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J. Robert Oppenheimer He Built the Bomb. His Country Turned Against Him.
He led the team that built the most powerful weapon in human history. Nine years later, his own government decided it could no longer trust him.
In 1942 the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to lead the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. On 16 July 1945 the Trinity test lit up the desert, and he later recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Weeks later Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. When he met President Truman he said, "I feel I have blood on my hands", and Truman was furious. After the war he opposed the hydrogen bomb and argued for international control of atomic energy. In 1954, after a closed hearing about his past and his associations, his security clearance was revoked. He died in 1967. In 2022 the US Department of Energy vacated that decision, calling it "a flawed process".
Was it justice, or far too late?
The facts behind this file
What the record shows
- He directed the Los Alamos Laboratory of the Manhattan Project. Many thousands of people contributed to the bomb.
- He was present at the Trinity test on 16 July 1945, and recalled the Bhagavad Gita line in a 1965 interview.
- He told President Truman in October 1946 that he felt he had blood on his hands.
- After a security hearing in April–May 1954, his security clearance was revoked. He had opposed a crash programme for the hydrogen bomb.
- On 16 December 2022 Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm vacated the 1954 decision, calling it 'a flawed process'.
Legends, disputes & careful wording
- Truman's reaction is reported in several versions.
- Death tolls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are estimates.
Main sources
- U.S. Department of Energy order (16 December 2022)
- Wikipedia: J. Robert Oppenheimer
Spotted a mistake or know a better source? Tell us.
Further reading
- American Prometheus The Pulitzer-winning biography behind the film Oppenheimer. View on Amazon →
- The Making of the Atomic Bomb The full story of the Manhattan Project. View on Amazon →
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Image & film credits
- Film (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons): Trinity test footage (1945, US government); Ivy Mike test (1952, US government); "Tale of Two Cities" (1946, Army-Navy Screen Magazine, US War Department); President Truman on the bombing of Hiroshima (1945).
- Photos (public domain, US government / Los Alamos National Laboratory / NARA, via Wikimedia Commons): Oppenheimer portraits and Los Alamos ID badge, Oppenheimer testifying, Oppenheimer and Groves at ground zero, the Trinity fireball at 6 ms, the atomic cloud over Nagasaki, Los Alamos, Einstein with Oppenheimer (c. 1950, US Defense Threat Reduction Agency).
- Video clips from Pexels. Narration and music made for this video. No sound effects.
