Robert A. Heinlein In Dialogue with His Century

9. Some Beginnings of Some Ends

7. In his correspondence, Heinlein spoke of his disenchantment with Roosevelt, and Virginia Heinlein testifies that the Theobald Report was the first of at least three critical incidents that bear on his later political positions and activities (the others being, in her opinion, Sputnik late in 1957 and the Patrick Henry campaign in 1958, although Heinlein also mentions other incidents as being critical to his evolution. In a letter to his brother Lawrence Lyle Heinlein, July 19, 1964, Heinlein says specifically:

My change in opinion has been a gradual one in most ways but there have been some sharp break points, too. One was the day on which the full story on Pearl Harbor finally came out—and I’ve had no use for FDR since. Another was a day in Jugoslavia when I watched American tanks being handed over to Tito. Oh, there have been many other things—the Alger Hiss case, Operation Keelhaul, our forgotten Korean War prisoners, Castro and our State Department, Aid to Dependent Children and the “professional” relief client, many things.

But there is a logical gap between disenchantment with a former leader of the party and making a break with his life-long political party. Heinlein never discussed his resignation from the Democratic Party, but that the break happened at this time suggests that it was tied up with his recent experiences. I have here lined up some of the elements not often visible in the documentation, which I estimate went into Heinlein’s taking stock of “the entire situation.”

24. There is no specific information about when “their last round of fertility testing” took place. The most recent time the subject came up, even obliquely, was in 1952, probably in connection with Ginny’s false pregnancy after their National Parks road trip.

This was probably the occasion when the subject of fertility surgery for Ginny came up because of “a minor malfunction that might have been corrected with estimated 25% success through prosthesia involving a laparotomy for her.” Heinlein goes on to note: “I did not like those odds for her as she was then 36 when we pinned it down—and I was too old for a legal adoption—so we accepted the situation…” (RAH, letter to Greg Benford, 11/08/73).

That was probably the event that triggered their exploration of adoption.