[The July 21, 2023 theatrical release of the film Oppenheimer,
focused on the life of a prominent American nuclear physicist, should
help to remind us of how badly the development of modern weapons has
played out for individuals and all of humanity.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER’S TRAGEDY―AND OURS  
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Lawrence Wittner
July 9, 2023
Hollywood Progressive
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_ The July 21, 2023 theatrical release of the film Oppenheimer,
focused on the life of a prominent American nuclear physicist, should
help to remind us of how badly the development of modern weapons has
played out for individuals and all of humanity. _

Film poster Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer',

 

Christopher Nolan's film, Oppenheimer, focused on the life of a
prominent American nuclear physicist, should help to remind us of how
badly the development of modern weapons has played out for individuals
and all of humanity.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, _American Prometheus_
[[link removed]],
written by Kai Bird and the late Martin Sherwin, the film tells the
story of the rise and fall of young J. Robert Oppenheimer, recruited
by the U.S. government during World War II to direct the construction
and testing of the world’s first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New
Mexico. His success in these ventures was followed shortly thereafter
by President Truman’s ordering the use of nuclear weapons to destroy
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During the immediate postwar years, Oppenheimer, widely lauded
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“the father of the atomic bomb,” attained extraordinary power for
a scientist within U.S. government ranks, including as chair of the
General Advisory Committee of the new Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

But his influence ebbed as his ambivalence about nuclear weapons grew.
In the fall of 1945, during a meeting at the White House with Truman
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said: “Mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands.” Incensed,
Truman later told Assistant Secretary of State Dean Acheson that
Oppenheimer had become “a crybaby” and that he didn’t want “to
see that son of a bitch in this office ever again.”

_OPPENHEIMER WAS ALSO DISTURBED BY THE EMERGING NUCLEAR ARMS RACE AND,
LIKE MANY ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, CHAMPIONED THE INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF
ATOMIC ENERGY._

 

Oppenheimer was also disturbed
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arms race and, like many atomic scientists, championed the
international control of atomic energy. Indeed, in late 1949, the
entire General Advisory Committee of the AEC came out in opposition to
the U.S. development of the H-bomb―although the president, ignoring
this recommendation, approved developing the new weapon and adding it
to the rapidly growing U.S. nuclear arsenal.

In these circumstances, figures with considerably less ambivalence
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nuclear weapons took action to purge Oppenheimer from power. In
December 1953, shortly after becoming chair of the AEC, Lewis Strauss,
a fervent champion of a U.S. nuclear buildup, ordered Oppenheimer’s
security clearance suspended. Anxious to counter implications of
disloyalty, Oppenheimer appealed the decision and, in subsequent
hearings before the AEC’s Personnel Security Board, faced grueling
questioning not only about his criticism of nuclear weapons, but about
his relationships decades before with individuals who had been
Communist Party members.

Ultimately, the AEC ruled that Oppenheimer was a security risk, an
official determination that added to his public humiliation, completed
his removal from government service, and delivered a shattering blow
to his meteoric career.

Of course, the development of nuclear weapons had far broader
consequences than the downfall of J. Robert Oppenheimer. In addition
to killing more than 200,000 people
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injuring many more in Japan, the advent of nuclear weaponry led
nations around the world to enter a fierce nuclear arms race. By the
1980s, spurred on by conflicts among the major powers, 70,000 nuclear
weapons had come into existence, with the potential to destroy
virtually all life on earth.

Fortunately, a massive grassroots citizens campaign
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to counter this drive toward a nuclear apocalypse. And it succeeded in
pressuring reluctant governments into an array of nuclear arms control
and disarmament treaties, as well as unilateral actions, to reduce
nuclear dangers. As a result, by 2023 the number of nuclear weapons
had declined to roughly 12,500
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Nevertheless, in recent years, thanks to a sharp decrease in citizen
activism and increase in international conflict, the potential for
nuclear war has dramatically revived. All nine nuclear powers
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the United States, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan,
and North Korea) are currently engaged in upgrading their nuclear
arsenals with new production facilities and new, improved nuclear
weapons. During 2022, these governments poured nearly $83 billion
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this nuclear buildup. Public threats to initiate nuclear war,
including those by Donald Trump
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Jong Un
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and Vladimir Putin
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have become more common. The hands of the Doomsday Clock of
the _Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists_, established in 1946, now
stand at 100 seconds to midnight
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most dangerous setting in its history.

Not surprisingly, the nuclear powers display little interest in
further action for nuclear arms control and disarmament. The two
nations possessing some 90 percent
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the world’s nuclear weapons―Russia (with the most) and the United
States (not far behind)―have pulled out of nearly all such
agreements
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one another.

Although the U.S. government has proposed
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the New Start Treaty (which limits the number of strategic nuclear
weapons) with Russia, Putin reportedly responded
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June that Russia would not engage in any nuclear disarmament talks
with the West, commenting: “We possess more weaponry of such sort
than the NATO countries. They know that and are always trying to
persuade us to start negotiations on reduction. Nuts to them . . . as
our people say.”

The Chinese government
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nuclear arsenal, while growing substantially, still ranks a distant
third in numbers―has stated that it sees no reason for China to
engage in any nuclear arms control talks.

To head off a looming nuclear catastrophe, non-nuclear nations have
been championing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
(TPNW). Adopted by an overwhelming vote of nations at a UN conference
in July 2017, the TPNW
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testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, and
threatening to use nuclear weapons.

The treaty went into force in January 2021 and―though opposed by
all the nuclear powers
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has thus far been signed by 92 nations and ratified by 68 of them
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Indonesia
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likely to ratify it in the near future. Polls have found that the TPNW
has substantial support in numerous countries, including the United
States
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other NATO nations
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There does remain some hope, then, that the nuclear tragedy that
engulfed Robert Oppenheimer and has long threatened the survival of
world civilization can still be averted.  

'OPPENHEIMER' OPENS IN THEATERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ON JULY 21ST.

_LAWRENCE WITTNER is Professor of History emeritus
[[link removed]] at SUNY/Albany. His latest book is a
satirical novel about university corporatization and
rebellion, What’s Going On at Aardvark?
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* Film
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* Oppenheimer
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* Christopher Nolan
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* Atomic Bomb
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* nuclear weapons
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* nuclear arms race
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* Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
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