Original subtitles

hey safer here I'm excited to see the

new Oppenheimer movie and absolutely

plan on reviewing it once it's out on

Blu-ray but before then I thought I'd

make a biography of J Robert Oppenheimer

he was the father of the atom bomb but

later in life turned against the arms

race and the much more destructive

hydrogen bomb which cost him dearly that

opposition led to a mccarthyite

Inquisition that revoked his clearance

and made him a martyr that's why one

biography labeled Opie the American

Prometheus for he was the man who

brought nuclear fire down from the

mountain and was cursed for it

it's a hell of a story

[Music]

according to his birth certificate the J

and J Robert Oppenheimer stands for his

father's name Julius but that is a faux

pas in Jewish tradition so he always

went by Robert a naturally inquisitive

kid he collected rocks read widely

learned several languages and went

sailing he went to the ethical culture

Preparatory School quickly skipping

grades which landed him in Harvard he

graduated in only three years with a

bachelor's degree in chemistry just in

time to avoid Harvard becoming the first

of many American universities to impose

anti-semitic quotas he began graduate

school in Cambridge but throughout

1925-26 he had a serious bout of

depression even strangely trying to

poison an Apple for one Professor

Patrick blackett so he started some

unproductive Psychotherapy and sought

new schools to study at after a trip

around Corsica and some revelatory

reading he seemed to come out of his

depression finally getting his life in

her order he moved to the University of

gerdingen which was the preeminent

School in the emerging theory of quantum

physics Oppenheimer gained a reputation

for being great at comprehending Big

Ideas and contemplating them while

saying nim nim nim but also for being

clumsy with the math to back it up he

made many friends with preeminent

scientists and quickly earned a PhD for

his work there after a brief time at a

few European universities where he

earned the nickname Opie he took a

professorship at Caltech that was only a

brief stint before he got a job at

Berkeley instead building up the

department as one of the most preeminent

in theoretical physics in the nation

with many close students and colleagues

some called the nimnim boys because they

constantly copied Opie's mannerisms he

gave the idea or co-wrote many

groundbreaking theories such as

predicting the existence of anti-matter

and black holes while in California he

observed from afar the rise of Nazism

and eventually the Spanish Civil War

that Franco's fascists began in support

of the opposition ABI became What

communists called a fellow traveler he

was active in unionization helping

Jewish refugees such as Albert Einstein

immigrate to the United States raising

funds for Spanish Republicans and had

many friends who were Communist party

members including a girlfriend that he'd

have a continuing affair with even after

he got married to Kitty puning his

brother Frank was a more practically

minded scientist a more charismatic

character and a Communist Party member

at the time these sympathies would be

used against Robert later but they were

pretty common among new dealer

intellectuals at the time he was a

fellow traveler not a communist when

World War II commenced he was fairly

aloof only somewhat distancing himself

from communism after the horrors of the

holodomor and Great Purge became more

apparent in the early 1940s in the

meantime the theoretical physics

Community moved on without him

recognizing the danger of Nazi science

physicist Leo sillard wrote a letter and

Albert Einstein signed it warning

President Roosevelt that an immensely

powerful bomb was feasible based on a

1938 German experiment that split the

atom FDR created a uranium committee to

investigate such a weapon but very

little got done that first year British

Science moved first they came up with

possible ways to make an atomic bomb but

kept their findings secret perhaps the

most important of their secret

discoveries was the ability to use

carbon as a mediator between Isotopes

rather than heavy water without that

knowledge Germany's project never

achieved a chain reaction which is

necessary for creating plutonium and

enriching uranium therefore they

probably couldn't create a bomb but the

Allies didn't know that and kept forging

ahead by mid-1942 the us war machine was

taking the Nazi threat of nuclear war

seriously Japan had attacked in December

obliterating any notion of isolation and

forcing American entry into the war the

federal government tasked General Leslie

Groves with creating a nuclear program

he was already in charge of creating the

Pentagon so what's wrong with adding

another major domestic construction

project he codenamed it the Manhattan

engineering District but most people

nowadays simplify that to the Manhattan

Project as one administrator said the

Manhattan District bore no relation to

the industrial and social life of our

country it was a separate state with its

own airplanes and its own factories and

its thousands of Secrets it had a

peculiar sovereignty one that could

bring about the end peacefully or

violently of all other sovereignties

reading the theory on how to build a

bomb he secured a site at Oak Ridge

Tennessee and another other one in

Hanford Washington to create the massive

industrial projects necessary for

Uranium enrichment and plutonium

creation as one author quips a rock

chipped out of the ground by Farmers

living in near Stone Age conditions was

fed into the most advanced industrial

complex ever constructed next Groves had

to put together a scientific team he

toured science departments around the

country in the process he okayed the

creation of the first reactor ever at

the University of Chicago which achieved

criticality in December of 42. the First

human-made Chain Reaction ever when

Groves met Oppenheimer he was impressed

with Opie's understanding of the task at

hand and his ability to talk about

history and poetry so Groves made Opie

the leader of centralizing all the

research into this bomb Robert needed to

select a site for this and he instantly

knew where for years he had been going

to New Mexico to roam the song to

Christo mount buying a ranch he called

pero Caliente because he liked to

exclaim hot dog in a letter many years

prior he wrote my two great loves are

physics and New Mexico it's a pity they

can't be combined well whether there's a

will there's a way undercover they met

in the hamez mountains and worked their

Way Northeast to a ranch school called

Los Alamos which is where they place the

new lab that would build the bomb Opie

had no experience in Practical science

nor organizing a large team his frail

and printing disposition didn't seem to

entail an ability to lead yet by all

accounts he seemed to metamorphose into

the role organizing private Summits and

becoming a great leader so he started to

collect the best and brightest from

around the country and even a delegation

from Britain unbeknownst to him a few

would willfully send secrets from the

Manhattan Project to the Soviets

inevitably helping them create their own

bomb but the America program was focused

on beating Germany he was approached by

a friend about sending secrets to the

local Russian Embassy in 1943 but

refused and reported the matter at the

time Russia didn't fully understand that

the object of Opie's project was as one

lecture succinctly put it to produce a

potential military weapon in the form of

a bomb in which energy is released by a

fast Neutron chain reaction in one or

more of the materials known to show

nuclear fission several scientific

problems had to be overcome to build a

nuclear bomb they could only refine so

much plutonium and uranium finding how

much of the isotope and how much

shielding it took to go critical was

such a dangerous experiment that two

people would end up losing their lives

in accidents both after the bomb's

completion they decided on a gun

assembly for the uranium where they'd

use conventional explosives to launch

one chunk of uranium into another with

sufficient speed to cause a runaway

chain reaction for the plutonium they

went with an implosion assembly where

explosives would cave pieces into one

another the tech from making this small

enough and detonating the device on time

took extreme advances all in secret on

top of that there were ethical issues

the scientists had to deal with given

the power of the bomb they were creating

they understood that International

diplomacy would change forever in the

blink of an eye many discussions were

held over the implications of making

such weapons Niels Bohr had this idea of

the weapon being so shocking that it

would force the world to come together

and prevent Another War like the one

they were currently fighting and this

became the operant ideology of those on

the project thanks to its leadership as

one student said Bohr was God and Opie

was his Prophet but matters were

changing rapidly that would challenge

their post-war Vision Germany was

clearly losing the war the bombs weren't

intended for Japan but now it looked

like they were the only enemy left on

top of that President Roosevelt died

leaving Harry S Truman to take over

before that he hadn't been adequately

briefed on the Manhattan Project so at

the behest of the Los Alamos scientists

he convened an interim committee to

decide what to do with these weapons

that committee decided against a

demonstrative bombing in Tokyo bay that

would not intentionally kill anyone the

battle of Okinawa was ongoing and showed

that Japanese forces were often willing

to fight to the last man by late June

Japan was on its own and the U.S was

dropping enough incendiary Munitions to

cause far more civilian casualties than

both atomic bombs would furthermore the

invasion of Japan could not happen until

November so the interim committee

decided on one test bomb to be done in

secret just in case it didn't work and

using the two completed ones on Japanese

City disease that had not been destroyed

by incendiary devices they also

recommended warning the Soviets before

sending the bombs when Truman met with

Stalin he only said that I casually

mentioned to Stalin that we had a new

weapon of unusual destructive force the

Russian Premier showed no special

interest they agreed at Potsdam that

Japan had to unconditionally surrender

despite the fact that they were very

near surrendering if only they could

guarantee that the emperor could remain

at least as a figurehead our demand has

been and it will

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committee had a reason to rush their

decision with the Soviets about to

invade Manchuria they thought that they

needed to use these bombs as not only a

way to end the war but Implement Bohr's

vision of the last bombing back at Los

Alamos Opie had to Rally the scientists

who saw no reason to bomb an already

defeated enemy zillard even wrote a

petition signed by many scientists there

that called for first that you President

Truman exercise your power as

commander-in-chief to rule that the

United States shall not resort to the

use of atomic bombs in this war unless

the terms which will be imposed upon

Japan have been made public in detail

and Japan knowing these terms has

refused to surrender and second that in

such an event the question whether or

not to use atomic bombs be decided by

you in light of the considerations

presented in this petition as well as

all the other moral responsibilities

which are involved Abby found this to be

a betray Trail and vigorously argued

against it he thought that a sudden and

overwhelming use of the weapon would

guarantee it wouldn't be used again much

like mustard gas after World War one but

this time with the scientific Community

joined as one behind its abolition

however naive that may seem he convinced

much of Los Alamos and they forged ahead

having a PhD doesn't mean that you're

smart in all things says the historian

with a PhD the first test of a

non-nuclear detonation didn't go well

but it was because of a wiring issue the

night before testing the real deal Opie

read some lines from the bhagavad-gita

in battle in Forest at the precipice in

the mountains on the dark great sea in

the midst of javelins and arrows in

sleep and confusion in the depths of

Shame The Good Deeds amen has done

before defend him so the Trinity Gadget

blew up on July 16

1945. it detonated in a patch of desert

known as the hornada Del muerto in New

Mexico the first nuclear explosion ever

and the equivalent of 25

000 tons of TNT Richard Feynman even

took bets on whether they'd ignite the

atmosphere causing a chain fusion

reaction via a fission one a prophecy of

even more powerful bombs to come in a

later interview oppi claimed to have

remembered another line from the

bhagavad-gita

we knew the world would not be the same

I remembered thee line from the Hindu

scripture the bhagavad-gita

Vishnu is trying to persuade

Prince that

he should do his duty

and

to impress him

takes on his multi-armed form

and says

now I am become death

the destroyer of worlds

they didn't need to test the gun

assembly which they had nicknamed little

boy after its diminutive shape compared

to the implosion assembly's fat man it's

possible these names were Jabs at opian

Groves because of their statures three

weeks after Trinity a B-29 named Enola

Gay dropped little boy over Hiroshima

the atomic explosion killed between 80

and 150 000 people most of whom were

civilians and even a few Allied pows

died three days later another B-29 named

boxcar dropped fat man over Nagasaki

this one killed between 60 and 80 000

people almost all of whom were civilians

that same day the Soviets began their

invasion of Manchuria not one to

intervene Emperor Hirohito broadcast to

his people the war situation has

developed not necessarily to Japan's

advantage while the general trends of

the world have all turned against her

interest moreover the enemy has begun to

to employ a new and most cruel bomb the

power of which to damage is indeed

incalculable taking the toll of many

innocent lives should we continue to

fight it would not only result in an

ultimate collapse and obliteration of

the Japanese Nation but also it would

lead to the total Extinction of human

civilization as such the war was over

but the decision of what to do with this

technology wasn't done Abby resigned his

position at Los Alamos though UC

Berkeley would continue to control the

lab until 2006 and they were a managing

partner until 2018. he went to Caltech

to teach for a brief stint but was kind

of terrible at it instead he took a

position as director of the Advanced

Studies Institute at Princeton quickly

turning it into another theoretical

physics Haven much like he had done at

Berkeley it helps that Einstein was

already there he'd often bring political

outcasts like himself to The Institute

as a kind of academic second chance

while Oppenheimer was transforming the

department he remained extremely

politically active seemingly loving the

Limelight but his tendency toward

histrionics would quickly damage his

ability to make real change the newly

created United Nations was searching for

what to do about nuclear technology and

Opie played a role he helped draft a

report with Dean Atchison and David

lillianthal about how the world could

regulate the tech they proposed to

create an organization that was beyond

the sovereignty of Any Nation with the

power to control all uranium mines

reactors and weaponry worldwide it was a

radical idea but the United Nations had

the possibility of actually creating

such an entity and would likely prevent

a nuclear arms race while begging Truman

to adopt this plan Oppenheimer received

serious pushback so Robert claims

something to the effect that he had

blood on his own hands and this was a

way to atone which did not go well

Truman muttered blood on his hands damn

it he hasn't half as much blood on his

hands as I have you just don't go around

bellyaching about it he proclaimed I

don't want to see that son of a in

this office ever again Truman always

called Oppenheimer a crybaby scientist

after that which guaranteed the Atchison

lilianthal plan wouldn't get adopted

instead Bernard Baruch proposed to the

U.N a plan that would not require the

United States to give up the new bombs

of which they had roughly 50 stockpiled

by mid-1946. that practically sabotaged

any possibility of the Soviets accepting

joint regulation and insured an arms

race since nuclear Armament would remain

National rather than International

Congress created the atomic energy

Commission in 1947 and Oppenheimer was

on it the Soviets had created their

first chain reaction in December of 46

and were able to create a replica of fat

men thanks to all of their Espionage

during the Manhattan Project detonating

it in August 1949. in response The

Truman Administration sought to make a

super bomb first proposed by Enrico

Fermi in 1941. this would use fission to

set off a fusion reaction with hydrogen

the super would be called alternatively

a hydrogen bomb or a thermonuclear

device and would cause immensely more

destruction than a regular A-bomb it was

a leap from kilotons to megatons worth

of TNT Oppenheimer opposed this pushing

for tactical nuclear weaponry rather

than a bomb that could legitimately be

considered a genocide in one package he

argued that this would only cause the

nuclear arms race to spiral out of

control and provide the world a way to

annihilate itself Truman would hear none

of it and forged ahead with the super

anyways completing the first detonation

in 1951 the dance of brinksmanship

continued with the most cataclysmic

weapons ever made as one historian wrote

the WarHeads might just as well have

been made of cardboard it was their

abstract threat that counted as it was

in H.G wells's time uranium's physical

Powers were far secondary to the power

of the narrative that man could craft

around them the United States and the

USSR would be locked together in this

crude but effective story for almost 40

years J Robert Oppenheimer would

memorably call the standoff two

scorpions in a bottle each capable of

killing the other but only at the risk

of his own life Abby made friends with

Truman's wise men including one that was

going through a similar ousting over

militarization George F Kennen left the

state department in 1950. Oppenheimer

gave him a spot at the Institute despite

not having completed any of his

historical Works which I have spoken

about in this episode they bonded over

this and Kennen would help him with the

trouble derived it from trying to stop

the super just around the corner one of

the enemies he created due to his

opposition was Louis straws and yes it's

pronounced Strauss he'd given an Opie

the appointment to the Institute and now

made every effort he could to remove the

director that animosity continued for

his entire life Abby remained on the

atomic energy commission despite only

serving a couple of days a year he had

to keep a security clearance because of

his previous communist connections the

FBI had regularly surveilled him and

wiretapped his phones they had a 7 000

page dossier on him and straws got a

hold of it FBI director J Edgar Hoover

received a letter from a lawyer who had

served on the commission claiming

Oppenheimer was likely a Soviet agent

after so much hysteria surrounding

Soviet Espionage in the Manhattan

Project it was easy to raise Petty

complaints about disloyalty and straws

pounced on the opportunity he kicked off

a Security hearing into Opie accusing

him of a ridiculous number of

unsubstantiated rumors and suspending

his clearance

if he had been a member of the party

that he had recommended uh

foreign

this was happening at the exact same

time as Senator McCarthy was probing

into the U.S army

sir at long last have you left no

handsome decency the atomic energy

commission hearings weren't a court

trial but they turned into the

equivalent of an inquisition the FBI

dossier was Kept Secret from Opie's

defense while reading parts of it into

evidence they used discrepancies between

retellings of his communist friend's

approach in 1943 as proof of duplicity

to everyone there it was obvious

railroading and a foregone conclusion

despite that Opie was forced to admit an

extramarital affair in front of his wife

and how naive he was at the beginning of

the Manhattan Project the AAC denied his

clearance and published a damning

profile which red baiting media raked

him over the coals with with the jeering

of conservatives everywhere the

Oppenheimer family took a much needed

Retreat to Saint John Island even so the

FBI continued to Hound him claiming he

might defect on a Russian submarine and

forcing Robert to mail an itinerary to

Hoover himself Kitty had long been an

alcoholic and Robert was a bit aloof

with their children the results of the

aec hearings exacerbated these problems

Robert alienated his son by leaving him

at a boarding school their daughter Tony

seemed to have inherited Robert's

depression but nonetheless Robert and

kitty loved the island buying a house on

the beach and partying into the night it

would be a place of regular Refuge

reinvigorated Opie returned to Princeton

and regularly took on lecture gigs

around the country he became a bit of a

martyr to academic freedom as straws

repeatedly failed to oust him from the

directorship Opie's Presence at various

lectures was often protested by

conservative academics but that only

made his martyrdoms seem more important

he still did scientific work even though

he couldn't do any of the secretive work

that advanced science so rapidly in the

post-war period but for the most part he

was focused on decrying red baiting with

the election of President Kennedy Opie

had a friend in the white house again

Arthur Schlesinger Jr tried to

rehabilitate Robert's reputation he

didn't get so far as reinstating

Robert's clearance but got him the

Enrico Fermi award a scientific

Commendation given out by presidents an

assassin killed JFK only a month ahead

of the ceremony so newly inaugurated

President Johnson did the ceremony

instead Republicans were angry but

couldn't halt the dispensation of a

fifty thousand dollar reward to

retaliate they reduced the money by half

the following year two years later ABI

got throat cancer he was famously a

chain smoker yet he kept living as best

he could resigning from The Institute

for advanced studies but staying near

campus he died after fighting the

Affliction for two years in 1967. Kitty

died in 72 and their daughter lived on

but was denied a translator position at

the UN because the FBI still claimed her

father was a commie spy she took her own

life at the Saint John Island Cottage

deeding the property to the people there

which is still called Oppenheimer Beach

Opie's Legacy is well described as the

American Prometheus much like the figure

of Legend he brought nuclear fire and

was punished for that but perhaps he's

more akin to the main character of a

book subtitled The Modern Prometheus as

in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein he

created something that came to destroy

him now Abby himself never really

regretted being the father of the atomic

bomb unlike some popular depictions but

he did regret the missed opportunity of

the Atchison lilianthal plan and failure

to Halt the arms race when the Kennedy

administration proposed a partial

testing ban he said it's 20 years too

late it should have been done the day

after Trinity his Legacy is a long and

winding road but perhaps someday His

Highest hope can finally be achieved

before we have any more nuclear

proliferation and annihilate ourselves

man I knew you'd try to come in you

always do oh thank you yes good boy mwah

[Music]

the first test of a non-nuclear

destination

non-nuclear destination that's most

destinations

[Music]

and wealth and weapon and weaponry and

weaponry and weaponry world and weaponry

wool and weapon Weaponry worldwide

Weaponry World ride wow I cannot say

that

Weaponry worldwide and weaponry ruled

worldwide as straws repeatedly failed to

oust him from the dictatorship

dictatorship

just wanted some attention

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