Anthony's Reviews > American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Trial and Punishment.

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer should be one of success; the brilliant scientist who invented the atomic bomb, which ended the Second World War and saved millions of lives. However, it is not. His tale is actually sad, a man who had to live with the consequences of the bomb, the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands and also the hounding of his own government and the FIB. The very people who pressed him to forge the bomb on the first place. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin tell the amazing story of the American Prometheus.

At first glance it is hard to see why his government would turn on him and he would end up dying in obscurity. After all hadn’t he done what everyone had asked him to do, what no one else could do? This book, thirty years in the making, through painful research and extensive interviews shows how and the answers are not complicated in the slightest. The story of Oppenheimer or ‘Oppie’ to contemporaries, is tragic. Born in 1904 of a multimillionaire Jewish businessman from Germany, Oppenheimer was a genius, there is no question. He was extremely talented. Like all geniuses he was flawed, in his case socially awkward. In his youth he was also heavily associated with the communists in American and had far left viewpoints, if not totally amalgamated with them. He studied chemistry at Harvard, then went to Cambridge and studied in Göttingen. Hating practical work and not liked by his peers, this child prodigy stumbled on his way to the top of the great quantum mechanics advance of the 1920s and 1930s.

Following a physicist throughout his studies and teaching may seem boring, but this book is far from it. There is almost no mathematics and very little physics. What is there is explained on a very basic level. The mechanics and engineering of the bomb are nearly entirely missed out. We taken on the story that took him at the height of WWII to lead 6,000 scientists and military men in the Los Alamos complex, in New Mexico, a state he loved to visit. We learn of his famous pork pie hats, excessive chain smoking and expensive woven suits.

What happens from there is explosive and makes addictive reading. Should the bomb have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? There is a lot of evidence to suggest the Japanese were already defeated and looking for a peace highly favourable to the USA, the only clause being the retention of their emperor. The bombs were dropped and the guilt set in. This was highly controversial. From seeing tests in the pacific and results of the two bombs in Japan, Oppenheimer could not no longer look at certain creatures, knowing he’d killed many. He also did not enjoy the work at Los Alamos and disagreed how President Truman used the bombs and the knowledge they’d uncovered. With his heavy associations with far left politics and his views on a post WWII and nuclear world he became continuously estranged from the establishment.

Lewis Strauss was appointed head of the Atomic Energy Commission and the two fell famously out. Oppenheimer wanted international control and multiple states to have a say on when or where bombs could be used. He ultimately wanted to undo his work and turn back the clock, but knew he couldn’t. Strauss for his part found Oppenheimer arrogant and difficult to work with. Their relationship was a disaster. He tried to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearances and the FIB began to watch him for Soviet related activities. There was a fear he would defect. The Grey board hearing runs as a courtroom drama as Strauss and J Edgar Hoover tried to bring him down. Oppenheimer did not deny his associations, but by this time had moved away from the oppressive communist regimes around the world. The only option was self imposed exile on the island of St John, dying in obscurity and quiet in 1969.

The book is truly a great biography of one of the most important figures in science and of the Second World War. We learn about Oppie from all angles, the son, brother, husband, father, scientist, colleague, patriot and accused. He has to live with the horror of his creation and his outspokenness about this rocked the establishment, who had just given everything to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The tension was there for someone who felt very American, but at the same time very human. This was a difficult position that anyone must appreciate. The bombs today are still controversial and provide stimulating talking points. A great book that I recommend.