page_title: Harold Agnew
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Harold Agnew / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Harold Agnew at The Los Alamos Laboratory in 2006
context_page_description: Harold Melvin Agnew was an American physicist, best known for having flown as a scientific observer on the Hiroshima bombing mission and, later, as the third director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is not related to U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew.
  Agnew joined the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1942, and helped build the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor. In 1943, he joined the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he worked with the Cockcroft–Walton generator. After the war ended, he returned to the University of Chicago, where he completed his graduate work under Enrico Fermi.
  Agnew returned to Los Alamos in 1949, and worked on the Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in 1954. He became head of the Weapon Nuclear Engineering Division in 1964. He also served as a Democratic New Mexico State Senator from 1955 to 1961, and was the Scientific Adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1961 to 1964. He was director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1970 to 1979, when he resigned to become President and Chief Executive Officer of General Atomics.
context_section_description: 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]."
  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.
  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. 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."
  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. 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."
  Beverly died on October 11, 2011. Agnew was diagnosed of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and died at his home in Solana Beach, California, on September 29, 2013, while watching football on television. He was survived by his daughter Nancy and son John. He had arranged to be cremated and his ashes interred with Beverly's at the Guaje Pines Cemetery in Los Alamos.
  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."
caption: Harold Agnew at The Los Alamos Laboratory in 2006
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