As the leader of the Manhattan Project and the eventual head of the Los Alamos laboratory, J. Robert Oppenheimer was instrumental in developing the atomic bomb during World War II, and also played a key role in the creation of the hydrogen bomb, which helped to escalate the arms race in the postwar environment. But it was also the H-bomb that brought Oppenheimer to his knees.
As the competition to build better and more effective weapons to compete with the Russians intensified, it seemed that the camaraderie and teamwork that personified the Manhattan Project and created the bomb that eventually destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki deteriorated into petty territorial squabbles. Some of this stemmed from scientists at Los Alamos, those under Oppenheimer who wanted to continue refining the A-bomb, and those allied with Edward Teller, who wanted to build a “super” or hydrogen bomb. The problem was that Teller was a brilliant scientist, a completely ineffective administrator and not capable of appreciating any position but his own. He felt frustrated at the delays encountered when working on the H-bomb, and blamed the delays on Oppenheimer. For his part, Oppenheimer wasn’t convinced that the H-bomb was even feasible, and he also began to feel deep concern about the morality of developing such a devastating weapon; Teller felt no such moral compunction.
In fact, Teller is one of the major villains of Priscilla J. McMillan’s new work, THE RUIN OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER AND THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN ARMS RACE. She depicts Teller fighting with everyone, taking sole credit for joint work, manipulating political players and just outright lying about and betraying his colleagues. But actually, the story isn’t quite that easy and one-sided, because Oppenheimer could also be a beastly, prickly man. He made a number of scientific enemies, and seemed peculiarly naïve when it came to political power plays. The two men butted heads.
In the heightened paranoia of postwar America and the ongoing McCarthy hearings, it was possible to start with a scientific disagreement and end with a travesty of justice. And that is exactly what occurred. Teller’s constant whining to receptive ears paid off, perhaps even more than he expected. Oppenheimer began to be investigated for his past associations with the Communist Party, his supposed reluctance to help build the H-bomb and his alleged discouragement of physicists and scientists to stay away from the H-bomb project.
It would all be silly, but again, the story isn’t quite that easy and one-sided, because Oppenheimer really did have some disquieting aspects to his history. Though never an actual member of the Communist Party, he had numerous contacts within the Party, and referred to himself as a “fellow traveler” with its members. It also came out that he had been approached to pass information onto the Russians. Though he immediately declined, he delayed in reporting the incident, and then initially lied about it in order to protect a friend. Not a good move.
When reading the evidence fairly, and without having any turf to gain politically or scientifically, one can see that Oppenheimer was innocent of the trumped-up charges. Indeed, his relationship with the Communist Party had been known, and vetted, and his clearance level approved, four separate times before the trial, once by J. Edgar Hoover himself! But if you were looking at the same evidence, and had been conditioned to believe that a Soviet spy existed among the Los Alamos scientists, or that your senior colleague was actively hampering your work, it’s possible to understand how others viewed Oppenheimer as a security risk. A few minor bits of circumstantial evidence add up to a mountain of accusations and a ruined reputation.
Overall, the author Priscilla J. McMillan does an excellent job presenting the characters and history surrounding the development of the hydrogen bomb, and how the case progressed against Oppenheimer. The facts are well-sourced and usually given without significant spin. There is an annoying 14-page introduction that seems almost written by another person. It tries to serve as a synthesis of the tale, but it’s shallow and pointed and the book would be better off without it. Skip it and get right to the meat of the story.
McMillan’s sympathies are obviously with Oppenheimer, but she makes a valid case for why this is so, and she clearly points out who she feels are the real villains of the story: Teller, the extremely nasty Lewis Strauss (one of the Commissioners of the Atomic Energy Commission) and the deviously slippery Roger Robb, who prosecuted on behalf of the AEC, sadly later became a federal judge, and lied about his machinations during the trial. It’s a depressing story to read. But if you want a more complete knowledge of how our arms race began, the scientific and political mindset of the 1950s, and how the individual scientists reacted to the overwhelming moral questions that surround the development of powerful weapons, this is the book for you. –Mark Rose
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