Harold Agnew

Harold Melvin Agnew was born in Denver, Colorado on March 28, 1921, the only child of a pair of stonecutters. He attended South Denver High School and entered the University of Denver, where he majored in chemistry. He was a strong athlete who pitched for the university softball team that won a championship. He left the University of Denver in January 1942, but had enough credits to graduate Phi Beta Kappa with his Bachelor of Arts degree in June, and he received a scholarship to Yale University.{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|pp=2–3}}{{cite news |title=Harold M. Agnew, Physicist Present at Birth of the Nuclear Age, Dies at 92 |newspaper=New York Times |date=October 1, 2013 |last=Broad |first=William J. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/us/harold-m-agnew-physicist-present-at-birth-of-the-nuclear-age-dies-at-92.html|access-date=October 6, 2013}}

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Pacific War, Agnew and his girlfriend Beverly, a fellow graduate of South Denver High School and the University of Denver, attempted to join the United States Army Air Corps together. They were persuaded not to sign the enlistment papers. Instead, Joyce C. Stearns, the head of the physics department at the University of Denver, persuaded Agnew to come with him to the University of Chicago, where Stearns became the deputy head of the Metallurgical Laboratory. Although Agnew had enough credits to graduate, Beverly did not and had to remain behind. They were married in Denver on May 2, 1942. They then went to Chicago, where Beverly became a secretary to Richard L. Doan, then head of the Metallurgical Laboratory. Agnew and Beverly had two children, a daughter Nancy, and a son, John.{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|pp=2–3}}{{cite journal |journal=Los Alamos Historical Society Newsletter |volume=30 |issue=4 |date=December 2011 |page=3 |title=In Memoriam: Agnew and Ramsey |url=http://www.losalamoshistory.org/pdfs/december11newsletter.pdf |access-date=December 30, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095913/http://www.losalamoshistory.org/pdfs/december11newsletter.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}

File:Agnew NagasakiPuCoreDetail.jpg core of the Nagasaki Fat Man bomb]]

At the Metallurgical Laboratory, Agnew worked with Enrico Fermi, Walter Zinn and Herbert L. Anderson.{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|pp=2–3}} There, he was involved in the construction of Chicago Pile-1. Initially, Agnew worked with the instrumentation. The Geiger counters were calibrated using a radon-beryllium source, and Agnew received too high a dose of radiation. He was then put to work stacking the graphite bricks that were the reactor's neutron moderator. He witnessed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction when the reactor went critical on December 2, 1942.{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|p=5}}{{cite web |title=Harold Agnew |url=http://nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/biographies/bio_agnew-harold.htm |access-date=December 21, 2011 |publisher=Nuclear Age Peace Foundation |archive-date=January 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121122934/http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/biographies/bio_agnew-harold.htm |url-status=dead }}

Agnew and Beverly moved to the Los Alamos Laboratory in March 1943. Agnew, Beverly and Bernard Waldman first went to the University of Illinois, where the men disassembled the Cockcroft–Walton generator and particle accelerator while Beverly catalogued all the parts. The parts were shipped to New Mexico, where Agnew and Beverly met up with them, and rode the trucks hauling them to the Los Alamos Laboratory. There, Beverly worked as a secretary, initially with Robert Oppenheimer and his secretary Priscilla Green. She then became secretary to Robert Bacher, the head of Physics (P) Division, and later the Gadget (G) Division, for the rest of the war. Agnew's job was to reassemble the accelerator, which was then used for experiments by John Manley's group.{{cite web |url=http://www.manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/harold-agnews-interview |title=Harold Agnew's Interview |publisher=Manhattan Project Voices |access-date=October 6, 2013}}

When experimental work wound down, Agnew was transferred to Project Alberta, working as part of Luis W. Alvarez's group, whose role was to monitor the yield of nuclear explosions. With Alvarez and Lawrence H. Johnston, Agnew had devised a method for measuring the yield of the nuclear blast by dropping pressure gauges on parachutes and telemetering the readings back to the plane. In June 1945, he was issued an Army uniform and dog tags at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, and was flown to Tinian in the Western Pacific in a C-54 of the 509th Composite Group. Agnew's first task was to install his yield measurement instrumentation in the Boeing B-29 Superfortress aircraft The Great Artiste.{{sfn|Krauss|Krauss|2005|p=343}}

During the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, Agnew, along with Alvarez and Johnston, flew as a scientific observer in The Great Artiste, piloted by Charles Sweeney, which tailed the Enola Gay as the instrumentation aircraft. Agnew later recalled, "After we dropped our gauges I remember we made a sharp turn to the right so that we would not get caught in the blast – but we still got badly shaken up by it." He brought along a movie camera and took the only existing movies of the Hiroshima event as seen from the air.{{cite web |publisher=PBS |title=American Experience . Race for the Superbomb . Harold Agnew on: The Hiroshima Mission |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/agnewhiroshima.html |access-date=December 21, 2011 |archive-date=October 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012052631/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/agnewhiroshima.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4718579.stm#graphicss |title=The men who bombed Hiroshima |access-date=December 21, 2011}}{{cite web |publisher=American Institute of Physics |url=http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?agnewh |title=Harold Agnew |access-date=December 21, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830092408/http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?agnewh |archive-date=August 30, 2010 }}

After the war ended, Agnew entered the University of Chicago, where he completed his graduate work under Fermi. Agnew and Beverly stayed with Fermi and his family, due to the post-war housing shortage. He received his Master of Science (MS) degree in 1948 and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1949,{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|p=10}} writing his thesis on "The beta-spectra of Cs137, Y91, Pm147, Ru106, Sm151, P32, Tm170".{{cite web |url=https://libcat.uchicago.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=13810V85D21C2.32763&profile=ucpublic&uri=full=3100001~!4272351~!1&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=~!horizon |publisher=University of Chicago |title=The beta spectra of Cs137, Y91, Chlorine147, Ru106, Sm151, P32, Tm170 |access-date=October 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012041732/https://libcat.uchicago.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=13810V85D21C2.32763&profile=ucpublic&uri=full=3100001~!4272351~!1&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&source=~!horizon |archive-date=October 12, 2013 }} Fellow postgraduate students at Chicago at the time included Tsung-Dao Lee, Chen Ning Yang, Owen Chamberlain and Jack Steinberger.{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|p=10}}

File:Agnew Harold 30 years of service 1974 PUB74116008.jpg

With his doctorate in hand, Agnew returned to Los Alamos as a National Research Foundation Fellow, and worked on weapons development in the Physics Division. In 1950, he was assigned to the thermonuclear weapons project, and was project engineer for the Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in 1954.{{cite web |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html |title=Operation Castle |publisher=Nuclear Weapon Archive |access-date=October 6, 2013 }}{{sfn|Palevsky|2005|p=16}} He became head of the Weapon Nuclear Engineering Division in 1964.

Agnew served as a Democratic New Mexico State Senator from 1955 to 1961.{{cite news |newspaper=The Santa Fe New Mexican |url=http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/article_b9612ad1-27f8-5d07-9db3-6c84da4ff678.html |first=Tom |last=Sharpe |title=Former Los Alamos lab director Harold Agnew dies at 92 |date=September 30, 2013 |access-date=October 6, 2013 }} He was the first state senator to be elected from Los Alamos County. Senators served unpaid, receiving only a per diem allowance of five dollars.{{cite web |url=http://digital.library.unlv.edu/api/1/objects/nts/1115/bitstream |series=Nevada Test Site Oral History Project |publisher=University of Nevada, Las Vegas |title=Interview with Harold M. Agnew |date=October 10, 2005 |location=Solana Beach, California |access-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101015618/http://digital.library.unlv.edu/api/1/objects/nts/1115/bitstream |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |url-status=dead }} Since the New Mexico legislature convened for only 30 days in even numbered years and 60 days in odd numbered years,{{cite web |url=http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/lcsdocs/nmleghandbook01-05.pdf |access-date=October 20, 2013 |title=New Mexico State Legislature |publisher=New Mexico Legislature |archive-date=October 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031211649/http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/lcsdocs/nmleghandbook01-05.pdf |url-status=dead }} he was able to continue working at Los Alamos, taking leave without pay to attend. He attempted to reform New Mexico's liquor laws, which specified a minimum mark-up. He was unsuccessful in 1957, but the law was reformed in 1963.{{sfn|Roybal|2008|pp=186–189}}

From 1961 to 1964, he was Scientific Adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). He also held a number of part-time advisory position with the military over the years. He was a member of the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board from 1957 to 1968, and was chairman of the Science Advisory Group of the United States Army's Combat Development Command from 1966 to 1970. He was a member of the Defense Science Board from 1966 to 1970, the Army's Scientific Advisory Panel from 1966 to 1974, and the Army Science Board from 1978 to 1984.

Agnew became director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1970, when it had 7,000 employees. He took over at a time of great change. His predecessor, Norris Bradbury, had rebuilt the laboratory from scratch after the war, and many of the people he had brought in were approaching retirement. Under his directorship, Los Alamos developed an underground test containment program, completed its Meson Physics Facility, acquired the first Cray supercomputer, and trained the first class of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.{{cite web |publisher=Los Alamos National Laboratory |url=http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/agnew.shtml |title=The Agnew Years (1970–1979) |access-date=December 21, 2011}} Agnew managed to get the Los Alamos Laboratory responsibility for the development of the W76, used by the Trident I and Trident II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles, and the W78 used by the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was proud of the work with insensitive high explosive that made nuclear weapons safer to handle. Support from the Atomic Energy Commission for reactor development dried up, but during the 1970s energy crisis, the laboratory explored other types of alternative fuels.{{cite journal |journal=Los Alamos Science |volume=4 |issue=7 |date=Winter–Spring 1983 |pages=73–79 |title=The Times They Were a Changin' |url=http://gendocs.ru/docs/9/8057/conv_1/file1.pdf |access-date=October 6, 2013 |archive-date=October 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012004537/http://gendocs.ru/docs/9/8057/conv_1/file1.pdf |url-status=dead }}

In 1979, Agnew resigned from Los Alamos and became President and Chief Executive Officer of General Atomics, a position he held until 1985. In his letter of resignation to David S. Saxon, the President of the University of California, Agnew wrote that his decision was influenced by "dissatisfaction with University administration policies and a lack of advocacy for the total LASL [Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory] program" and "frustration with what I consider to be a continuing inequitable distribution of defense program funding by the Department of Energy between the LASL and LLL [Lawrence Livermore Laboratory]."{{cite journal |journal=Physics Today |volume=32 |issue=5 |title=Agnew quits Los Alamos, goes to General Atomic |date=May 1979 |page=116 |doi=10.1063/1.2995534 }}

File:Harold Agnew in 2006.jpg

Agnew chaired the General Advisory Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1974 to 1978, and served as a White House science councillor from 1982 to 1989. He was a member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel from 1968 to 1974, and from 1978 to 1987. He became an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego in 1988. He was the recipient of the E.O. Lawrence Award in 1966, and of the Department of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award in 1978. Along with Hans Bethe, Agnew was the first to receive the Los Alamos National Laboratory Medal. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.{{cite web |url=http://science.energy.gov/fermi/award-laureates/ |access-date=December 21, 2011 |publisher=Department of Energy |title=Award Laureates}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412/29790.aspx |access-date=April 10, 2013 |publisher=National Academy of Engineering |title=Members}}

A proponent of tactical nuclear weapons, Agnew pointed out in 1970 that the Thanh Hoa Bridge in Vietnam required hundreds of sorties to destroy with conventional weapons when a nuclear weapon could have done the job with just one.{{cite journal |journal=Los Alamos Science |volume=4 |issue=7 |date=Winter–Spring 1983 |title=Vintage Agnew |url=http://gendocs.ru/docs/9/8057/conv_1/file1.pdf |pages=69–72 |access-date=October 6, 2013 |archive-date=October 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012004537/http://gendocs.ru/docs/9/8057/conv_1/file1.pdf |url-status=dead }} In a 1977 article for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Agnew argued that the fusion reactions of neutron bombs could provide "tactical" advantages over conventional fission weapons, especially in countering the "massive armor component possessed by the Eastern bloc." Citing conclusions reached by the Rand Corporation, Agnew argued that without affecting the armor of a tank, the neutrons produced by a fusion blast would penetrate the vehicle and "in a matter of a few tens of minutes to hours kill or make the crew completely ineffective." Because the neutron bomb reduced collateral damage, it could be used in a much more selective fashion than a fission weapon, thereby providing a clear "advantage for the military defender as well as for the nearby non-combatant."{{cite web |publisher=Institute for Policy Studies |url=http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Agnew_Harold |title=Profile of Harold Agnew |access-date=December 21, 2011}}

Agnew maintained that no new U.S. nuclear weapon design could be certified without nuclear testing, and that stockpile reliability stewardship without such testing may be problematic.{{cite journal |first1=Hugh E. |last1=DeWitt |first2=Gerald E. |last2=Marsh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prgDAAAAMBAJ&q=Agnew+nuclear+testing&pg=PA41 |title=Stockpile reliability and nuclear testing |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |pages=40–41 |volume= 1 |issue= 8 |date=April 1984 |access-date=December 21, 2011|doi=10.1080/00963402.1984.11459283 |url-access=subscription }} In a 1999 letter to the Wall Street Journal, he commented on the significance of allegations of Chinese nuclear espionage. "As long as any nation has a demonstrated nuclear capability and a means of delivering its bombs and warheads, it doesn't really matter whether the warheads are a little smaller or painted a color other than red, white, and blue," he wrote. "I suspect information published in the open by the National [sic.] Resources Defense Council has been as useful to other nations as any computer codes they may have received by illegal means."{{cite news |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |title=Letter to the Editor: "Looking for Spies in Nuclear Kitchen" |page=A27 |date=May 17, 1999|url=https://fas.org/irp/ops/ci/agnewwsj.html}}

In a 2005 BBC interview, Agnew stated, "About three-quarters of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was designed under my tutelage at Los Alamos. That is my legacy."

{{Clear}}

During his later years, Agnew was interviewed many times about his stance on the conflict and the usage of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During a trip to Japan to visit memorials and meet survivors of the Atomic Bombs, he was asked on one occasion by two survivors if he could apologize for what had occurred, to which he replied "No way. Pearl Harbor did it for me. I lost too many friends at Pearl Harbor." While he did not apologize for what had occurred, he did say that the entire war was terrible but the blame should be placed on the Imperial Japanese Government for instigating it. "There is nothing to apologize for" Agnew later said in another interview. "This is exactly why the Chinese are still upset with them. Many Japanese still refuse to take responsibility for what they did, for starting that war. They can point at us. But believe me, they did some awful bad things. We saved Japanese lives with those bombs -- an invasion would have been worse."{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8854295|publisher=NBC News|date=August 7, 2005|title=60 years after A-Bomb, foes meet over divide}}

Beverly died on October 11, 2011. Agnew was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and died at his home in Solana Beach, California, on September 29, 2013, while watching football on television.{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Harold Agnew, head of atomic laboratory, dies at 92 |first=Elaine |last=Woo|date=October 3, 2013 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/harold-agnew-head-of-atomic-laboratory-dies-at-92/2013/10/02/b4bb81cc-2ba4-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html |access-date=October 6, 2013}} He was survived by his daughter Nancy and son John. He had arranged to be cremated and to have his ashes interred with Beverly at the Guaje Pines Cemetery in Los Alamos.{{cite web |url=http://www.nucleardiner.com/index.php/archive/item/harold-agnew |publisher=Nuclear Diner |title=Harold Agnew (1921–2013) |access-date=October 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012031252/http://www.nucleardiner.com/index.php/archive/item/harold-agnew |archive-date=October 12, 2013 }}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |editor-last=Krauss |editor-first=Robert |editor2-first=Amelia |editor2-last=Krauss |year=2005 |title=The 509th Remembered: A History of the 509th Composite Group as Told by the Veterans Themselves, 509th Anniversary Reunion, Wichita, Kansas October 7–10, 2004 |location=Buchanan, Michigan |publisher=509th Press |oclc=59148135 |isbn=978-0-923568-66-5 }}
• {{cite book |title=Interview with Harold M. Agnew |first=Mary |last=Palevsky |publisher=University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries |date=October 10, 2005 |url=http://digital.library.unlv.edu/objects/nts/1115 |access-date=December 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623120137/http://digital.library.unlv.edu/objects/nts/1115 |archive-date=June 23, 2017 |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite book |last=Roybal |first=David |title=Taking on Giants : Fabián Chávez, Jr. and New Mexico Politics |location=Albuquerque |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-826344-36-6 }}

• [http://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/harold-agnews-interview-1994 1994 Audio Interview with Harold Agnew by Richard Rhodes] Voices of the Manhattan Project
• [http://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/harold-agnews-interview-1992 1992 Video Interview with Harold Agnew by Theresa Strottman] Voices of the Manhattan Project
• [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt7d5nd5tn/ Register of the Harold Melvin Agnew motion picture film] at the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University
• [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/38120 Oral History interview transcript for Harold M. Agnew 22 May 2006, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives]
• [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/40912-1 Oral History interview transcript for Harold M. Agnew 15 February 2007, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives]
• [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/agnew-harold.pdf Richard L. Garwin, "Harold M. Agnew", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)]

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{{s-bef | before = Norris Bradbury}}

{{s-ttl | title = Director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory | years = 1970–1979}}

{{s-aft | after = Donald Kerr}}

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{{Manhattan Project}}

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