VT2006-10

The following is a series of 9 video tapes (3/4”) of a 7-hour seminar held at Princeton University on June 22 & 23, 1982. The panel discussions cover primarily the year 1949 and a portion of 1950. During this time the Truman administration was determining whether or not to go forward with the development of the hydrogen bomb. The Russians tested their atomic bomb in 1949. McGeorge Bundy is the host and narrator for the discussions. There were a total of 7 men involved in the panel discussions during the two day period. These videotapes were received from Mr. Arthur Singer of the Alfred Sloan Foundation, in 1984. Participants are: Professor Cyril Smith (General Advisory Committee during WWII and organized the procurement of the metallic parts for the hydrogen bomb); Professor Stad Ulham (in Los Alamos in 1943 -1949, a thermonuclear physicist); Dr. John Manley (neuron physics professor from Columbia University, in Los Alamos, General Advisory Committee); Dr. Henry Smyth, Princeton (on Manhattan District from 1941 forward, nuclear physicist, Atomic Energy Commission 1949). Discussion of the early work of Edward Teller and Enrico Fermi and their various participations in the development of the atomic bomb.