A.E.C. Files (Historical Doc. No. 133)

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (Bush)

secret

Memorandum of Conference With the President

The President called me in to lunch today and the primary discussion was on S–1, although anti-submarine warfare and various other matters came in for partial discussion. I explained the reasons for my visit to England on anti-submarine warfare.1

The most important point, however, was when he asked me about how relations with the British now stood. I asked him whether Harry Hopkins had reported to him our conversation with Lord Cherwell and he told me that he had not done so. I therefore told him that we had had a most extraordinary interview with Cherwell which had left me completely amazed at the British point of view, and I recounted the substance of that interview as I have it recorded in a memorandum made just after the interview occurred.2 I told the President that immediately after the conversation with Cherwell I had made careful record of the conversation and put it in my file, and he said “I am glad you did” or words to that effect. When I recounted that Cherwell had placed the whole affair on an after-the-war military basis, the President agreed that this was astounding, I said that I could not conceive of asking for an affair on that basis unless it were part of a trade, and that I thought we might as well sit tight on British relations, since our program is not suffering for lack of interchange and since the British had practically quit their efforts on the matter, and the President nodded rather vigorously and did not ask me to do anything more on this aspect of the subject. Several times in the conversation the subject came back to this matter of the British position and every time it was on a basis where the President seemed to be amazed that they could take such a point of view. He said at one point for example, he thought Cherwell was a rather queer-minded chap. The last words as I left the office he referred again to the extraordinary nature of the British position, and I suggested that he get Harry Hopkins to tell him about the conversation with Cherwell. It is quite [Page 632] evident from this conversation that the President has no intention of proceeding farther on the matter of the relations with the British, for I doubt if he had really thought about the matter since he saw me last, and the fact that he had not even gotten the story from Hopkins is certainly significant. It is also very clear that I have no instructions to do anything except to proceed as we are.

We had a somewhat brief discussion of after-the-war aspects of this whole affair, and the President said he felt that it would probably be necessary to prevent commercial use, by which I understood he felt that all practice would need to be under government control on account of the dangers of various sorts. I told him at this point that I was following out his instructions and getting just as complete patent control in my hands as possible and that both industries and universities had cooperated in this generously by making complete assignments to the government of inventions made in the course of the program, and that there were very few outsiders or recalcitrants. I told him that there were one or two cases of patents in the hands of outsiders where I might find it desirable to purchase in order to clear up a possible threat, but I thought this would not cost more than $100,000 and that I thought I ought to go ahead and do it in order to round out the patent situation. He did not say “go ahead”, but neither did he make any comment to the contrary, but rather nodded and we went on to other aspects of the matter. I hence judge that it would be in accordance with his general opinion as to proper procedure for me to purchase outstanding rights to a reasonable extent if the matter so develops that this is possible.

The outcome of the conversation as far as possible actions are concerned seems to be as follows. I have no errand to carry on for the President while in England and I am not instructed to take any steps in regard to relations with the British.…

V. Bush
  1. Concerning the subjects discussed by Roosevelt and Bush other than cooperation with the United Kingdom with respect to atomic energy, see Hewlett and Anderson, p. 274.
  2. See ante, p. 209.