[The development of nuclear weapons had far broader consequences
than the downfall of one gifted scientist.]
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J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER’S TRAGEDY―AND OURS  
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Lawrence Wittner
July 11, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ The development of nuclear weapons had far broader consequences
than the downfall of one gifted scientist. _

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project, the first detonation of a
nuclear device, that later caused Oppenheimer to quote the Bhagavad
Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” , U.S.
Department of Energy

 

The July 21, 2023 theatrical release of the film _Oppenheimer_
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a prominent American nuclear physicist, should help to remind us of
how badly the development of modern weapons has played out for
individuals and for all of humanity.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, _American Prometheus_
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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 Harry 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).

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.

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
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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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about 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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and 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.

In recent years, thanks to a sharp decrease in citizen activism and
increase in international conflict, the potential for nuclear war has
dramatically revived.

Fortunately, a massive grassroots citizens campaign
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emerged 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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(Russia, 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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into this nuclear buildup. Public threats to initiate nuclear war,
including those by Donald Trump
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Kim 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%
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of 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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with one another. Although the U.S. government has proposed
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extending the New Start Treaty (which limits the number of strategic
nuclear weapons) with Russia, Putin reportedly responded
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this 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 U.N.
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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are 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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and 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.

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Dr. Lawrence S. Wittner is Professor of History Emeritus at
SUNY/Albany who has written extensively on peace movements, foreign
policy, and economic inequality. He is the author of "Confronting the
Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement"
(2009).

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.

* J. Robert Oppenheimer; Atom Bomb; Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons
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