American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Vintage Books.
cross posted at my blog.
I just finished reading the above book. I'm not a physicist in the sense that Oppie was a physicist. However, this book combines three of my favorite interests - science, politics, and history. At just under 600 pages, this is the definitive story of the "father of the atomic bomb." If you're not "one so wise in the ways of science", don't fret. There isn't any hard core physics in this book. The focus of the book is rightly on the Oppenheimer's role in directing the Manhatten Project and on the 1954 security clearance hearing in which Oppie found himself the victim of the Red Scare. One of the things that I found most interesting about Oppenheimer's story is the relevance to today's times, which I will illustrate below with some quotes from the book.
For those not familiar with Oppenheimer's story, he was a brilliant theoretical physicist who made outstanding contributions to the budding field of quantum physics. Due to his technical stature, he was chosen to lead the project to build the atomic bomb during WWII. While this might not seem so unusual, during the 1930s, Oppie aligned himself with the causes of the American Communist Party - although he was never a member. His leftist leanings were in response to the rise of fascism in Europe and in the ideals of helping your fellow man. These leftist associations would prove to be his downfall during the Red Scare of the 1950s. Because of his desire to control the proliferation of atomic weapons, Oppenheimer made some powerful political enemies. Chief among these was Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Strauss would railroad his personal agenda in an "independent" hearing to have Oppie's security clearance revoked resulting in the loss of Oppenheimer's input into American nuclear policy. It ultimately ruined Oppenheimer, and he died a decade later having never truly recovered.
When it became clear that the atomic bomb would be built, Oppenheimer fought for policies that would prevent a nuclear arms race, in particular openness with the Soviet Union. Of course, he did not prevail in pursuading the Truman administration to pursue such a policy. His thoughts about their refusal to follow an openness policy:
"If you approach the problem and say, 'We know what is right and we would like to use the atomic bomb to persuade you to agree with us,' then you are in a very weak position and you will not succeed...you will find yourselves attempting by force of arms to prevent a disaster."
However confident Americans might be that their views and ideas will prevail, the absolute "denial of the views and ideas of other people, cannot be the basis of any kind of agreement."
The end of that particular quote sounds hauntingly like the philosophy of the neocons that so influence our current administration.
Oppenheimer wasn't just worried about the use of atomic weapons in a conventional war setting. He was clearly prescient regarding the use of atomic bombs as the ultimate tool of terrorists as illustrated in the following two quotes.
The "father" of the atomic bomb explained that it was by definition a weapon of terror and aggression. And it was cheap. The combination might someday prove deadly to whole civilizations. "Atomic weapons, even with what we know today," he said, "can be cheap...atomic armament will not break the economic back of any people that want it. The pattern of the use of atomic weapons was set at Hiroshima." The Hiroshima bomb, he said, was used against an essentially defeated enemy...it is a weapon for aggressors, and the elements of surprise and of terror are as intrinsic to it as are the fissionable nuclei."
And in a situation that could have clearly happened in a post-2001 Senate hearing, the following exchange:
A major war was not Oppie's only worry: he was concerned too about nuclear terrorism. Asked in a closed Senate hearing room "whether three or four men couldn't smuggle units of an [atomic] bomb into New York and blow up the whole city." Oppenheimer responded, "Of course it could be done, and people could destroy New York." When a startled senator then followed by asking, "What instrument would you use to detect an atomic bomb hidden somewhere in a city?" Oppenheimer quipped, "A screwdriver [to open each and every crate or suitcase]." There was no defense against nuclear terrorism -- and he felt there never would be.
In the end, Oppenheimer knew that developing atomic weapons was a necessity of the moment. But he also knew the future consequences, and it haunted him until the end. From recollections just after the bombing of Hiroshima:
"That night we from Los Alamos had a party," Morrison recalled. "It was war and victory in war, and we had a right to our celebration. But I remember sitting...on the edge of a cot...wondering what it was like on the other side, what was going on in Hiroshima that night."
It was that guilt that led Oppenheimer to be an advocate for arms control - a position that would eventually result in his public humiliation with the rejection of his national security clearance. On the implications of Oppenheimer's security clearance rejection, Oppenheimer's friend Vannevar Bush said
On the other hand, "when an individual citizen sees his country going down a path which he thinks is likely to be disastrous he has some obligation to speak out."
Oppie turned out to be correct - both for his time, and ours. Ultimately, that is the lesson of the story of Robert Oppenheimer. When our country is headed down the wrong path, we as citizens have an oblligation to speak up, regardless of the possible personal consequences.