Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon Characters

Meet the Cast

Robert Oppenheimer

Nerd AlertClose your eyes. In your mind, summon up the most stereotypical image of a brilliant, science-inclined nerd that you can. Now start over, and this time, instead of picturing the cast of T...

Harry Gold

Just Your Run-Of-The-Mill International Man of MysteryHarry Gold was a pretty normal dude. He was average height (maybe a little on the short side), smart (he was a chemist, after all), kind, and w...

Klaus Fuchs

Rhymes with "Books"Before we get started, we think it is important to instruct you on how to say Klaus's last name. "The spelling," a fellow German said of Fuchs's name, "sometimes caused people to...

Leslie Groves

I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, And Doggone It, People Like MeLeslie Groves was a huge bulldog of a man who was known for getting impossible projects done on time and on budget. In Washington D....

Theodore Hall

Lucky DevilTheodore—or Ted, as most people called him—was a genius physicist who graduated high school at the age of fourteen and went on to revel in the difficulty of Harvard's most challengin...

Knut Haukelid

Knut Haukelid was an awe-inspiring Norwegian skier/hiker/radio-operator/saboteur/Jason Bourne. He and his friends took Hitler's invasion of their country personally. They started off committing sma...

President Harry Truman

A name you probably recognize from your history books, Harry Truman is better known as the thirty-third President of the United States and the person who ultimately decided to use atomic bombs to e...

Scientists

Herb AndersonA physicist present at the Chicago Pile test.Robert BacherA physicist who supervised the assembly of the plutonium core at the Trinity test site.Hans BetheA German-born physicist, abou...

Politicians and Military Guys

Korechika AnamiA Japanese war minister, Anami voted not to accept the Potsdam Declaration.General Seizo ArisueArisue was the Japanese army's chief of intelligence who inspected Hiroshima and report...

KGB

Lona CohenCohen was the KGB spy/courier who replaced Saville Sax to get a final interview with Ted Hall. She had a super close call when she was stopped for an inspection at the train station while...

FBI

Scott Miller and Richard BrennanTow FBI agents who were sent to interrogate Harry Gold in 1950.Robert LamphereAn FBI counter-intelligence agent who investigated the Russian's ability to build a bom...

Communists

Tom BlackBlack was the guy who helped Harry Gold get a much-needed job in a soap factory during the Great Depression. He was an avowed communist and tried really hard to convert Gold. He then used...

Norwegians

S.W. FehmerFehmer was Chief of Gestapo intelligence in Norway during the war.Knut Haugland and Arne KjelstrupThese guys were on the Vemork power plant mission.Claus HelbergHelberg was a classmate o...

Women Who are Mentioned Once

Barbara ChevalierBarbara Chevalier was Haakon's wife.Knut Haukelid's MotherOne seriously courageous woman, Haukelid's mom refused to give any information to the Nazis when they interrogated her abo...

Eyewitnesses

Shintaro FukuharaA ten-year-old boy with his little brother at the time of the Hiroshima explosionMichihiko HachiyaDoctor at Hiroshima who described some of the devastating aftermath of the bombYoh...