
and the Senate.195
On l8 February, Stimson, Bush, and Marshall went to the office
of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, where they were joined by Majority
Leader John W. McCormack and Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr.
Stimson outlined the history of the atomic project, including its
cost to date and estimated the total amount needed to complete it;
Bush described the project's scientific background and indicated
the likely destructive power of an atomic weapon; and Marshall discussed
the potential role of atomic bombs in the Allied strategy for winning
the war. The legislators pledged their unreserved support, stating
that they viewed its high cost as well worth the price. They promised
to work out a system for handling the Manhattan appropriations in
committee so that there would be no danger of disclosure of their
purpose. Bush found that the "entire meeting was most reassuring,
as it was quite evident the three congressmen were exceedingly anxious
to be of aid to the War Department in carrying a very heavy responsibility."196
In June, Stimson, Bush, and Maj. Gen. George J. Richards, the War
Department budget officer who was substituting for Marshall while
he was out of town, repeated the briefing for the leaders of the
Senate. Present were Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley and Minority
Leader Wallace H. White, as well as Chairman Elmer Thomas and Senior
Minority Member Styles Bridges of the military subcommittee of the
Senate Appropriations Committee. Stimson recalled that "the
four gentlemen who met with us were very much impressed. They promised
that they would help and keep absolute silence about it and prevent
discussion in public as to what it was about."197
During the remaining months of 1944, congressional leaders succeeded
in keeping the vast majority of the members of Congress ignorant
of the atomic project. Accustomed to wartime restrictions, most
members were willing to acceptwithout protestthe assurance
of their leaders that the work was secret and that the needed appropriations
were essential to the war effort. But for a few members this policy
was unacceptable, and they directed individual inquiries to the
War Department about rumored developments at the atomic sites.
A case in point was Congressman Albert J. Engel of Michigan, a
member of the House Appropriations Committee, who in February 1945
was unwilling to accept automatically the War Department's request
for FY 1946 funding from money appropriated under the Expediting
Production budgetary category. In a visit to Under Secretary Patterson
on the 24th, the Michigan representative stated that he had heard
rumors of extravagance and waste and that he wanted more information
before approving the War Department's FY 1946 funds. Remembering
that in late 1943 War Department officials had dissuaded him from
making a proposed trip to the Clinton site, this time he firmly
insisted that Patterson allow him to inspect the atomic installations.
When Stimson heard from Patterson of Engel's insistence upon visiting
project facilities, he sought assistance from the leaders of the
House of Representatives. As Speaker Rayburn was away, Stimson turned
to Congressman John Taber of New York, another member of the Appropriations
Committee. He and Taber sat down with Engel and persuaded him to
forgo objections to funds on the floor of the House, but only after
promising him an opportunity to visit some "outside installations"
of the project.198
This experience convinced the Secretary of War and the Manhattan
commander, as well as other project leaders, that more and more
members of Congress would be demanding current information about
Manhattan's activities. Consequently, they arranged to have a selected
delegation from each House visit Clinton and, if they wished, also
Hanford. With the President's approval for this plan, Groves and
Stimson, accompanied by the Secretary's aide, Col. William H. Kyle,
visited Clinton on 10 April to prepare "for future trouble
with Congressmen."199
Upon the unexpected death of Roosevelt on the twelfth, the inspection
trip to Clinton was delayed, but only temporarily. In May, after
President Truman had given his assent, Speaker Rayburn helped select
five members from the House Appropriations CommitteeClarence
Cannon, the chairman, George H. Mahon, J. Buell Snyder, Engel, and
Taber. Under the careful guidance of the Manhattan commander and
the district engineer, the five congressmen spent two days inspecting
the Clinton Engineer Works. The legislators returned to Washington
convinced that public funds had been well spent and prepared to
support the project's budgetary requests for FY 1946. A visit by
a comparable Senate delegation to inspect atomic facilities was
not feasible until after V- J Day, when a group from the upper house
toured the Hanford Engineer Works.200
Administrative Aspects
As security requirements increased, the Army established a variety
of units to administer its highly compartmentalized information
security program. By necessity, the program from about late 1942
up until the District's major intelligence and security reorganization
in early 1944 was limited in scope. Faced with a rapid influx of
new personnel, both civilian and military, the District's Protective
Security Section concentrated chiefly on developing ways for instructing
them in the meaning of classified information and the correct methods
for handling it. To facilitate this education process, the small
staff hurriedly prepared and distributed a manual that provided
a "statement of District policy regarding Protective Security
procedures," including an extensive section on safeguarding
classified information.201
An intensification of protective measures during the first half
of 1943 resulted in the establishment in August of the Plant Security
Section for Safeguarding Military Information (SMI). In an effort
to assure attainment of the desired security objectives, the SMI
staff developed a new intelligence bulletin. This bulletin, issued
in November, set forth in detail the requirements and procedures
for safeguarding military information, emphasizing that "matters
of vital importance to the government must be protected at all times
whether at war or at peace
and thus great caution must be exercised
in the handling and in the dissemination of all informationwritten
or oralrelative to this Project at any time."202
By early 1944, consolidation of the District's intelligence and
security facilities opened the way for a more comprehensive information
security program and the establishment in May of a separate SMI
Section (redesignated SMI Branch in 1945, when organizationally
restructured as a subordinate unit of the District's Intelligence
and Security Division). Under the expanded program, security officials
launched studies of all aspects of the atomic project equipment,
material, products, processes, operations, administrative mattersto
determine the appropriate classification for their mention in correspondence
and other documents. They set up codenames (some already in use)
for major sites, important materials, items of equipment, and even
for the more widely known scientists working on the project. Under
this scheme, for example, Los Alamos became Site Y., plutonium became
94, the implosion bomb became Fat Man, and scientist Arthur I. Compton
became A. H. Comas. Using the staff and resources of the SMI Section,
District authorities directed attention to those areas where security
leaks were most likely to occur. Thus, the section regularly reviewed
project correspondence with other government agencies, such as the
Selective Service concerning deferment of key personnel, and advised
on the security classification that should govern each of the thousands
of contracts that the District negotiated with outside individuals
and firms.203
The establishment and maintenance of effective adherence to security
requirements among the project's thousands of contractor organizations
comprised one of the most challenging and complex aspects of the
information security program. District authorities oversaw contractors'
security activities through several channels. The branch intelligence
offices in principal cities throughout the United States provided
a convenient point of contact, and periodic checks of contractor
facilities and operations by security inspectors from District headquarters
constituted a second avenue of control. These inspectors particularly
observed methods of handling classified materials and storing documents.
District security officials also investigated contractors' personnel
recruitment programs, written correspon-dence, stock registration
statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and similar
activities in which security leaks were likely to occur. Finally,
when a contractor terminated his contract with the atomic program,
District security officials made certain that all classified materials
were returned to project control or that the contractor provided
for their adequate protection.204
Security problems involving firms under contract most frequently
arose where these organizations were carrying out large-scale development
of project facilities. Such development, as at the Clinton and Hanford
sites, inevitably brought overcrowding of local housing, acute labor
shortages, greatly increased road traffic, and other adverse changes
that placed a severe strain on normal community activities. The
resulting public resentment, generally focused on the contractor
firms, created an environment in which threats to security were
more likely to occur. In the spring of 1943, for example, Du Pont's
effort to arrange for housing and other facilities for the thousands
of employees who would work on the Hanford project stirred up resentment
in surrounding communities, already aroused by the Army's land acquisition
program. The spread of rumors, adverse criticism in the local newspapers,
and unfounded statements by local officials tended to draw widespread
public attention to the project, posing a serious threat to security.
Lt. Col. Franklin T. Matthias, the Hanford area engineer, and members
of his staff spoke at meetings of service clubs in communities adjacent
to the project, in an endeavor to counter the rumors and misinformation
concerning Du Pont's role in the project. By these and similar efforts
they laid the groundwork for obtaining the support and good will
of the local citizenryan absolute essential to maintaining
the security of the project.205
Efforts to maintain good community relations was an important aspect
of the District's information security program, which had as its
prime objective the forestalling of security breaks, first by anticipating
them and second by teaching project personnel how to be "instinctively
alert-minded and security-wise." Although the SMI Section had
primary responsibility for carrying out the program, employee education
in security matters devolved chiefly to the SMI staffs at the branch
intelligence polices. Each staff, for example, conducted orientation
and refresher sessions for Corps of Engineers personnel; provided
each contractor with instructional materials for in-house security
education briefings for its personnel; and used a variety of mediatraining
films, circulars and handbills, payroll inserts, telephone stickers,
and editorials in project newspapersto remind District employees
of the importance of unremitting attention to the demands of security.206
Because of the policy of compartmentalization, the quantity and
variety of educational subject matter available for training purposes
was limited. Most workers had knowledge of only the project activity
under way at the site where they were employed and most generally
did not even know exactly what was being made in the facility where
they worked. And even in some instances, project officials had concocted
for employeesthose working at the elec-tromagnetic planta
plausible but inaccurate and misleading explanation of the process
involved and the product produced, with the warning that this information
was given to them only to help them carry out their jobs. Lacking
concrete data on which to base an appeal to employees, security
officials had to request that they accept the necessity for strict
adherence to secrecy largely on faith and out of a sense of patriotism
and loyalty to the men on the fighting fronts.
As did most wartime agencies involved in secret work, the Manhattan
District resorted to censorship of various kinds as a means of safeguarding
classified information. In the first few months after the Army assumed
responsibility for the atomic program, the District and branch security
staffs began a cursory review of a few leading daily newspapers
and periodicals and gradually enlarged this check of publications
until it covered some 370 newspapers and 70 magazines. The censors,
several of whom were Women's Army Corps members, were particularly
on the lookout for publication of anything that would reveal classified
information, attract attention to the project, or furnish an enemy
agent or anyone else with knowledge sufficient to determine the
nature of the project.207
While review of newspapers, periodicals, and other publications
provided some protection against damaging revelations about the
project, the fact remained that once such information appeared in
print an element of secrecy was lost. Much more effective was a
system that prevented publication of sensitive information. Under
the Office of Censorship's "Codes of Wartime Practices for
the American Press and American Broadcasters," newspapers,
periodicals, and radio broadcasters voluntarily agreed to refrain
from discussing certain specified subjects and mentioning certain
terms. In February 1943, Vannevar Bush proposed that the atomic
energy program be brought under this voluntary censorship. At first,
both Gen. Strong, the Army intelligence chief, and Gen. Groves had
serious reservations about making the atomic energy project subject
to this censorship arrangement, fearing that the results "might
be more detrimental than otherwise."208
Finally, military leaders reluctantly agreed to the voluntary press
censorship plan, persuaded primarily by the insistence of Nathaniel
R. Howard, assistant director of the Office of Censorship and a
former editor of the Cleveland News, that this was the only
way to maintain press security of the project. On 28 June 1943,
Byron Price, director of the Office of Censorship, sent out a special
request to all editors and broadcasters that they extend the previously
issued precaution not to publish or broadcast anything about "new
or secret military weapons or experiments" to include:
Production or utilization of atom smashing, atomic energy,
atomic fission, atomic splitting, or any of their equivalents.
The use for military purposes of radium or radioactive materials,
heavy water, high voltage discharge equipment, cyclotrons.
The following elements or any of their compounds: plutonium,
uranium, ytterbium, hafnium, protoactinium, radium, thorium, deuterium.209
The aim of censorship was to prevent all mention of the atomic
program in the American press; however, on the advice of the Office
of Censorship, the District permitted a limited amount of information
about certain aspects of the project to appear in newspapers
published in communities near the Clinton and Hanford sites. Office
of Censorship officials pointed out that complete suppression of
information about activities at these locations would actually draw
more attention than a policy of judicious release of news of local
interest, carefully controlled so as not to reveal any vital secrets.
They cited as an example the land acquisition at Hanford, which
required relocation of many people and resulted in court proceedings.
Stories on these events in newspapers of the Washington-Oregon region
would not violate essential security as long as they did not reveal
the purpose of the acquisition or the interconnection of the Hanford
project with other parts of the atomic program. Gen. Groves assented
to this policy but took the added precaution, suggested by Office
of Censorship officials, of having Manhattan District representatives
visit the editors or publishers of local newspapers and operators
of local radio stations to request their cooperation in maintaining
the security of the project.210
At Los Alamos, security authorities endeavored to keep all mention
of the site and its activities out of the press. Total exclusion
was more feasible at the New Mexico installation because of its
military administration and geographic isolation from surrounding
communities. The policy was reinforced in late 1943 through the
use of regular mail censorship and other measures to minimize the
likelihood that knowledge of the site would come to the attention
of the press.211
It was inevitable that a voluntary censorship system would not
be totally effective, and, on those occasions when some reference
to the project or atomic energy occurred in the press or on the
radio, the District Security Office and the Office of Censorship
took immediate steps to limit its circulation and to run down it
origins. A rash of censorship violations occurred in late 1943.
A columnist in the Washington Post announced that the Senate's
Truman Committee was about to investigate a "half-a-billion
dollar" War Department project in the state of Washington that
was "reported to be one of the largest single projects that's
to be built From scratch in the Nation's history." On the same
day the Post article appeared in the Spokane Spokesman
Review, and soon thereafter the wire services picked up the
news item. Almost simultaneously, several newspapers in Tennessee
ran a story on the state's Selective Service that contained a passing
reference by the head of the service, Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Frazier,
to " the Clinton Engineer Works in secret war production of
a weapon that possibly might be the one to end the war." In
both instances, prompt action by the Office of Censorship led to
withdrawal of the articles before they had received wide circulation.
Subsequent action by the War Department resulted in tracing down
the sources of the leaks and in implementing improved security measures
to prevent such occurrences in the future.212
Poster used by isolationists
to maintain the US policy of
neutrality at the beginning of World War II.
PHOTO
END
OF CHAPTER 1
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