Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American physicist of German-Jewish origin, and the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, at the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. Known colloquially as "the father of the atomic bomb", Oppenheimer lamented the weapon's killing power after it was used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, he was a chief advisor to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission and used that position to lobby for international control of atomic energy and to avert the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. After invoking the ire of many politicians and scientists with his outspoken political opinions during the Red Scare, he had his security clearance revoked in a much-publicized and politicized hearing in 1954. Though stripped of his direct political influence, Oppenheimer continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. A decade later, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of rehabilitation.

Postwar activities

Overnight, Oppenheimer became a national spokesman for science, and emblematic of a new type of technocratic power. Nuclear physics became a powerful force as all governments of the world began to realize the strategic and political power which came with nuclear weapons and their horrific implications. Like many scientists of his generation, he felt that security from atomic bombs would come only from some form of transnational organization (such as the newly formed United Nations) which could institute a program to stifle a nuclear arms race.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Nuclear arms race

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Atomic Energy Commission

After the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was created in 1946, as a civilian agency in control of nuclear research and weapons issues, Oppenheimer was immediately appointed as the Chairman of its General Advisory Committee (GAC) and left the directorship of Los Alamos. From this position he advised on a number of nuclear-related issues, including project funding, laboratory construction, and even international policy—though the GAC's advice was not always implemented. The Baruch Plan of 1946, which called for the internationalization of atomic energy, was derived in part from his opinions, though to his dismay it included many additional provisions which made it clear that its goal was simply to prevent the USSR from gaining its own bomb, rather than promoting a lasting international mechanism for control. The plan was rejected by the USSR to no surprise of observers, and it became clear to Oppenheimer that an arms race was unavoidable, due to the mutual distrust of the U.S. and the USSR.

Related Topics:
Atomic Energy Commission - 1946 - Baruch - USSR

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In 1947, he left Berkeley, citing difficulties with the administration during the war, and took up the directorship of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton Township, New Jersey. He later held Albert Einstein's old position of senior professor of theoretical physics.

Related Topics:
1947 - Institute for Advanced Study - Princeton Township, New Jersey - Albert Einstein - Theoretical physics

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While still Chairman of the GAC, Oppenheimer lobbied vigorously for international arms control and funding for basic science, and attempted to influence policy away from a heated arms race. When the government questioned whether to pursue a crash program to develop an atomic weapon based on nuclear fusion—the hydrogen bomb—Oppenheimer initially recommended against it, though he had been in favor of developing such a weapon in the early days of the Manhattan Project. He was motivated partly by ethical concerns, feeling that such a weapon could only be used strategically against civilian targets, resulting in millions of deaths. But he was also motivated by practical concerns; as at the time there was no workable design for a hydrogen bomb, Oppenheimer felt that resources would be better spent creating a large force of fission weapons. He was overridden by President Harry Truman, who announced a crash program after the Soviet Union tested their first atomic bomb in 1949. Oppenheimer and other GAC opponents of the project, especially James Conant, felt personally shunned and considered retiring from the committee. They stayed on, though their views on the hydrogen bomb were well known.

Related Topics:
Nuclear fusion - Hydrogen bomb - Harry Truman - 1949

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In 1951, however, Edward Teller and mathematician Stanislaw Ulam developed what became known as the Teller-Ulam design for a hydrogen bomb. This new design seemed technically feasible, and Oppenheimer changed his opinion about developing the weapon. As he later recalled:

Related Topics:
1951 - Stanislaw Ulam - Teller-Ulam design

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:The program we had in 1949 was a tortured thing that you could well argue did not make a great deal of technical sense. It was therefore possible to argue that you did not want it even if you could have it. The program in 1951 was technically so sweet that you could not argue about that. The issues became purely the military, the political, and the humane problems of what you were going to do about it once you had it.

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Oppenheimer's critics have accused him of equivocating between 1949- when he opposed the H bomb- and 1951, when he supported it, and some have made this a case for reinforcing their opinions about his moral inconsistency. Historian Priscilla McMillan says, however, that if Oppenheimer has been accused of being morally inconsistent, then so should Rabi and Fermi, who had also opposed the program in 1949. McMillan's argument is that because the H bomb appeared to be well within reach in 1951, everybody had to assume that the Russians could also do it, and that was the main reason why they changed their stance in favour of developing it. Thus McMillan says that this change in opinion should not be viewed as a change in morality, but a change in opinions purely based on technical possibilities.

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The first true hydrogen bomb, dubbed "Ivy Mike", was tested in 1952 with a yield of 10.4 megatons—more than 650 times the strength of the weapons developed by Oppenheimer during World War II.

Related Topics:
Ivy Mike - 1952

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Security hearings

In his role as a political advisor, Oppenheimer made numerous enemies. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover had been following his activities since before the war, when he showed Communist sympathies as a radical professor. They were willing to furnish Oppenheimer's political enemies with incriminating evidence about Communist ties. These enemies included Lewis Strauss, an AEC commissioner who had long harbored resentment against Oppenheimer both for his activity in opposing the hydrogen bomb and for his humiliation of Strauss before Congress some years earlier. Strauss and Senator Brien McMahon, author of the 1946 Atomic Energy Act, pushed President Eisenhower to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance. This came following controversies about whether some of Oppenheimer's students, including David Bohm, Joseph Weinberg, and Bernard Peters, had been Communists at the time they had worked with him at Berkeley. Oppenheimer's brother, Frank Oppenheimer, was forced to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he admitted that he had been a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, but he refused to name other members. Frank was subsequently fired from his university position, could not find work in physics, and became instead a cattle rancher in Colorado.

Related Topics:
FBI - J. Edgar Hoover - Communist - Lewis Strauss - Brien McMahon - 1946 - Atomic Energy Act - Eisenhower - David Bohm - Joseph Weinberg - Bernard Peters - Frank Oppenheimer - House Un-American Activities Committee - 1930s - Colorado

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In 1953, Oppenheimer was accused of being a security risk and President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked him to resign. Oppenheimer refused and requested a hearing to assess his loyalty, and in the meantime his security clearance was suspended. The public hearing which followed focused on Oppenheimer's past Communist ties and his association during the Manhattan Project with suspected disloyal or Communist scientists. One of the key elements in this hearing was Oppenheimer's earlier testimony about his friend Haakon Chevalier, something which he himself confessed he had fabricated. In fact, Oppenheimer had never told Chevalier about this, and the testimony had led to Chevalier losing his job. Edward Teller, with whom Oppenheimer had disagreed on the hydrogen bomb, testified against him, leading to outrage by the scientific community and Teller's virtual expulsion from academic science. Many top scientists, as well as government and military figures, testified on Oppenheimer's behalf. Inconsistencies in his testimony and his erratic behavior on the stand convinced some that he was unreliable and a possible security risk. Oppenheimer's clearance was revoked.

Related Topics:
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower - Edward Teller - Hydrogen bomb

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During his hearing, Oppenheimer testified willingly on the left-wing behavior of many of his scientific colleagues. Historian Richard Polenberg has speculated that if Oppenheimer's clearance had not been stripped (it would have expired in a matter of days anyhow), he would have been remembered as someone who had "named names" to save his own reputation. As it happened, Oppenheimer was seen by most of the scientific community as a martyr to McCarthyism, an eclectic liberal who was unjustly attacked by warmongering enemies, symbolic of the shift of scientific creativity from academia into the military.

Related Topics:
Martyr - McCarthyism

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Institute for Advanced Study

Deprived of political power, Oppenheimer continued to lecture, write, and work on physics. He toured Europe and Japan, giving talks about the history of science, the role of science in society, and the nature of the universe. In 1963, at the urging of many of Oppenheimer's political friends who had ascended to power, President John F. Kennedy awarded Oppenheimer the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. Edward Teller, the winner of the previous year's award, had also recommended Oppenheimer receive it. A little over a week after Kennedy's assassination, his successor, President Lyndon Johnson, presented Oppenheimer with the award, "for contributions to theoretical physics as a teacher and originator of ideas, and for leadership of the Los Alamos Laboratory and the atomic energy program during critical years". Oppenheimer told Johnson: "I think it is just possible, Mr. President, that it has taken some charity and some courage for you to make this award today. That would seem a good augury for all our futures". The rehabilitation implied by the award was only symbolic, as Oppenheimer still lacked a security clearance and could have no effect on official policy, but the award came with a $50,000 stipend.

Related Topics:
1963 - John F. Kennedy - Enrico Fermi Award - Lyndon Johnson

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In his final years Oppenheimer continued his work at the Institute for Advanced Study, bringing together intellectuals at the height of their powers and from a variety of disciplines to solve the most pertinent questions of the current age. His lectures in America, Europe, and Canada were published in a number of books. Still, he thought the effort had minimal effect on actual policy.

Related Topics:
Institute for Advanced Study - America - Europe - Canada

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