- C 0 p y SECIET C 0 p y November 2 1942 Dr James B Conant Chainnan National Defense Researoh Committee 1530 P street N w Washington D c Thi 4 oeuma nt eofltt1int information affecting th• Natl one I r r t o U nfled Su t cc within the m aaning o_f the • l ' S C o· ll ond 32 lta tran m ulon t f i c nt nu 1n any ma11ner to • n or on o t • t • ' •• unoul ho1i1•d person io prohibited by 1- Dear Dr Conant There are three men not now working with us whom we should like to have as soon as possible for the new laboratory They are all three men whose help in planning and organizing the l aboratory in the immediat e future is essential to us They will also when the laboratory is established play an important part in its work It would seem olearly inappropriate for me to approach directly either the men themselves or the directors of the laboratories in whioh they are working It seems to me and Lawrence and McMillan concur in this opinion that our only practicable method is to ask you to reque t the release and transfer of the men from their present obligations and to let us di scuss our problems with them only af'ter this i s cleared If you doubt the appropriateness of this procedure or question the cogency ot our reasons for the specific requests I should of course be glad to discuss the questions with you in detail The three men are Bacher Kurie and Herb 1 Robert Bacher has in the past had a double connection with the Chicago project and with the M I T Radiation Laboratory The work at Cornell for the Chicago project is terminated Bacher is however very well informed both on the background of our work and on its recent development in fact he is one of the two men at M I T who has some information on the superbomb Bacher is a specialist in eutron physics a sound and brilliant physicist and his personal qualities and good judgement recommend him not only for the prosecution of the work in the new laboratory but for its preliminary organization and planning We should welcome his help in decisions of equipment procurement personnel laboratory design and program He is almost the only physicist in the country who could replace Fermi if Fermi's obligations to the Chicago project should continue longer than we anticipate Bacher•s position in the Radiation Laboratory is a responsible one and it will not be easy to obtain his rel ase His qualifications and his historical connection with our project make him our first choice in priority and in importance I I Dr• James B - Conant November 2 1942 2 Franz Kuri e is now at the Radio and Sound Laboratory in San Diego He has worked closely with McMillan who approached him informally about working with us Kurie would presumably be glad to do that Our ne ed for Kurie is iI Dllediate He has had experiance in t he planning and construction of a nuclear physics laboratory and has been r e sponsible for the Indiana cyc lotron and laboratory It is our plan to have him work closely with the Army's procurement officer both in the immediate future and after the laboratory is established He would also organize and supervise our shops 3 Herb is now at the Radiation Laboratory but in a positi on somewhat less responsible than Bacher He has designed and operated the two Wisconsin van de Graafs which we plan to requis i tion for the laboratory and one of his immediate duties 1'0uld be to supervise the removal and installation of this equipment He is a brilliant experimental physicist and we should plan to have him take charge of the van de Graaf laboratory You will want to be assured t hat the men now working on our project could not serve as we ll as Herb Bacher or Kurie We have no one wi th the qualifications of these three The men we have are all actively engaged on specific problems and should continue to be ·until their present work is concluded or they oan be moved to the new laboratory The history of their work on the p oject is adequate proof t hat they are not suited to the urgent new responsibilities Cordially Robert Oppenheimer P S You will have had a copy of Smythts letter of October 26 re Feynman I think we had best not purauo t his until a little later but it illustrates how much we will have to rely on you for our personnel problems I - - - DECLASSIFIED - uthority r-JN qQ L