Note: All the materials cited in this book that are currently in my personal collection will ultimately be deposited either with the rest of the John von Neumann papers in the Library of Congress (JvN's letters in Hungarian to Klari and Klari's unpublished autobiography) or in the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (my own unpublished writings and correspondence between JvN and me).
CHAPTER 1
1. Freeman Dyson, “A Walk through Johnny von Neumann's Garden,” talk given at Brown University, May 4, 2010.
2. “Nomination of John von Neumann to be a Member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission,” March 8, 1955, JvN Papers, Library of Congress, quoted in Giorgio Israel and Ana Millán Gasca, The World as a Mathematical Game: John von Neumann and Twentieth Century Science, Science Networks Historical Studies, no. 38 (Basel, Boston, and Berlin: Birkhauser Verlag, 2009).
3. Norman Macrae, John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), 145.
4. Kati Marton, Enemies of the People (New York, Simon and Schuster, 2009), 12–13.
5. Macrae, John von Neumann, 139.
6. Ibid., 169.
7. Ibid., 171.
8. John von Neumann to Rudolf Ortvay, Princeton, March 17, 1938, in John von Neumann: Selected Letters, History of Mathematics, vol. 27, ed. Miklos Redei (American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society, 2005), 194–96.
9. Ibid., 195.
10. John von Neumann to Rudolf Ortvay, Princeton, February 26, 1939, in John von Neumann: Selected Letters: History of Mathematics, vol. 27, ed. Miklos Redei (American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society, 2005), 199.
11. Clay Blair, “Passing of a Great Mind,” Life, February 25, 1957, 96 (citing an earlier interview).
12. Dyson, “A Walk through Johnny von Neumann's Garden.”
13. Tibor Frank, “Double Divorce: The Case of Mariette and John von Neumann,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 34, no. 2 (summer 1991): 361. Mariette's letters are translated from the Hungarian by the article's author. I have left his syntax, spelling, and punctuation unchanged.
14. Klara von Neumann, A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass, undated and unpublished manuscript. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
15. Ibid.
16. John von Neumann to Stan Ulam, Princeton, October 4, 1937, in John von Neumann: Selected Letters, History of Mathematics, vol. 27, ed. Miklos Redei (American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society, 2005), 251.
17. JvN letter to Klari, August 27, 1938. All the unpublished letters cited in this chapter were translated from the Hungarian by Gabriella Bollobas and are in my personal collection.
18. JvN letter to Klari, August 28, 1938.
19. JvN letter to Klari, October 23, 1938.
20. Robert Leonard, Von Neumann, Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 244.
21. John von Neumann, “Can We Survive Technology?,” in The Fabulous Future: America in 1980, ed. Fortune magazine (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1956), 34.
22. JvN letter to Klari, October 4, 1946.
23. Von Neumann, “Can We Survive Technology?”
24. Quoted in Israel and Gasca, The World as a Mathematical Game, 17.
25. Ibid., 83.
CHAPTER 2
1. Robert P. Crease, Making Physics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 20. The participant cited was William Higinbotham, a physicist at Los Alamos and, later, at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
2. Klara von Neumann, A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass, undated and unpublished manuscript. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
3. JvN letter to Klari, July 13, 1952.
4. JvN letter to Klari, September 17, 1952.
5. JvN letter to Klari, October 15, 1955.
6. Crease, Making Physics, 17–18.
7. Ibid., 32.
8. Mariette K. Kuper, transcript of “Living with the Atom,” radio talk on station WHLI, June 1, 1948
9. Ibid.
10. Mariette K. Kuper, typescript of graduation speech delivered at Medford High School, Medford, New York, June 1948.
11. George Gamow, One, Two, Three, Infinity (New York: Viking Press, 1947).
12. JvN letter to Klari, August 28, 1938.
13. September 2, 1938. All the letters to Klari cited in this chapter were translated from the Hungarian by Gabriella Bollobas.
14. JvN letter to Marina, December 16, 1946.
15. Ibid.
16. Letter from Marina to JvN, December 5, 1945.
17. Letter from Klari and Marina to JvN, undated.
18. Letter from Marina to Klari, August 28, 1945.
CHAPTER 3
1. Kati Marton, The Great Escape (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), 152.
2. Klara von Neumann, A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass, undated and unpublished manuscript. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
3. Silvan S. Schweber, Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 2008), 16.
CHAPTER 4
1. John von Neumann to Marina von Neumann, May 23, 1953, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
2. Marina von Neumann to Robert Whitman, June 13, 1953, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
3. Ibid.
4. Marina von Neumann to Robert Whitman, September 3, 1953, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
5. Priscilla J. McMillan, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York, Viking Penguin, 2005), 2–3.
6. United States Atomic Energy Commission, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board and Texts of Principal Documents and Letters (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971), 726.
7. Ibid., 649–50, 656.
8. John von Neumann to Marina von Neumann, October 28, 1954, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
9. John von Neumann to Marina von Neumann, April 19, 1955, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
10. John von Neumann to Marina von Neumann, May 13, 1955, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
11. John von Neumann to Marina von Neumann, October 9, 1955, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
12. Ibid.
CHAPTER 5
1. Norman Macrae, John von Neumann (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), 377.
2. John von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958), xi.
3. Father Anselm Strittmatter, “Allocution Pronounced at the Obsequies of Professor John von Neumann,” Chapel of Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, DC, February 11, 1957, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
4. Interview with Jean O. Rainey for “A Few Good Women Oral History Collection” (Penn State University Archives), September 30, 2004.
5. Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association, Region with a Future: Economic Study of the Pittsburgh Region, vol. 3 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1963).
6. Office of the Coroner, County of San Diego, California, “Investigative Report CC# 1772–63,” November 10, 1963.
7. Klara von Neumann Eckart, A Grasshopper in Very Tall Grass, undated and unpublished manuscript. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
8. “Dementia in the Second City,” Time, September 6, 1968.
CHAPTER 6
1. Nixon: A Presidency Revealed, History Channel documentary, directed by David C. Taylor (first airing February 15, 2007), DVD.
2. U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. III (summary), Foreign Economic Policy, 1969–72; International Monetary Policy, 1969–72, 1.
3. Marina Whitman to Paul McCracken, memorandum, May 4, 1971, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
4. Economic Report of the President, January 1972 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972), 165–66.
5. Paul Volcker and Toyoo Gyohten, Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership (New York: Times Publishers, 1992), 73.
6. Ibid., 73.
7. Marina Whitman to Paul McCracken, memorandum, August 27, 1971, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
8. C. Jackson Grayson Jr, with Louis Neeb, Confessions of a Price Controller (Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1974), 64.
9. “The Economy: A Blurry Banner for Phase II,” Time, October 18, 1971, 15.
10. Richard M. Nixon, “The Continuing Fight against Inflation,” radio and television address, October 7, 1971.
11. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, January 24, 1972, Conv. No. 654–1, tape subject log, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records.
12. Ibid.; Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, January 28, 1972, Conv. No. 659–1.
13. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 654–1; Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 659–1; Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, January 29, 1972, Conv. No. 660–8.
14. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 654–1; Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 660–8.
15. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 654–1.
16. Ibid.
17. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 659–1; Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 660–8.
18. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 659–1.
19. Richard Nixon recorded conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Conv. No. 660–8.
20. Boston Sunday Globe, January 30, 1972.
21. Detroit News, February 1, 1972.
22. Richard F. Janssen, “Woman Nominated for First Time to Serve on President's Economic Advisers Council,” Wall Street Journal, January 31, 1972.
23. Ibid.
24. Life, February 25, 1972.
25. Michael C. Jensen, “Mrs. Whitman; Council Appointee Sees Self as Solver of Problems,” New York Times, February 6, 1972.
26. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Hearing before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, 92nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1972, 7–17.
27. Joint Economic Committee, Review of Phase II of the New Economic Program: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on April 14, 1972, 92nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1972, 4.
28. “Two Top Economists Optimistic for 1972: Dr. Whitman and Dr. Heller Predict a Vigorous Recovery,” New York Times, May 18, 1972.
29. Economic Report of the President, 1972, 154.
30. Marina v.N. Whitman, “Some Reflections on International Monetary Reform,” Remarks Before the International Fiscal Association, New York, October 27, 1972.
31. Ibid.
32. Joint Economic Committee, The 1973 Economic Report of the President: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on February 6, 1973, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, 8–9.
33. Ibid., 89.
34. William Chapman, “Women: Putting Bread on the Table,” Washington Post, February 3, 1973.
35. Time, October 23, 1972.
36. Business Week, July 8, 1972.
37. Nicholas von Hoffman, “Washington's Rats on the Move,” Washington Post, October 25, 1972.
38. Parade, December 31, 1972.
39. Laura Whitman, interview by Greta Walker, Good Housekeeping, August 1972.
40. Marion Bell Wilhelm, “Economist Whitman Goes to Washington,” Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 1972.
41. Life, February 25, 1972.
42. Time, February 12, 1973.
43. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, May 21, 1973.
44. Herbert Stein, “The Nixon I Knew,” Slate, January 2, 1998.
45. Wall Street Journal, August 6, 1973.
46. Money, May 1973.
47. Herbert Stein, “Memorandum for the President, Observations on Japan,” March 31, 1973. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
CHAPTER 7
1. Marina Whitman to the President's Files, memorandum, March 27, 1973, Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
2. Washington Post, June 3, 1973.
3. Marina Whitman to President Nixon, June 14, 1973, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.
4. President Richard Nixon to Marina Whitman, June 27, 1973, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.
5. Statement of Representative Henry Reuss, Joint Economic Committee, The 1973 Midyear Review of the Economy: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on August 1, 1973, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, 146.
6. Statement of Senator Jacob Javits, Joint Economic Committee, The 1973 Midyear Review of the Economy: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on August 1,1973, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, 146.
7. Statement of Senator Sparkman of Alabama, Joint Economic Committee, The 1973 Midyear Review of the Economy: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on August 1, 1973, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, 146.
8. Statement of Senator Proxmire, Joint Economic Committee, The 1973 Midyear Review of the Economy: Hearings before the Joint Economic Committee on August 1,1973, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 1973, 147.
9. Both these ideas had been suggested by John Maynard Keynes, who represented Great Britain at the Bretton Woods negotiations in 1944 but had been overridden by the objections of the US representative to the conference, Harry Dexter White.
10. American Survey, The Economist, October 6, 1973.
11. Bob Arnold, “Marina Whitman's Back in Town,” Renaissance Pittsburgh, vol. 5, no. 2 (February 1974): 26.
12. Marylin Bender, “Women Take Transfers Companies, Pressured, Offer,” New York Times, July 23, 1974.
13. Pittsburgh Press, December 5, 1976.
14. Leonard Silk, “Peers Give Nixon's Advisers Bad Reviews,” New York Times, October 17, 1973.
15. University Times (Pittsburgh), October 4, 1973, 8.
16. Marina Whitman, “The ‘Dismal Science’ Comes of Age: Economics in America's Third Century,” Sloan Management Review (SMR Forum), vol. 17, no. 3 (spring 1976), 89.
17. Office of the White House Press Secretary, “Remarks of the President at the Opening of the Conference on Inflation,” September 5, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
18. Arthur Okun, “Summary of September 5 Economists' Conference on Inflation,” meeting, Washington, DC, September 5, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
19. “Summary of September 23, 1974, Meeting of Economists,” meeting, New York City, September 23, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
20. Soma Golden, “Self-Interest Stymies Inflation Fight,” New York Times, September 22, 1974.
21. Edwin L. Dale Jr, “Carter Sees Permanency in Floating Money Rates,” New York Times, August 19, 1976; Edwin L. Dale Jr, “Carter's Foreign Economic Plan,” New York Times, August 24, 1976.
22. Dale, “Carter's Foreign Economic Plan.”
23. The one exception was the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, which was passed close to the end of President Ford's term and implemented under President Carter.
CHAPTER 8
1. Pam Proctor, “New Voices in Business: Ladies of the Boardroom,” Parade, July 28, 1974.
2. The Economist, September 22, 2007, 86.
3. Vijay Vaitheeswaran, “Something New under the Sun: A Special Report,” The Economist, October 13–19, 2007, 12.
4. CDA-Collaborative Learning Projects, “Yadana Gas Transportation Project, Fourth Field Visit Report,” April 17-May 6, 2005, http://cdainc.com/publications/cep/fieldvisits/cepVisit16MyanmarBurma4.pdf.
5. “Agreement between the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the President of Radcliffe,” Cambridge, MA, 1977, http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2573641?n=700&s=4&print.
6. Governance of the University, The Harvard Guide, http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/underst/index.html.
7. “Governance Review Culminates in Changes to Harvard Corporation,” Harvard Gazette, December 6, 2010. One of these changes was expansion of the corporation's membership to thirteen.
8. “Overseers and Associated Harvard Alumni Directors: A Guideline on Qualifications,” http:news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/03.02/report.htm).
9. “Meeting of the Committee of the Board of Overseers to Visit the Department of Economics,” Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February 13–14, 1976. Marina v.N. Whitman Personal Collection.
CHAPTER 9
1. Emma Rothschild, Paradise Lost: The Decline of the Auto-Industrial Age (New York: Random House, 1973).
2. “The Squeeze on Oil,” Time, February 5, 1979.
3. Charles Belle, “Business in the Black,” San Francisco County Sun-Reporter, April 1981.
4. Fortune, August 20, 1984, 31.
5. Marina Whitman, “Economics from Three Perspectives,” Business Economics, January 1983, 20–24.
6. The Dartmouth, February 25, 1982.
7. Giorgio Israel and Ana Millán Gasca, The World as a Mathematical Game: John von Neumann and Twentieth Century Science, Science Networks Historical Studies, no. 38 (Basel, Boston, and Berlin: Birkhauser Verlag, 2009), xi.
8. Ibid., 51.
9. Maryann Keller, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors (New York: William Morrow, 1989).
10. Marina Whitman, “Economic Scene: Auto Industry's New Challenges,” op-ed, New York Times, September 3, 1980.
11. Marina Whitman, “Economic Scene: Shape of Power in Next Decade,” op-ed, New York Times, September 5, 1980.
12. See, for example, Neil Sheehan, A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon (New York: Random House, 2009).
13. Marina Whitman, interview with Maryann Keller, transcript, 1991.
14. “Healing the Auto Industry,” GM Economics Staff and Financial Staff to the GM Executives, memorandum, September 3, 1982.
15. Ibid., 2.
16. “Trends,” Forbes, August 3, 1981.
17. Forbes, August 31, 1981, 10.
18. Henry Ford II to Ford CEO Philip Caldwell, memorandum, May 17, 1981.
19. Washington Post, April 2, 1981.
20. “Import Restrictions Revisited,” Marina Whitman to Chairman Roger Smith, Vice Chairman Howard Kehrl, and Executive Vice President Alan Smith, memorandum, January 12, 1981.
21. Roger Smith, “Its Time to End the Auto Quotas,” op-ed, Washington Post, January 30, 1985.
22. Oscar Frenette, “Automotive Report,” WJR-Detroit, January 6, 1986.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Statement of Marina Whitman, The Future of the Automobile Industry: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation, and Tourism of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (February 8, 1984), 98th Cong., 2nd session, 1984, pp. 237–44.
26. Wall Street Journal, June 10, 1987.
27. Ibid.
28. Business Week, September 6, 1986.
CHAPTER 10
1. General Motors Annual Report, America's Corporate Foundation, 1985; General Motors Annual Report, America's Corporate Foundation, 1990; General Motors Annual Report, America's Corporate Foundation, 1992; General Motors Annual Report, America's Corporate Foundation, 2005.
2. Pew Environment Group, “History of Fuel Economy: One Decade of Innovation, Two Decades of Inaction,” The Pew Charitable Trusts, http://www.pewfuelefficiency.org/docs/cafe_history.pdf.
3. Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2008; US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Highway Policy Information; US Census Bureau.
4. Marina v.N. Whitman, Global Warming and CAFE Standards, Hearings before the General Motors Corporation submitted to the Senate Consumer Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 101st Cong., 1st Sess., May 2, 1989, pp. 130–47.
5. Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White, The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 93.
6. “The Innovator: The Creative Mind of Roger Smith,” New York Times Magazine, April 21, 1985.
7. Letter from Marina Whitman to John H. D'Arms, February 7, 1990, in my personal collection.
8. Nick Poulos, “Economist's Ride with GM Exhilarating,” Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, February 16, 1986.
9. Maryann Keller, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors (New York: William Morrow, 1989), 196.
10. Ibid., 139.
11. Ibid., 243.
12. Ibid.
13. Automotive News, March 12, 1990.
CHAPTER 11
1. Time, November 26, 1984.
2. Marina Whitman to Frank Press, December 5, 1988, in my personal collection.
3. Marina von Neumann Whitman, New World, New Rules: The Changing Role of the American Corporation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999).
4. Louis Uchitelle, “Company Woman,” New York Times, June 27, 1999.
5. Marina Whitman, “Women Who Take the Corporate Climb” (letter to editor), Business Week, July 31, 1987.
6. Annette Churchill, “GM Vice President Marina Whitman: An Academic Makes It to the Fourteenth Floor,” Ann Arbor Observer, March 1986.