What Was the Relevance of Oppenheimer in History?

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Source: pxfuel

Oppenheimer is a film directed by Christopher Nolan that has become popular recently. It has brought about light to someone important in history - J. Robert Oppeneheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

Who was Oppenheimer?

Oppenheimer, fully known as Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and science administrator. He is popularly known as “the father of the atomic bomb”.

He was born in 1904 into a wealthy secular Jewish family in New York City and educated at Manhattan’s Ethical Culture School, graduating in 1921. Although his parents were first- and second-generation Americans of German-Jewish descent, Oppenheimer refrained from embracing his heritage for much of his life.

He had graduated from Harvard in 1925 and traveled to England to conduct research at University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory under British physicist and 1906 Nobel Prize winner J. J. Thomson. There, he struggled with mental health issues and ended up on probation.

Oppenheimer ultimately transferred to the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he earned his Ph.D in quantum physics. During his time in Germany, he studied with a number of prominent physicists, including Max Born and Bohr. Oppenheimer attended Göttingen alongside Werner Heisenberg, who would go on to lead the German effort to develop an atomic bomb.

What Was the Relevance of Oppenheimer in History?

By the time the Manhattan Project was launched in the fall of 1942, Oppenheimer was already considered an exceptional theoretical physicist and had become deeply involved in exploring the possibility of an atomic bomb. Throughout the previous year he had been doing research on fast neutrons, calculating how much material might be needed for a bomb and how efficient it might be.

Source: pxfuel

Although Oppenheimer had little managerial experience and some troublesome past associations with Communist causes, General Leslie Groves recognized his exceptional scientific brilliance. Less than three years after Groves selected Oppenheimer to direct weapons development, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. As director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer proved to be an extraordinary choice.

Oppenheimer’s ties to the communist parties were portrayed to hold him back in terms of expression of his views. After entering into a relationship with Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer is shown to depict interest in left - wing political causes, from supporting anti-fascists during the Spanish Civil War to unionizing academics. Oppenheimer never truly joined any of these communist parties, however, later on after he built the bomb and was still expressing his views with regards to politics, he was often shunned and scrutinized by the US government for the same.

Oppenheimer’s outspokenness after the production of the atomic bomb is what caused some issues about his security and made him a target for the US government and made the government think he was in contact with some Soviet spies. A month-long hearing was conducted for the security clearance of Oppenheimer. The physicist never fully recovered from the blow at his reputation because of his social ties.

Oppenheimer’s security clearance remained revoked until December 2022, when the Department of Energy vacated the commission’s 1954 decision. “Oppenheimer occupies a central role in our history for leading the nation’s atomic efforts during World War II and planting the seeds for the Department of Energy’s national laboratories,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in a statement. “As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to, while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country only further affirmed.”

The Bottom Line

Oppenheimer was a legendary figure in history and will always be remembered as the father of the atomic bomb. The film Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan highlighted aspects of Oppenheimer’s life that we would not have known about otherwise. These include his romantic life and his social circles and how they contributed to the way he was viewed in society. It was not morally correct for Oppenheimer to be judged and put under the microscope with the government purely because he had views that were differing from the social norms. Because he had done his duty to the country: provide them with the most powerful weapon known to man, they exploited him later once they were done with him.

Written by - Vidita Sachdeva