bomb that would use as its explosive force nuclear energy, a force—presuming theory could be turned into practice—that would give one five-thousand-pound bomb the destructive force of twenty thousand tons of TNT.
“Henry doesn’t know about Oak Ridge,” Donovan said. “And the President tells me he has no intention of telling him.”
“Franklin Roosevelt has been known to change his mind to fit the circumstances of the moment,” Hoover said, adding dryly, “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”
Donovan chuckled appreciatively.
“On the subject of Oak Ridge, Edgar,” Donovan said, “there’s something coming up—”
“Oh?” Hoover interrupted.
“We are going to try to bring some German scientists here,” Donovan said.
“You mean, get them out of Germany?” Hoover asked, surprised. “Can you do that?”
“In the next couple of days,” Donovan said, “we’re going to make sort of a trial run.” He waited for Hoover to interrupt him again, and when he didn’t, went on. “The first man we’re going to bring out is a metallurgist—”
Now Hoover obliged him. “Why a metallurgist?”
“I’ve told you about the German flying bombs and jet-propulsion engines,” Donovan said. “I finally managed to convince the President that they pose a real threat, no matter what the Air Corps says, to our plans for the massive bombing of Germany. I have permission to do what I can to at least slow down the production of jet-propulsion and rocket engines. Both require special metal alloys and special techniques to machine the special alloys. The idea is that when we find out what kind of special metal and what kind of special techniques are required for the necessary machining, we will just put those locations on the top of the bombing priority list.”
Hoover grunted, then asked, “What’s this got to do with Groves’s bomb? With Oak Ridge?”
“If we succeed in getting the metallurgist safely out, and see how much attention the Germans pay to his disappearance, we’ll start bringing out the mathematicians and physicists we need . . . or whose services we don’t want the Germans to have.”
“And if they catch you bringing out the metallurgist, the Germans won’t connect it with the Manhattan Project?” Hoover asked.
“Precisely,” Donovan said. “If we get to the point where we do bring nuclear people out, once they get to this country, they’ll be your responsibility, protecting them at either Oak Ridge or White Sands. I thought perhaps, presuming we get the metallurgist out, you might want to use him as sort of a dry run yourself.”
“You keep saying ‘if’ and ‘presuming’ you can get him out,” Hoover said. “There’s some question in your mind that you will? Or do you believe the operation won’t work?”
“We have high hopes, of course,” Donovan said, and went on to explain that the OSS had set up a new escape route “pipeline,” which ran through Hungary and Yugoslavia, for the sole purpose of getting the “special category” people out of Germany. The normal, in-place pipelines took people off the European continent through Holland and France to England.
Hoover displayed a deep curiosity in the details of the new pipeline, and Donovan explained the operation to him, wondering if the FBI Director’s curiosity was professional or personal. Hoover, he knew, liked to think of himself as an agent rather than an administrator. Donovan suspected that Hoover was vicariously crossing the border from Germany into Hungary, and then walking out of Yugoslavia in the company of Yugoslavian partisans.
When the explanation was finally over, Hoover grunted, then looked at Captain Douglass.
“You don’t seem to have much to say, Douglass,” he said.
“I ask Pete to sit in on the more important meetings, Edgar, so I don’t have to spend time repeating to him what was said.”
“I was thinking along those lines myself,” Hoover said. “That it’s going to take me some time to repeat all this to Tolson.” Clyde Tolson was Deputy Director of the FBI and Hoover’s closest friend. They shared a house.
“If Clyde was cleared for the Manhattan Project,” Donovan said, “I’d be the first to say bring him along.”
“Clyde knows about the Manhattan Project,” Hoover said. “He’s my Deputy.”
Donovan was not surprised that Hoover had made Tolson privy to the secrets of the Manhattan Project, but he was surprised that Hoover had admitted it so openly to him. Tolson, like Vice President Wallace, was not on the shortlist of people authorized access to information concerning the atomic bomb.
“Then you should have brought him with you, Edgar,” Donovan said. “Clyde’s an old pal. He doesn’t need a formal invitation to break bread with us.”