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american_prometheus
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AMERICAN PROMETHEUS
The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
2005. Atlantic. Paperback.
This is an awesome book that tells one of the most important stories
of the 1940s and 1950s; the development of the Atomic Bomb and the
subsequent Cold War and Arms Race with Russia. Central to the story is
the Father of the Atomic Bomb, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
(Robert's father was Julius but it seems the J. was just an initial;
as indeed the S. was for US Wartime President Harry S. Truman).
Oppenheimer was a complex character in being astonishingly well-read
and having artistic interests far outside Science and Engineering.
The product of a post-religion Jewish Ethics-based School, Robert had
a strong sense of Social Justice and was drawn to left-wing positions
on the Spanish Civil War, Racial Equality and Trade Unionism.
Some of his activities brought him into contact with the Communist
Party; not as a card-carrying member but perhaps as a "Fellow
Traveller". His younger brother, mistress and wife had more direct
involvement with the Communists.
After the use of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki;
Oppenheimer did his best to promote international control of Atomic
Weaponry and Atomic Energy. This was the opposite of the positions
chosen by the US government; who wanted to keep Atomic supremacy and
develop a still more terrifying weapon; the Hydrogen
Bomb. Insufficiently gung-ho about the new weapon and the Arms Race,
and too arrogant and clever for his own good, Oppenheimer soon fell
foul of enemies in business, government and academia.
In 1954 Oppenheimer was subject to a three-judge Kangaroo Court to
examine whether his security clearance should be removed. The court
found against him and his ability to influence Atomic policy was soon
at an end. Oppenheimer's tormentor, Lewis Strauss, was also agitating
for him to lose his position as Director of Pricenton's Institute For
Advanced Study. Despite petty academic squabbles amd a useless group
of tenured old Mathematicians, Oppenheimer was able to keep his
posting and retire from Academia on his own terms.
A lifelong chain smoker; Oppenheimer died of throat cancer at the age
of sixty-two.
Oppenheimer was the most prominent victim of McCarthyist "Reds under
the bed" Crucible hysteria. Strauss cleverly kept the unreliable drunk
Senator Joseph McCarthy off the case so that he could prosecute it
himself. Used by the government in the desperate days of wartime,
Oppenheimer was unsuitable to the hawks after the war as he tried to
push for Atomic Peace.
"American Prometheus" is magisterial and authoritative. I re-read it
this month, finishing it just in time to have it fresh in my mind for
the new Christopher Nolan movie "Oppenheimer" in ten days time. I'll
review the film below once I've seen it; it looks awesome from the
trailers.
This book won the 2006 Pulitzer Price for a distinguished biography or
autobiography by an American Author.
11th July 2023.
"Oppenheimer" Movie Review: (Facebook, 10th August 2023)
Followers of the best profile on Facebook, mine, will recall that I
was in a neck-and-neck struggle with Christopher Nolan to finish the
Oppenheimer story. I managed to achieve this and now I've seen the
movie a few times.
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer film is a full three hours long. I've
seen it three times and I'm strongly considering a fourth. That's how
important this movie is. The film is, in all sense of the word,
awesome.
Nolan's genius is to juxtapose, almost scene for scene, Oppenheimer's
Kangaroo Court security hearings of 1954 with Lewis Strauss's Wallaby
Court Cabinet Confirmation hearings of 1959, which the book "Amercian
Prometheus" deals with in just half a page (see EXCERPT). Colour parts
of the movie are the history and the security hearing, black and white
parts of the movie are the Strauss confirmation hearing. Amusingly the
black and white parts are chronologically the latest events in the
movie.
There's a few artistic liberties taken. Nolan improves the Cambridge
Poison Apple incident; the second most famous poison apple in science
history after Alan Turing's. Hans Bethe has the most South African
accent of all time.
I am convinced that the movie pronounces the surname of Leo Szilard
wrong. Surely the second syllable rhymes with "hard"? That's how I've
always understood it and heard it in several documentaries.
There are treats for those who know the source material very well; a
young Oppenheimer reading The Waste Land (he later brought T.S Eliot
to Princeton for six fruitless months), Feynman playing the bongo
drums, the Ruth Tolson affair is subtly hinted at for those in the
know.
The music and sound in two of the screenings I saw was overpowering
and it was only when I saw the movie in a large enough cinema that I
could hear the dialogue properly.
The cast could not be bettered. Cillian Murphy is Oppenheimer, and has
a lot more to do in the film than just look haunted the entire
time. Matt Damon is Leslie Groves and Robert Downey Junior is Lewis
Strauss. The female leads, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock and Emily
Blunt as Kitty, are outstanding. Owning the last ten minutes of the
movie is Rami Malek, who is so hot right now. Tom Conti's small role
as Einstein is a final delight.
Obligingly there's a Hollywood writer's strike so Oppenheimer will
scoop the Oscars this year virtually unopposed (although it won't win
any sound awards).
See this movie with a friend because you'll want to discuss it for
half an hour afterwards.
This is the best and most important film I have ever seen.
EXCERPT (page 577)
################################################################
Strauss' enmity towards Oppenheimer had only deepened since the 1954
trial. And then all the old wounds had been reopened in 1959, when Presi-
dent Eisenhower nominated Strauss as his commerce secretary. In the bitter
confirmation battle, in which the Oppenheimer hearing was a central factor,
Strauss narrowly lost, by a vote of 49-46. Strauss correctly blamed Senator
CLnton Anderson, and then Senator John F. Kennedy -- who had been
lobbied by Oppenheimer defenders like McGeorge Bundy and Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr. When Kennedy protested, "It would require an extreme
case to vote against the president," Mac Bundy responded, "Well, this is an
extreme case." Bundy laid out for Kennedy Strauss' reprehensible conduct
in the Oppenheimer case. Convinced, Kennedy switched his vote and
Strauss lost the confirmation. "It's a lovely show - never thought I'd live to
see my revenge," cabled Bernice Brode to Oppie. "In unchristinaly spirit,
enjoy every squirm and anguish of victim. Having wonderful time - wish
you were here!" Even seven years later, Strauss thought he saw Oppen-
heimer's influence at work, complaining that "Oppenheimer's partisans are
continuing their reprisals against individuals who did their duty." The case
would follow both Strauss and Oppenheimer to their graves.
################################################################
My book reviews are at https://github.com/stucooper/booksiveread