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Review
| The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race, by Priscilla J. McMillan. New York: Penguin Books, 2005. 368 pages. $16.00, paper, $18.17, cloth.
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| Over half-a-century has passed since the bureaucratic struggles that led to the removal of security clearance from one of the nation's most distinguished scientists. Perhaps only Albert Einstein, a German émigré and Nobel Prize-winning physicist, possessed greater acclaim than J. Robert Oppenheimer during the early postwar period. Oppie, as he was affectionately known, headed the Manhattan Project charged with building an atomic bomb that Einstein had urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to initiate. A leading scientist in his own right and a highly esteemed professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Oppenheimer proved to be a brilliant administrator in guiding a small band of other brilliant scientists at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico where the successful research for and fabrication of the bomb took place. After the war, he directed Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and served as Chairman of the General Advisory Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission. However, the so-called "father of the atomic bomb" became disillusioned with the destructive might and purely national control of nuclear weapons. Although hardly alone in this regard, Oppenheimer's stature and his one time left-wing political affiliations ensured that he would become controversial when the country was caught up in a red scare. His charismatic nature also made him a prime target and attacks on him were made easier because of his sometimes impolitic and intemperate nature. While attempting to protect others and possibly his own reputation, Oppenheimer was not always forthcoming with government officials, but there is no evidence that he had been involved in revealing secrets to the Soviet Union. Indeed, while he had earlier clearly been a man of the Left, he had informed on others whom he considered to be tied to the Communist Party. Nevertheless, he was accused of not being forthcoming regarding a solicitation to provide nuclear information to the Soviet Union. |
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Patricia McMillan, who is associated with the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard, presents a nuanced examination of Oppenheimer, the Old Left, government bureaucrats, and a wide array of scientists and others who stood by Oppie, such as George Kennan and Vannevar Bush. Some, like Ernest Teller and Lewis Strauss, strove to bring about his demise, because of his opposition to further bomb development. These attacks proved shattering to Oppenheimer's and his wife, Kitty. However, McMillan's account is broader than simply a biographical treatment. Indeed, Oppenheimer disappears for considerable stretches of the book as she discusses other scientific heavyweights and internecine squabbles that hardly involved Oppie. But, ultimately, the author refocuses on Oppenheimer, highlighting the failure of the General Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy to dissuade President Truman from giving the go-ahead for the hydrogen bomb that Oppenheimer opposed, a decision that withered the threads that had temporarily bonded many scientists and the federal government. It was this dispute that precipitated Oppenheimer's loss of his security clearance. McMillan finds this the saddest part of her story because it precluded him from helping to diminish "man's rush to extermination" (p. 265). His being frozen out of further work for the government in the field occurred thanks to foes, some of whom were engaging in a form of retribution for perceived or real slights, but also due to the failure of President Eisenhower, who recognized that Oppenheimer "was not disloyal," but failed to intervene on his behalf (p. 13). |
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McMillan displays battles among scientists, government officials, and lay people generally as they wrestled with the enormity of the bomb, what role scientists should play in determining policy, and the conundrums of secrecy and privacy. Oppenheimner and his defenders faced all of these issues, but particularly limitations imposed by privacy and secrecy. While they confronted numerous obstacles that the government threw in their way, privileged attorney-client information was being presented to the prosecution by the FBI. More ironies abounded. Illegal wiretapping led to the garnering of much information although many of the charges hurled at Oppenheimer involved ancient history. Secrecy also came into play when the federal government determined to undertake tests regarding thermonuclear possibilities without informing the general public. Important as examining these events and issues is, the story of Oppenheimer's "ruin" should also enable students to examine various morality plays pertaining to hubris, shortsightedness, duplicity, bureaucratic infighting, and, yes, fortitude. |
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A sophisticated, intricately drawn book, The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer should serve well as a teaching tool on a variety of subjects, including the Cold War, postwar America, and the History of Science, among others. By using it, teachers and students can grapple with the complexities of the red scare, which engulfed Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. Some were driven by genuine concerns about national security, others by the political gains to be gotten or by personal scores to be settled. |
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| California State University, Chico |
Robert Cottrell |
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