Commies in the early sixties in Chicago knew what happened. What I was told at the time was all of our scientists were ‘buttered up’ with the BS about how ONLY THEY could ‘save the world’ by making it a level playing field so both sides would balance each other out ... That THEY could stop the these weapons from being used in the future. They would be the ‘saviors’ of humanity by sharing information with the other side (Russia)
Who knows if it was true?
According to the story (and the story was dripping with hatred for Americans), the only holdout was Edward Teller. Teller wouldn’t talk. Wouldn’t listen to them. Shut them out. It’s hard for me to describe their hatred pf Teller... which added credibility to the story.
And Teller as well as Von Nueman xperienced communism in their youth - short lived but extremely bloody Bela Kuhn regime in Hungary.
Teller didnt fall for their phony “its immoral” to build the hydrogen bomb. If the US didnt build it, he knew the Soviets would. Oppenheimer, Bethe, Bohr..they all knew damn well the kind of Physics the Soviets were doing. Thankfully Truman listened to Teller...