Profiles in Character: J. Robert Oppenheimer Warns About an Arms Race

Robert Oppenheimer was devastated.  On December 21, 1953, Lewis Strauss, Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) confronted him with charges that he was believed to be an agent of the Soviet Union and had tried to stop development of the hydrogen “Super” bomb.  Strauss said he could accept termination of his consultant’s contract with the AEC, which would also terminate his security clearance and access to atomic secrets and policy deliberations, or he could request a hearing on the charges by an AEC Personnel Security Board (PSB).

The “evidence” he was aiding Soviet communism was not new.  The fact that his brother and wife had been members of the Communist Party decades before had been known for years and had never stopped multiple renewals of his security clearance.  What was new was the charge that he was impeding development of a weapon up to 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Much had changed since 1945. The Soviet Union morphed from wartime ally to Cold War adversary.  The nation’s monopoly over atomic weapons ended.  Fears of communist advances in Europe and Asia grew.  The search for supposed communists in government, energized by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, made President Eisenhower leery of confronting that tide.

Oppenheimer had led Los Alamos Laboratory to successfully develop the atomic bomb and had for years chaired the AEC’s powerful General Advisory Committee (GAC), He was Director of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Studies.  He wanted to defend himself and his beliefs. 

Oppenheimer earned his doctorate at 23, led the physics faculty at U.C. Berkley and was deeply engaged in theoretical physics, all before being chosen to lead a thousand scientists at Los Alamos when he was only 39.  He was also a Renaissance man.  As a child he attended New York City’s Ethical Culture Society School, studied abroad, loved nature and famous artwork and learned multiple languages, reading the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit.   

It was perhaps his broader perspective and watching the Trinity explosion of the first atomic bomb that fostered his urgency to prevent a nuclear arms race.  He had told President Truman after Japan surrendered that he felt “we have blood on our hands.”  He recalled Trinity with a phrase from the Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” He also felt developing the H-bomb was unnecessary and immoral. In a letter to the Secretary of Defense on August 17, 1945, Oppenheimer had said: “We believe that the safety of this nation . . . can be based only on making future wars impossible.” 

He was not the only opponent of the H-bomb. All eight members of the GAC, called into special session in October 1949, voted against proceeding with development of a weapon, as Oppenheimer wrote, which cannot be used “exclusively for the destruction of military installations” but would instead lead to mass genocide and “a threat to the future of the human race.”

Oppenheimer argued instead for a nuclear deterrent of enough atomic bombs to assure destruction of the Soviet Union even if it had an H-bomb.  He supported smaller, tactical nuclear weapons as an alternative to massive retaliation and an air defense warning system.  He argued for a world body not controlled by national governments to take control of nuclear weapons technology.  He also felt that the development of the H-bomb – and its implications – should not be shrouded in government secrecy that prevented public debate.  None of this pleased the scientists, government and military officials who insisted we needed to develop and stockpile the H-bomb before the Russians.  

In their view, Oppenheimer had to go.  The hearing, conducted in secret from April 12-May 6, 1954, was a sham.  Since his security clearance was at issue and his lawyers request for clearance was denied, neither had access to classified documents the prosecution had that were essential to his defense.  The phones of he, his wife and his lawyers were tapped by continuous FBI surveillance so nearly every move of his defense team was known in advance.  

In a 2-1 decision, the PSB recommended revoking his security clearance. On June 29, 1954, the full AEC voted 4-1 to approve that recommendation, concluding that even if Oppenheimer was not disloyal, he had “substantial defects of character and imprudent and dangerous associations.” 

Oppenheimer initially refused comment, saying the country was blessed with its scientists and “I hope the fruit of their work will be used with humanity, with wisdom and with courage.”  He returned to the Institute for Advanced Studies where he continued to support renowned scientists.  Shortly after the hearing, he was asked by George Kennan, an expert in foreign policy he had brought to the Institute, why he hadn’t left the country as he would be welcome in “a hundred academic centers” abroad.  With tears in his eyes, Oppenheimer replied: “Damn it, I happen to love this country.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer died in 1967. On December 16, 2022, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm nullified the 1954 decision, stating that it resulted from a “flawed process.”  She added that “more evidence has come to light . . . of his loyalty and love of country.”

Photo Credit: James Vaughan - Flickr