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(dramatic music)
(bomb exploding)
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- [Narrator] On August 29, 1949,
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four years after the American
bombing of Hiroshima,
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the USSR prepares to fire
its first atomic bomb.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Stalin owed this astonishing speed
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to a remarkable spy plan at the very heart
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of the United States.
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With ruthless efficiency,
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it allowed him to find out all the nuclear
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discoveries made by the Manhattan Project.
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The success of this huge operation
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was due to an exceptional woman
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whose achievement has
remained a secret until today.
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(dramatic music)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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(gun firing)
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- [Narrator] On June 22, 1941,
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Hitler opened his eastern borders
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and three million German soldiers
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invaded Russian territory with an aim
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to annihilate the Red Army.
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Three months later, the Germans were at
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the gates of Moscow.
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On the night of October 12, 1941,
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Stalin asked to meet with Vassily Zarubin,
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Elizabeth's husband, who was
an important Soviet agent.
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Stalin told him to leave for
the United States immediately
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on a mission with his wife.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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(crowd cheering)
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- [Narrator] Elizabeth
and her husband arrived
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in Germany and witnessed
the terrifying rise
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of Nazism and anti-Semitism.
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Elizabeth was a committed
and militant Jew,
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but she didn't run from this horrific
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storm of anti-Jewish persecution.
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Instead, she risked her
life to create networks
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and to lay down the foundations
of her recruitment work.
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(dramatic music)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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(soft dramatic music)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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- [Narrator] So Ruben had
known Margarita Konenkova
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for a long time as the
wife of sculptor Konenkov,
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who made the famous statue
of Einstein in Princeton.
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She recruited her in 1936.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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(dramatic music)
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On January 6, 1939,
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a news item upset the scientific world.
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Two German scholars, Otto
Hahn and Fritz Strassman,
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published an article in
which they demonstrated
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the possibility of splitting uranium.
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Nazi Germany was moving
towards nuclear weaponry.
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Leo Szilard, a Hungarian
physicist of Jewish origin,
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who immigrated to the USA,
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was the first to react to this article.
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- He'd been thinking about fission
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and the possibility of a nuclear weapon
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for a very long time.
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And so he understood the implications
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as well as probably anyone.
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He wanted to warn the
president of the United States
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about this discovery,
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but he recognized that he didn't
have any name recognition.
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And so he was in no position
to approach the president.
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So he went to Albert Einstein.
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Einstein, of course, was
world famous at the time,
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just as he is today.
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And he convinced Einstein
to co-author a letter
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with him and they sent it to the president
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of the United States.
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- [Narrator] This letter
is dated August 2, 1939.
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In his response, Roosevelt
informs of his decision
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to form a committee to
study the use of uranium.
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It's the first step of the
future American atomic program.
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- That's how the Manhattan
Project got its start.
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It wasn't known as the
Manhattan Project at the time.
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There was simply a committee known as
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the Uranium Advisory
Committee which handled
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the affairs of this research.
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But the Manhattan Project would take
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several more years to come into existence.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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(dramatic music)
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December 7, 1941.
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Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
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suddenly changed history.
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The United States, which
had until then been
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ambiguously neutral,
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immediately joined in the war.
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Roosevelt's Uranium Advisory Committee,
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who'd been seen as apathetic,
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now took on a new sense of purpose.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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- The Manhattan Project
really was an enormous
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national effort.
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The project employed
nearly 130,000 people.
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The thing is, you're not
going to have an atomic bomb
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if you don't have enriched
uranium or plutonium
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to put in it, and so many of the people
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involved in the project
were construction workers.
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They were building some
of the largest buildings
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ever erected before.
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Specifically, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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And the main mission at the
time was to enrich uranium.
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The other big laboratory
was at Hanford, Washington.
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And they were trying to
enrich plutonium there.
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And so these were very important missions.
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There would have been no atomic weapons
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had it not been for Oak Ridge and Hanford
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and the people who had been working there.
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- [Narrator] In Moscow,
work was also being done
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on the nuclear front.
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Even if he didn't
believe it or didn't want
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to believe in the bomb,
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Stalin was informed by
his intelligence services
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that the Americans were
going down the atomic route.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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- The Soviets had really good scientists,
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but the industrialized,
the western portion
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of that country was decimated
during World War II.
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- [Narrator] In September 1942,
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Stalin assigned the
implementation of the atomic plan
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to Lavrentii Beria,
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chief of internal and external
security for the USSR.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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On September 17, 1942,
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the American authorities
named Leslie Groves
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as the director of the
atomic bomb project.
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A colonel who they had promoted to general
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for that very reason,
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he's the one who christened
it the Manhattan Project.
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- Groves was not a scientist.
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He was an engineer.
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He had just finished
building the Pentagon.
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And he thought because
of building the Pentagon
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right before World War II,
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that he should get a combat assignment
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somewhere in Europe or the Pacific.
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So he was disappointed when he was told
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he was going to be the head
of this top secret project.
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- [Narrator] Less than a
month after his appointment,
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on the 8th of October, Groves
met Oppenheimer at Berkeley.
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The 25th of February, 1943,
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although not everyone was in agreement,
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Grove selected Oppenheimer
as the scientific
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director of the Manhattan Project.
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And so it was this man who
would go down in history
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as the father of the first atomic bomb.
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- Robert Oppenheimer's a very complex man.
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His parents were German immigrants,
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but he was born in New York City,
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so he was a US citizen.
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It was known early on
that he was brilliant,
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and he went to the Ethical
Culture School in New York City.
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And there were sometimes
that the teacher sent
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him to the library because he knew more
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than the teacher did.
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He went through Harvard
University in three years
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as an undergraduate,
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and so he was offered positions
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around the United States,
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but he took the position
at University of Berkeley
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to do the works on the cyclotron.
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And so that kind of brought
then nuclear physics west
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because he said for
physics it was a desert.
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There was nothing going on there.
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- [Narrator] Groves and Oppenheimer,
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the soldier and the scientist.
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The mythical pair behind
the American atomic journey.
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Two very different characters
who actually formed
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the perfect team to drive forward
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this atomic project.
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- I think why he chose Oppenheimer,
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there were a couple reasons.
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One is because he was not a scientist.
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Oppenheimer was able to
explain in non-scientific terms
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what the Manhattan Project was about.
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The other reason was because Oppenheimer
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was young and hungry for fame.
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There were other more
senior scientific physicists
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who could've been picked,
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but Groves said I want
somebody who is hungry,
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who will go do the hard
work seven days a week,
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as many hours as they can.
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Not to rest and say, you know,
I already have a Nobel Prize.
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Wanted somebody who would work really hard
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and he saw that Oppenheimer
was that driven.
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- [Narrator] The first mission that Groves
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assigned to Oppenheimer was to choose
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and recruit other scientists.
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It was a fantastic challenge.
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Oppenheimer became a
sort of scientific coach,
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in charge of the most extraordinary team
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of scientists the world had ever seen.
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- Oppenheimer was able
first of all to recruit
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scientific talent from around the country.
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He would go to somebody and say,
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we're working on this top secret project.
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I can't tell you what it is,
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but if you sign up for this,
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then you'll come to a
very beautiful part of
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the United States and you will work
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on a very important war effort.
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Oppenheimer didn't specifically
recruit all of them.
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He spent his time
recruiting the leadership
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of the laboratory.
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People like Robert Bacher who I mentioned,
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tried to bring in the Hans Bethes
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and the Enrico Fermis of the world.
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And of course they all
had graduate students
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working for them.
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And they brought in
their graduate students
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and who they trusted, who they liked,
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who they knew were competent.
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It was just incredibly rich collection
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of scientific talent.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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- [Narrator] Oppenheimer
was recruited by Groves,
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despite strong hesitation
due to his political past.
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But the issue of his real feelings towards
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communism remained a shadow over him
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being selected as head
of the atomic program.
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- During the Great Depression,
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Oppenheimer then became politicized
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and started supporting left wing causes.
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Last reason why, in the '30s,
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people at the universities
around the country
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supported communism
was as this rising tide
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of fascism and Nazism was
sweeping through Europe,
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it seemed the only people
who were opposing that
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were people connected with the communists.
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So he became then
radicalized, politicized,
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and before World War II,
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the FBI had Robert Oppenheimer on their
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custodial detention list.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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- [Narrator] General Groves then faced
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the second great challenge of
the organization of his plan.
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He'd have to assemble under one roof
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all the scientists he recruited
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who were scattered throughout universities
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all over the United States.
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- There were scientists scattered around
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the country at the different universities,
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and for them to communicate
with each other,
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they couldn't just pick up the phone.
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They had to write it out.
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They gave it to a courier who put it in
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his briefcase that was handcuffed to him,
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and then that courier took
a train across the country.
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So it had to have a central laboratory.
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- The requirements for the
weapons design laboratory,
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that it had to be remote,
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the land had to be
relatively easy to acquire.
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It had to be defensible.
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It had to be far inland.
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They were worried about commando raids.
261
00:27:19,170 --> 00:27:22,004
You know, commandos being
landed on submarines.
262
00:27:22,004 --> 00:27:24,057
They thought that things
near the coastline
263
00:27:24,057 --> 00:27:26,019
were much more susceptible to that.
264
00:27:26,019 --> 00:27:28,174
And there are some wide open areas
265
00:27:28,174 --> 00:27:31,569
which could be used for
high explosive tests
266
00:27:31,569 --> 00:27:33,319
and things like that.
267
00:27:34,471 --> 00:27:36,356
- [Narrator] Groves sent several officers
268
00:27:36,356 --> 00:27:38,541
to look for an appropriate location.
269
00:27:38,541 --> 00:27:43,378
But none of them came back
with a satisfactory suggestion.
270
00:27:43,378 --> 00:27:45,825
So Oppenheimer invited General Groves
271
00:27:45,825 --> 00:27:47,793
to accompany him on an exploration
272
00:27:47,793 --> 00:27:50,306
of the magnificent scenery in New Mexico,
273
00:27:50,306 --> 00:27:53,049
and quickly persuaded
him that this would be
274
00:27:53,049 --> 00:27:54,632
the ideal location.
275
00:27:55,961 --> 00:27:59,497
- Oppenheimer had come to
New Mexico as a young man.
276
00:27:59,497 --> 00:28:01,107
He had been sick for a year.
277
00:28:01,107 --> 00:28:04,392
He was sent to New Mexico to
kind of regain his health.
278
00:28:04,392 --> 00:28:07,047
The kind of the final
month of his convalescence,
279
00:28:07,047 --> 00:28:09,375
he came to northern New
Mexico and fell in love
280
00:28:09,375 --> 00:28:11,458
with northern New Mexico.
281
00:28:12,745 --> 00:28:15,401
- Los Alamos was selected
by Robert Oppenheimer.
282
00:28:15,401 --> 00:28:17,558
It was the ideal location.
283
00:28:17,558 --> 00:28:21,058
And General Groves approved the selection.
284
00:28:23,067 --> 00:28:24,498
- [Narrator] The incredible logistics
285
00:28:24,498 --> 00:28:26,083
behind the Manhattan Project would now
286
00:28:26,083 --> 00:28:29,166
invade the stunning western backdrop.
287
00:28:35,011 --> 00:28:37,092
Now the country's best scientists,
288
00:28:37,092 --> 00:28:39,059
who came here from many different states,
289
00:28:39,059 --> 00:28:42,309
would be able to start their work here.
290
00:28:43,369 --> 00:28:44,909
Everything was yet to be built,
291
00:28:44,909 --> 00:28:47,132
and ground was yet to be broken,
292
00:28:47,132 --> 00:28:51,299
but the Los Alamos atomic
program could now begin.
293
00:28:54,423 --> 00:28:56,658
- Back during the 1800s,
294
00:28:56,658 --> 00:28:58,409
you may remember the gold rush.
295
00:28:58,409 --> 00:29:00,960
And so wherever somebody discovered gold,
296
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,025
a little town would pop up overnight
297
00:29:03,025 --> 00:29:05,116
and it was known as a boom town.
298
00:29:05,116 --> 00:29:07,130
And I think that Los Alamos is very much
299
00:29:07,130 --> 00:29:09,472
an atomic boom town.
300
00:29:09,472 --> 00:29:11,882
They built a laboratory
in a matter of months.
301
00:29:11,882 --> 00:29:13,591
They had to build living quarters,
302
00:29:13,591 --> 00:29:16,893
they had to build administrative building,
303
00:29:16,893 --> 00:29:19,368
buildings for handling materials like
304
00:29:19,368 --> 00:29:21,187
uranium and plutonium.
305
00:29:21,187 --> 00:29:24,520
All of this was done very, very quickly.
306
00:29:27,924 --> 00:29:31,841
(speaking in foreign language)
307
00:29:48,659 --> 00:29:51,031
Originally Los Alamos was going to be
308
00:29:51,031 --> 00:29:53,547
a military site and everyone here was
309
00:29:53,547 --> 00:29:56,372
going to be in the military,
including Oppenheimer.
310
00:29:56,372 --> 00:29:58,853
He was going to be a lieutenant colonel.
311
00:29:58,853 --> 00:30:01,707
He had already ordered his uniforms.
312
00:30:01,707 --> 00:30:03,302
The problem was that the scientists
313
00:30:03,302 --> 00:30:05,623
that he was trying to recruit were already
314
00:30:05,623 --> 00:30:10,182
doing important war research
elsewhere as civilians.
315
00:30:10,182 --> 00:30:12,402
- I'm an academic.
316
00:30:12,402 --> 00:30:14,901
We are very independent.
317
00:30:14,901 --> 00:30:18,034
We teach how we want to teach.
318
00:30:18,034 --> 00:30:21,081
Nobody tells us how we're to teach.
319
00:30:21,081 --> 00:30:24,217
That's pretty different than military.
320
00:30:24,217 --> 00:30:26,253
So there was clashes with that,
321
00:30:26,253 --> 00:30:28,645
with very intelligent scientists
322
00:30:28,645 --> 00:30:31,758
who felt that the military
were dampening them,
323
00:30:31,758 --> 00:30:33,675
were constricting them.
324
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,231
But still, there were attempts to try
325
00:30:39,231 --> 00:30:43,242
to get the scientists to
abide by the military rules.
326
00:30:43,242 --> 00:30:45,632
There was a wonderful man by the name
327
00:30:45,632 --> 00:30:47,105
of Richard Feynman,
328
00:30:47,105 --> 00:30:48,858
who was the joker there.
329
00:30:48,858 --> 00:30:50,242
He was a jokster.
330
00:30:50,242 --> 00:30:52,744
And he would go out, he would
find a gap in the fence,
331
00:30:52,744 --> 00:30:54,936
he would go out and then he'd come back in
332
00:30:54,936 --> 00:30:57,086
the checkpoint, and
then he'd go sneak out,
333
00:30:57,086 --> 00:30:58,081
and then he'd come back in.
334
00:30:58,081 --> 00:31:00,246
And they said, "When did you go out?"
335
00:31:00,246 --> 00:31:03,163
He was just coming in all the time.
336
00:31:04,670 --> 00:31:07,419
(dramatic music)
337
00:31:07,419 --> 00:31:08,855
- [Narrator] This strained relationship
338
00:31:08,855 --> 00:31:11,003
between the military and
the scientists in Los Alamos
339
00:31:11,003 --> 00:31:14,003
shows the human side of the project.
340
00:31:16,362 --> 00:31:17,867
From the very beginning,
341
00:31:17,867 --> 00:31:19,709
the suspicion of treachery
by the scientists
342
00:31:19,709 --> 00:31:23,792
from more diverse backgrounds
remained unchanged.
343
00:31:26,892 --> 00:31:30,809
(speaking in foreign language)
344
00:31:47,871 --> 00:31:51,742
- People were recruited based
on their scientific talent.
345
00:31:51,742 --> 00:31:53,463
Then they were evaluated,
346
00:31:53,463 --> 00:31:56,055
their background was evaluated after that.
347
00:31:56,055 --> 00:31:59,222
And that really was not a big problem.
348
00:32:01,323 --> 00:32:05,240
(speaking in foreign language)
349
00:32:21,325 --> 00:32:23,199
- [Narrator] The scientific
and military powers
350
00:32:23,199 --> 00:32:24,679
were forced to get along in order for
351
00:32:24,679 --> 00:32:27,262
the atomic research to succeed.
352
00:32:28,123 --> 00:32:29,978
Both men who embodied these powers,
353
00:32:29,978 --> 00:32:32,462
who formed a mutual relationship of trust,
354
00:32:32,462 --> 00:32:34,695
would both agree on modes of operation,
355
00:32:34,695 --> 00:32:37,195
often against some opposition.
356
00:32:38,537 --> 00:32:42,516
- Groves did not want that
knowledge to be shared.
357
00:32:42,516 --> 00:32:44,164
He wanted to be compartmentalized.
358
00:32:44,164 --> 00:32:46,881
This was somewhat of a conflict between
359
00:32:46,881 --> 00:32:49,396
the scientists and military,
360
00:32:49,396 --> 00:32:50,916
because the scientists were saying
361
00:32:50,916 --> 00:32:53,631
we need to know what
everybody's working on.
362
00:32:53,631 --> 00:32:56,679
So Oppenheimer pushed
for more communication
363
00:32:56,679 --> 00:32:59,192
between the scientists
and in-between the sites.
364
00:32:59,192 --> 00:33:02,388
And ultimately Groves
begrudgingly allowed that.
365
00:33:02,388 --> 00:33:04,503
He didn't want to.
366
00:33:04,503 --> 00:33:05,692
You have to realize, Allen,
367
00:33:05,692 --> 00:33:08,987
there's a difference between
security and secrecy.
368
00:33:08,987 --> 00:33:11,501
Scientists self-impose secrecy.
369
00:33:11,501 --> 00:33:13,175
They recognized that it was important
370
00:33:13,175 --> 00:33:15,700
to keep a lot of this information secret
371
00:33:15,700 --> 00:33:18,594
because of the consequences.
372
00:33:18,594 --> 00:33:22,511
(speaking in foreign language)
373
00:34:10,869 --> 00:34:13,446
- For most of the nuclear physicists,
374
00:34:13,446 --> 00:34:16,967
the specter of Nazis
getting the bomb first
375
00:34:16,967 --> 00:34:19,717
motivated them to work very hard.
376
00:34:21,180 --> 00:34:25,796
Oppenheimer had family in
Germany that were killed.
377
00:34:25,796 --> 00:34:28,698
Enrico Fermi had to flee Italy
378
00:34:28,698 --> 00:34:30,710
because his wife was Jewish.
379
00:34:30,710 --> 00:34:32,729
I mean, this was very real
and it was very personal
380
00:34:32,729 --> 00:34:34,979
for some of the physicists.
381
00:34:39,537 --> 00:34:41,074
- [Narrator] The
scientific research carried
382
00:34:41,074 --> 00:34:42,838
out in Los Alamos was unique,
383
00:34:42,838 --> 00:34:45,493
but often terrifying for the scientists.
384
00:34:45,493 --> 00:34:47,119
As for the first time in history,
385
00:34:47,119 --> 00:34:49,020
scientists were working on the development
386
00:34:49,020 --> 00:34:52,937
of a weapon that could
destroy all of humanity.
387
00:34:56,738 --> 00:34:59,244
Which scientist wouldn't
question deep down
388
00:34:59,244 --> 00:35:02,709
their role in this apocalyptic project?
389
00:35:02,709 --> 00:35:06,626
(speaking in foreign language)
390
00:35:40,284 --> 00:35:42,371
- They knew what they were doing.
391
00:35:42,371 --> 00:35:46,687
Nobody wanted to drop a
nuclear weapon on a city.
392
00:35:46,687 --> 00:35:49,193
But they recognized that if they did,
393
00:35:49,193 --> 00:35:52,585
it might more quickly
end the most horrific
394
00:35:52,585 --> 00:35:54,993
conflict in the history of mankind.
395
00:35:54,993 --> 00:35:59,358
So it was balancing
these different thoughts.
396
00:35:59,358 --> 00:36:01,560
Oppenheimer himself is a great example.
397
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:03,207
I think that Oppenheimer would have been
398
00:36:03,207 --> 00:36:04,796
happier if nuclear weapons were just
399
00:36:04,796 --> 00:36:07,098
a physical impossibility.
400
00:36:07,098 --> 00:36:09,003
But they were a possibility,
401
00:36:09,003 --> 00:36:13,506
and he recognized what
atomic weapons would do,
402
00:36:13,506 --> 00:36:17,826
and I think that it really
played on his conscious,
403
00:36:17,826 --> 00:36:20,412
that he had brought
this type of technology
404
00:36:20,412 --> 00:36:21,662
into the world.
405
00:36:23,508 --> 00:36:25,851
- Sometimes his face looks really tortured
406
00:36:25,851 --> 00:36:28,911
and troubled and/or somewhere else.
407
00:36:28,911 --> 00:36:31,855
I mean, studying the photographs of him,
408
00:36:31,855 --> 00:36:35,117
it's like what's going on
behind that face of his
409
00:36:35,117 --> 00:36:37,296
because it does show on his face
410
00:36:37,296 --> 00:36:41,463
that some things are troubling
to him or even tortured.
411
00:36:43,217 --> 00:36:47,134
(speaking in foreign language)
412
00:38:12,537 --> 00:38:15,287
(bomb exploding)
413
00:38:16,782 --> 00:38:20,699
(speaking in foreign language)
414
00:39:24,007 --> 00:39:27,831
- You can have fairly
extreme political leanings
415
00:39:27,831 --> 00:39:29,454
in one direction or another.
416
00:39:29,454 --> 00:39:31,084
That doesn't necessarily
mean that you're going
417
00:39:31,084 --> 00:39:34,041
to be a traitor to your country.
418
00:39:34,041 --> 00:39:37,931
- I feel Oppenheimer
was a loyal US citizen.
419
00:39:37,931 --> 00:39:40,402
And he was approached indirectly
420
00:39:40,402 --> 00:39:44,798
to give some secrets about
Los Alamos to the Soviets.
421
00:39:44,798 --> 00:39:48,912
And he said he didn't think
that was a proper avenue.
422
00:39:48,912 --> 00:39:51,143
If that should happen, it should come from
423
00:39:51,143 --> 00:39:53,037
people higher than him in the government,
424
00:39:53,037 --> 00:39:55,283
should come from an exchange based between
425
00:39:55,283 --> 00:39:56,860
the US government and
the Soviet government,
426
00:39:56,860 --> 00:39:59,031
who were our allies.
427
00:39:59,031 --> 00:40:01,899
So I feel that once the United
States got into the war,
428
00:40:01,899 --> 00:40:04,781
once he became part of
the Manhattan Project,
429
00:40:04,781 --> 00:40:06,843
he was a loyal US citizen and would not
430
00:40:06,843 --> 00:40:08,843
have leaked information.
431
00:40:09,968 --> 00:40:13,885
(speaking in foreign language)
432
00:41:56,623 --> 00:41:59,047
- [Narrator] Klaus Fuchs
was a real soldier,
433
00:41:59,047 --> 00:42:03,214
and his pro-communist
activism was publicly known.
434
00:42:04,136 --> 00:42:06,808
Arrested in the United States in 1950,
435
00:42:06,808 --> 00:42:10,134
he spent nine years in American prison.
436
00:42:10,134 --> 00:42:12,007
Once free he returned to East Germany
437
00:42:12,007 --> 00:42:14,254
where he was welcomed
back as a national hero
438
00:42:14,254 --> 00:42:16,754
and received a military medal.
439
00:42:19,365 --> 00:42:23,282
(speaking in foreign language)
440
00:42:38,211 --> 00:42:40,399
- Ted Hall was just a teenage kid.
441
00:42:40,399 --> 00:42:43,710
He graduated from Harvard at 18 years old.
442
00:42:43,710 --> 00:42:45,739
He came to work at Los Alamos.
443
00:42:45,739 --> 00:42:47,827
He did critical mass studies.
444
00:42:47,827 --> 00:42:49,696
Basically how much material do you need
445
00:42:49,696 --> 00:42:51,472
to make an atomic bomb work.
446
00:42:51,472 --> 00:42:53,395
And so he was involved
in both the Little Boy
447
00:42:53,395 --> 00:42:55,449
and the Fat Man programs.
448
00:42:55,449 --> 00:42:57,793
So he was in a position to get lots of
449
00:42:57,793 --> 00:43:00,376
very sensitive information out.
450
00:43:03,123 --> 00:43:07,040
(speaking in foreign language)
451
00:45:37,483 --> 00:45:39,044
- [Narrator] A few
months before at the end
452
00:45:39,044 --> 00:45:40,945
of the summer of 1944,
453
00:45:40,945 --> 00:45:43,331
Elizabeth Zarubin and
her husband were suddenly
454
00:45:43,331 --> 00:45:45,712
called back to Moscow by the KGB.
455
00:45:45,712 --> 00:45:48,035
The organization that Elizabeth set up was
456
00:45:48,035 --> 00:45:49,758
working all by itself,
457
00:45:49,758 --> 00:45:53,925
and the spy operations were
coming to a successful finish.
458
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,161
The information that had been uncovered
459
00:45:58,161 --> 00:46:00,090
from Los Alamos kept supplying
460
00:46:00,090 --> 00:46:02,673
the Soviet atomic laboratories.
461
00:46:05,647 --> 00:46:08,477
But the unexpected departure
of this couple of spies
462
00:46:08,477 --> 00:46:10,298
was very surprising,
463
00:46:10,298 --> 00:46:15,015
and it was accompanied by
rumors of scandal and betrayal.
464
00:46:15,015 --> 00:46:18,932
(speaking in foreign language)
465
00:47:33,175 --> 00:47:35,466
- There were some politicians who thought
466
00:47:35,466 --> 00:47:37,203
with an atomic weapon,
467
00:47:37,203 --> 00:47:39,377
then the rest of the 20th century
468
00:47:39,377 --> 00:47:41,762
will be the American century.
469
00:47:41,762 --> 00:47:43,889
And we have some documents that show
470
00:47:43,889 --> 00:47:45,953
that even before the war was over,
471
00:47:45,953 --> 00:47:49,059
some of the politicians
in the administration
472
00:47:49,059 --> 00:47:50,642
were thinking that.
473
00:47:52,220 --> 00:47:56,137
(speaking in foreign language)
474
00:48:22,216 --> 00:48:23,814
- [Narrator] The explosion
of the Soviet bomb
475
00:48:23,814 --> 00:48:25,577
in Kazakhstan led to a new change
476
00:48:25,577 --> 00:48:27,327
in historical events.
477
00:48:28,870 --> 00:48:30,938
The United States were
no longer the only ones
478
00:48:30,938 --> 00:48:33,605
to detonate the ultimate weapon.
479
00:48:34,512 --> 00:48:37,534
The USSR had now reached
the rank of a superpower,
480
00:48:37,534 --> 00:48:41,994
and would now be treated
as a United States equal.
481
00:48:41,994 --> 00:48:44,199
- People in the United States were shocked
482
00:48:44,199 --> 00:48:45,910
when it was discovered that Soviets
483
00:48:45,910 --> 00:48:47,963
had a nuclear weapon.
484
00:48:47,963 --> 00:48:50,159
People in Washington, policymakers,
485
00:48:50,159 --> 00:48:52,362
they generally believed that the Soviets
486
00:48:52,362 --> 00:48:56,362
were anywhere from two
years to 10 years behind,
487
00:48:57,781 --> 00:48:59,000
and I think most people were closer
488
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,391
to the two year mark,
489
00:49:00,391 --> 00:49:02,496
but in August of 1949,
490
00:49:02,496 --> 00:49:04,663
no one was expecting that.
491
00:49:06,507 --> 00:49:09,824
- The impasse that now exists regarding
492
00:49:09,824 --> 00:49:12,401
the international control of atomic energy
493
00:49:12,401 --> 00:49:13,898
must be broken.
494
00:49:13,898 --> 00:49:16,571
And assembly must face
this question squarely
495
00:49:16,571 --> 00:49:20,659
for the sake of mankind and
for the piece of the world.
496
00:49:20,659 --> 00:49:23,409
(bomb exploding)
497
00:49:25,794 --> 00:49:29,711
(speaking in foreign language)
498
00:51:38,601 --> 00:51:42,101
(soft instrumental music)
36537
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