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\centerline{\bg Chapter 5.  The heroic years (1959-1962)}
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\noindent {\bf Origin and founding of the IHES}
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When Pierre Deligne accepted the offer of a permanent position at the
Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, he referred to it, from the vantage 
point of a visit to Harvard, as a ``little paradise''.  And so it must have 
seemed to many if not all of those whose contacts with the IHES were 
limited to the exercise of scientific research, especially after the 
installation of the Institute in 1962 in the poetic wooded domain known as 
the Bois Marie, in the peaceful village of Bures-sur-Yvette some twenty 
miles south of Paris.

For those involved in the administrative running of the IHES, the story
is more complex and less paradisiac, and it was all the more difficult and
trying for the three people who assisted at the very birth of the 
Institute: its conceiver, director, and founder L\'eon Motchane, and the first 
two mathematicians that he invited to join his institute as permanent 
professors, Jean Dieudonn\'e and Alexandre Grothendieck.

L\'eon Motchane was an experienced businessman of Russian origin, although he
had left Russia at the age of 18 to live first in Switzerland, then in France,
where he eventually became a citizen.  As a banking magnate, he
was incredibly successful, but his remarkable spirit also led him to remarkable
adventures such as his participation in the clandestine publishing house 
{\it Les Editions de Minuit} created during the German occupation and devoted
to secretly printing and distributing daring wartime novels (of which the most 
famous is probably {\it Le Silence de la Mer} by Vercors).  Having joined the 
ompany through his friendship with one of its active members, Yvonne Paraf, 
Motchane not only aided their activities -- improving the distribution 
network, for example, in 1943, by the use of assistants on bicycles -- but
also published a book, {\it La pens\'ee patiente}, and married Yvonne Paraf
at the end of the war.

At this point in his life, Motchane apparently decided to return to his former
love, mathematics (he had studied mathematics and physics in Russia and in
Switzerland), and undertood to write a doctoral thesis, which he completed
in Paris in 1954.  During this time, he became acquainted with the physicist
Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton
and chairman of the general advisory committee of the Atomic Energy Commission,
which had been set up by the government to replace the Manhattan Project,
overseeing all atomic research and development in the country.  Strangely,
Oppenheimer had been named head of the Manhattan Project during the war 
and chairman of the AEC in spite of his vocal opposition to the creation of
new and more powerful bombs.  His stand on the hydrogen bomb caused him to 
be removed from the AEC in 1953, during the McCarthy era, but his position
at the IAS continued uninterrupted until he became ill with cancer in 1966.  

From reading the letters between Motchane and Oppenheimer, it emerges clearly
that Oppenheimer represented a kind of ideal for Motchane: the extraordinary
scientist who at the same time wields the kind of power and public influence for
which Motchane very obviously thirsted.  Scientific genius held an intense 
attraction for him, and it is obvious that he had the deepest respect for it
and a sincere desire to nurture it in others, well aware that in spite of his
deep interest, such genius was entirely lacking in himself.
The idea which flashed into his mind one day -- the creation of a French 
answer to the IHES -- is entirely understandable: given the impossibility 
of he himself actually being the European Oppenheimer, he realized that 
he could accomplish something quite equivalent by associating himself, in the
role of powerful and influential director, with a few scientists of the 
highest level that Europe could offer -- preferably of the type who would 
leave the running of the newly conceived institute to him -- and together,
collectively, create something equivalent to Oppenheimer's IAS.

Because Motchane's thesis work had introduced him into the world of French mathematicians,
the name of Grothendieck was suggested to him almost as soon as he had begun
to discuss his idea with his colleagues.  At that time, Grothendieck was
being paid by the CNRS, as he had been on and off since 1950, and had in fact
only just been promoted Director of Research.  However, CNRS positions were
not at that time considered permanent, as they now are; they were stepping 
stones on the way to becoming a university professor, a position barred 
to Grothendieck because he was stateless. 

If Grothendieck had no intention of asking for French citizenship, it was
not merely because he wished to avoid the military draft as a personal bother,
but more deeply, because he was a committed pacifist, and also no doubt because
the statelessness itself appealed to him in its total independence from
governmental constraint; his and his parents' experiences with the Nazi 
government would be warning enough about the dangers of citizenship.  
His later attitude towards John Nash bears witness
to this.  In any case, when Motchane offered him the possibility of becoming
one of the two first ``permanent professors'' at the fledgling institute, with 
Jean Dieudonn\'e, who had been a professor at the University of Chicago since
1952 as the other, they both accepted at once, undeterred by the uncertainty
of continued funding, and willing to have confidence in Motchane's ability
to carry his project through (it should be said that Dieudonn\'e was already
acquainted with Motchane, and advised Grothendieck that he very probably
need not worry).  In any case, by 1958, Grothendieck's reputation was solidly
established and he was well aware that if the IHES fell through, he would have
more than one job offer from prestigious and interesting places, although they 
might not be in France.

In order to understand the subsequent relations between Motchane and
Grothendieck and the curve of events which led to their nearly
simultaneous resignations in 1970, it is necessary to understand something
of who L\'eon Motchane was, his personality and his methods.  The bare
biographic facts already show clearly that he was enterprising, efficient
and in a certain manner extremely idealistic, in the sense that he aimed
high and worked hard for causes that were worthy and noble.  If in doing
this work, he was also seeking personal glory and gratification, and if
his methods frequently involved the use of manipulation, flattery, 
semi-truth or hiding of facts, dividing the better to conquer, hypocrisy
and other such familiar techniques for administrative success -- in a word,
he proceeded on the assumption that the end justifies the means -- it can
be said to his credit that what he undertook was impressive and admirable,
and he did it brilliantly, and that very probably a different type of person
would not have been able to carry it through.

Grothendieck profited from Motchane's efforts for eleven years, and during that
time, it may seem that conditions improved steadily -- by increased salaries,
increased reputation, much improved working conditions, the purchase of 
the lovely Bois-Marie, and then the adjunction of living quarters for the
professors and visitors.  But the thick file of letters exchanged between 
Motchane and Grothendieck show clearly that relations were not smooth. 
Motchane's methods, although he tried to hide 
his financial maneuvers from his `permanents', tended to occasionally circle
back to the ears of Dieudonn\'e and Grothendieck through interventions of
third parties and caused a series of crises and disputes starting as early as
1959; other causes of friction were their violently differing attitudes towards
certain aspects of the life that he had chosen which were precious and
fundamental to Motchane and a source of contempt for Grothendieck; Motchane's
desire for ceremonies and ceremonial relations between people, his interest
in awards and recompenses, his belief in and desire to build a public image, 
and one which would reflect back upon himself and seeming admirable in the 
eyes of others, obtain grace also in his own.
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\noindent {\bf 5, Rond-Point Bugeaud}
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It took Motchane some years to line up a sufficient number of corporate
and governmental sponsors to render the possibility of a long-term project
realistic.  In pursuing these sponsorships, one of his principal weapons
(apart from his natural sense of finance and talent for persuasion) was his
acquaintance with Oppenheimer, who in spite of his difficulties under
McCarthyism was still one of the most prestigious and well-known scientists
in the world.  Motchane named Oppenheimer to his Administrative Council
and repeatedly invited him to France to attend the meetings, invitations
which Oppenheimer accepted when he could, but was frequently obliged to
refuse or cancel at the last minute.  Motchane tried to organize meetings
of the Administrative Council around Oppenheimer's visits to Europe in 
order to increase the likelihood that he would be there, even if just for
a brief afternoon; he encouraged his prospective sponsors by honoring them
with an introduction to the great man and humbly requested Oppenheimer to
please be ready to shake a few hands.

When the financial situation was sufficiently stable, Motchane proceeded to
seek for a location for his tiny Institute, and managed to convince the
Fondation Thiers to lend a couple of offices, and a seminar room once a week.
Modest though these quarters were in terms of size, the Fondation Thiers
building was a monument of elegance and luxury, situated at the address then
called 5, rond-point Bugeaud in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris. 
The luxurious building was sold in 1986, and after a stint as a
British-style club, eventually became the Hotel Saint-James Paris and can
be admired today at the modified address 43 avenue Bugeaud.  

The Fondation Thiers, which occupied the building from 1892, was devoted to
supporting research and young researchers, particularly in the domain of
the social sciences;  fifteen researchers were not merely salaried, but
lived in the building in luxurious circumstances, with a concierge and
some twenty or thirty service people working in the building for their comfort;
above and beyond these pleasing living circumstances, the Fondation also 
provided each of its researches with an indispensable visit to Italy. 
Alas, it eventually encountered a series of serious financial crises, and
after the war it would have been compelled to close its doors had it not been
rescued by the CNRS, which in a more modest and modern way was providing
support (but not lodging) to young researchers in the sciences.  Thus, it
was with the CNRS that Motchane was able to negotiate the tiny locale 
attributed to him within the enormous Fondation building.  He settled in 
two offices, together with Mademoiselle Annie Rolland, who as the General 
Secretary of the fledgling institute was to oil its wheels, smooth its path 
and iron out its wrinkles for the next eleven years, and entered into the 
role of Director of the IHES.

It might seem that the work of a director of an institute containing all of
two mathematicians, both of them independent-minded, illustrious and productive,
and both of whom worked on their research at home, would not necessarily 
constitute a full-time occupation. However, this would be a misconception:
indeed, Motchane's work was cut out for him.  For one thing, he and Annie 
Rolland had to organize all the material supporting circumstances for the 
public aspects of his Institute that he hoped would build its reputation and
eventually create its fame: namely the S\'eminaire de G\'eom\'etrie 
Alg\'ebrique, held once a week in a lecture room in the Fondation Thiers 
building, run by Grothendieck and to which flocked the cream of Paris
students, and the Publications Math\'ematiques, run by Dieudonn\'e and destined
to publish manuscripts of importance, those written by Grothendieck and
Dieudonn\'e among the earliest.   This meant that hours each week were taken
up by having posters for the seminar printed and posted at all the universities
around Paris, by having the notes for the seminar run off in sufficient
numbers, by negotiating contracts with printers and organizing distribution
of the issues of the Publications Math\'ematiques, and by keeping up to date
an increasingly long mailing list of international mathematicians who wanted
the latest texts.  Furthermore, there was the matter of invitations; all three
members were agreed that the IHES should become a desirable place for
mathematicians to visit, and the selection of whom to invite, for how much time
and for how much money, followed by the necessity of organizing lodgings and
paperwork for the visitors constituted yet another sizeable task.  Then,
there was the paperwork inherent, especially in France, in any official
enterprise: the newly created institute had to have a legal status, and an
admistrative council and a scientific council which would meet regularly
to discuss important issue.  Finally, there was the major matter of 
fund-raising, which was Motchane's particular domain. 

The rules and statutes of the Institute left the domain of activity of the
institute and the precise role of its professors relatively vague.  Article
2 states that: 
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{\it L'action de l'Association s'exerce principalement par la mise \`a la
disposition des savants, nomm\'es professeurs permanents ou temporaires
de l'Institut, des ressources mat\'e\-rielles leur permettant de r\'ealiser
des recherches d\'esint\'eress\'ees, et accessoirement par l'institution
de prix, bourses et r\'ecompenses, ainsi que par la publication de bulletins
scientifiques, l'organisation de cours, conf\'erences, s\'eminaires, de tous
\'echanges scientifiques, la fondation d'un centre comprenant des 
biblioth\`eques, salles de r\'eunions et bureaux de travail et, d'une
fa\c con g\'en\'erale, par la participation \`a toute expression d'activit\'e
scientifique conforme \`a son but.} 
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The perfect similarity of the IHES today with the description above, 
amateurishly typed on an old and slightly uneven manual machine, shows to what 
point Motchane was both visionary and pragmatic; one notes with astonishment
the care taken to declare the right of the Institute to eventually purchase
not only buildings, but also ``woods or forests'' if these would be useful
to pursuing its goals.  In fact, in spite of its
standard-sounding language, the conception expressed here is quite interesting:
Motchane viewed the Institute as being created for the service of its
professors, and their research as ``disinterested'', rather than viewing the 
Institute together with its professors and their research as having been created
for the service, or for the good, of the wider community, like any other
university or research center.  The writing of this paragraph reflects
Motchane's admiring attitude towards science and scientists of genius and a
real desire to nurture it and to employ his considerable ego and 
organizational talents for its benefit.

The IHES was founded under the French law of 1901 defining associations
with non-lucrative goals (``association \`a but non lucratif''), namely any
legal association with another specific goal than that of financial profit.  
In December 1960, Motchane succeeded in having his association recognized
with the status ``association of public benefit (``associations d'utilit\'e 
publique''), a status which apart from the legal benefits of being allowed,
for example, to receive legacies, is mainly a question of prestige.
For the rest, the statutes are almost entirely concerned with the 
Administrative Council.  The association grouped members of three different 
types: titular, donor and honor, according to what kind of services the person
rendered; these people were the influential sponsors and donors that 
Motchane succeeded in attracting to the support of his project.  From these 
members, an Administrative Council of six persons was to be elected:
the list of its first members is given in the Statutes as Joseph P\'er\`es,
Fernand Picard, Paul Huvelin, Maurice Porte, L\'eon Kaplan, and
Gabrielle Reinach.  Ninety percent of the statutes is concerned with
details of how to become a member of this council, how to stop being a member,
the conditions for membership, the dues to be paid, the conditions for
calling a meeting of the Administrative Council and so forth.  In addition
to this Council, the statutes note the creation of a Scientific Committee
whose members are given as: the President of the Administrative Council,
the Director of the Institute, all the permanent professors, and
some outside members which, at the start, consisted of Paul Montel, 
Robert Oppenheimer and Joseph Peres.  It is made clear in the Articles of
the Statutes concerning this Scientific Committee that its has a purely
consultatory role -- that is, that final decisions are to be made by the 
Director -- and that the role of the Scientific Committee in general is
to consider essentially and only the choice of ``scientific personnel'',
i.e. of permanent or visiting professors.



In principle, REGLEMENT INTERIEUR according to the statutes, Grothendieck's 
role apart from research and running his seminar was supposed to be limited to 
discussing invitations to the institute.  He could have requested or even 
demanded information about the institute's finances, but in fact he 
was content to let Motchane handle these issues alone, preferring not to 
worry about the nature of the sources of financial donations, or about 
the institute's unstable financial situation in general.  In his own words:
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{\it Sans me laisser impressionner tout au long de 
ces quatre ann\'ees par les mises en garde et rumeurs persistantes de faillite 
imminente d'une ``aventure" (\`a ce que laissaient entendre des amis bien 
inform\'es...) enti\`erement irr\'ealiste, pour ne pas dire fumiste sur les 
bords! Le fait est que l'IHES n'avait alors la moindre assise financi\`ere 
ou fonci\`ere, sa vie restait constamment suspendue \`a des donations \`a 
court terme de quelques industriels plus ou moins bien dispos\'es. 
Je ne m'en préoccupais gu\`ere, me bornant \`a faire confiance au 
directeur-fondateur L\'eon Motchane, qui arrivait d'ann\'ee en ann\'ee 
\`a ``sauver la mise" par des prodiges de prestidigitation financi\`ere 
et de "public relations".  Apr\`es tout, en ces temps cl\'ements, si \c ca 
s'\'ecroulait, j'avais de bonnes chances de retrouver rapidement un point de 
chute moins probl\'ematique!  Par contre, si je gagnais le pari que
j'avais fait sur l'IHES (avec l'encouragement de Dieudonn\'e, qui connaissait 
Motchane et en lequel j'avais toute confiance), ma position \`a l'IHES me 
convenait mieux que toute autre dont j'avais connaissance.} (RS 442 footnote)
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Working at home on his mathematical research day and night, running his 
famous seminar, discussing with Dieudonn\'e about the writing up 
of the EGA, discussing invitations to the Institute with Dieudonn\'e and
Motchane; these were Grothendieck's professional tasks in those first
years of the IHES, and if he terms those years ``heroic'', it was because
the reputation of the Institute was being built entirely on his work and
that of Dieudonn\'e, and it must be admitted that Dieudonn\'e's role
in Grothendieck's eyes during those years was reduced to little or nothing
in terms of original research, though his written production was enormous
and the running of the Publications Math\'ematiques one of the elements 
contributing to the success of the IHES: ``pendant les ann\'ees en question 
(1958-1964), le temps de Dieudonn\'e se partageait pour l'essentiel entre la 
r\'edaction des El\'ements de G\'eom\'etrie Alg\'ebrique [...] et les 
r\'edactions Bourbaki -- mis \`a part le piano et la cuisine (Dieudonn\'e 
\'etait \`a la fois fin musicien et fin cuisinier)...'' (RS 441)
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From the beginning, Grothendieck felt that the Institute was being carried
forward on the strength of his research and his research alone, and because 
he accepted that responsibility and with it, the minimal-to-non-existent 
working conditions (a modest salary, no office, no library) that were all the 
still largely conceptual Institute could provide him with at that time,
he terms this period ``the heroic years'': a time of risk and hope and 
ambition.
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\noindent {\bf Troubles}
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There are, however, a number of elements that cast a shadow on this admirable
picture.






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`...``l'interdisciplinarit\'e" a \'et\'e d\`es les d\'ebuts de l'IHES le 
grand th\`eme de pr\'edilection de son directeur-fondateur.' (RS 444)

`...il a alors (selon une tactique \'eprouv\'ee qu'il maniait \`a la 
perfection) jou\'e le jeu du ``diviser pour r\'egner"...(RS 541)

p. 856 and preceding of RS, there's an interesting discussion of rigid
analytique geometry, set more or less in the year 1961.

\bye
