After 68 years, how was the stigma finally removed from Robert Oppenheimer’s forehead?

Some time ago, after about 70 years have passed since the father of the atomic bomb was cut off from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) due to the possibility of espionage for the Soviet Union, justice was finally served for J. Robert Oppenheimer (J. Robert Oppenheimer), physicist of the Manhattan Project, was established.

Some time ago, we reported on Takfars that according to the New York Times news agency, Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, in a statement called the controversial and strange decision that led to Oppenheimer’s infamy as the result of a wrong process and declared that this process even violated the rules of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Alex Wellerstein, a historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology, stated in an interview with the New York Times that Oppenheimer’s acquittal should have happened several decades ago. Although this may not have gone as Oppenheimer and his family wanted, it is still considered a great success for him.

Oppenheimer was born in New York City in 1904 and studied physics at the University of Cambridge before receiving a doctorate from the University of Gottingen in 1927, and a few years later became a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. After the approval of the Manhattan Project by Franklin Roosevelt, the President of the United States at the time, Oppenheimer was chosen by General Leslie Grooves as the leader of this project. Although Oppenheimer was politically left-wing and despite several nominations, he had not received any Nobel Prizes, but Groves believed that he had enough knowledge to advance and succeed in the mentioned project.

Time proved that General Groves was not wrong in his decision because a few minutes before sunrise on July 16, 1945, in the Alamogordo Desert in New Mexico, the Gadget nuclear bomb was placed on top of a 100-foot tower and exploded. This explosion led to the complete destruction of the aforementioned tower and the creation of a mushroom cloud at a height of 38 thousand feet. Also, the heat produced by this explosion melted the soil around the tower and created a glass-like surface, which today is called Trinitite. Oppenheimer wrote in his memoirs that this explosion reminded him of a sentence from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am death, the destroyer of worlds.”

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On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the Little Boy nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, killing between 70,000 and 130,000 people. Three days later, the Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 45,000 people. America won the world war at a terrible price.

Physicists had now become national heroes and Oppenheimer had also received the position of chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, but there were still doubts about his possible connection with the communist parties, which eventually led to the famous trial of 1954. This happened during Joseph McCarthy’s chairmanship of the Senate Investigation Committee. This senator had established a new law based on which, in addition to the requirement to prove the loyalty of government employees, their background should also be consistent with the interests of the American national security.

Oppenheimer was in contact with several communists until 1930, and even in 1942, under pressure, he mentioned contact with some secret agents from the Soviet Union. However, he later admitted that his testimony was false. In fact, Oppenheimer had only met Haakon Chevalier, a professor of French literature from Berkeley with communist leanings, in a private meeting. This issue cost him Oppenheimer in the 1954 trial, and even his strong opposition to the development of the hydrogen bomb did not help to reduce the skepticism towards him.

Edward Teller, who opposed Oppenheimer on the matter of building the hydrogen bomb, declared in the said hearing that he would prefer the future of the country (America) to be in the hands of people who can be trusted. Many scientists considered Teller’s work an unforgivable betrayal of his colleague and kicked him out. Despite denying membership in the Communist Party, Oppenheimer admitted that he agreed with many of its goals.

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Some time later, the Atomic Energy Commission finally acquitted Oppenheimer of the crime of treason and announced that, however, he was an unreliable person and therefore should not have access to the country’s military secrets. Oppenheimer was also barred from holding high government positions on charges of association with communists. Among all the members of the Atomic Energy Commission, only Henry Smith, professor of physics at Princeton University, supported Oppenheimer. At that time, Einstein and 25 of his other colleagues at Princeton University also opposed the decision of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Although Oppenheimer kept his position at Princeton University after the World War, now he has lost his special position in the government and scientific societies, and according to many people, he had become a failed person; He himself referred to the 1954 trial as a funny show. Oppenheimer revived part of his fame after receiving the Enrico Fermi Prize in 1963 and died of cancer in 1967.

In 2014, several transcripts of the 1954 proceedings were made public to reveal that there was no evidence to support the charges against Oppenheimer. In fact, according to Cornell University historian Richard Polenberg, many available documents prove that this eminent physicist was innocent. Some time ago, the film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, was released, so that the name of this influential man in history can be heard again. What do you think about Oppenheimer’s character? Share with us.