Gerald Holton
YOUNG MAN OPPENHEIMER
In
many different ways, Roben Oppenheimer managed to
be at the center of excitement. Folklore and history remember him most
for his leadership in 1943-45, as director of the project that propelled
the world into the nuclear age; indeed, he was the first person to push
the nuclear button, on July 16, 1945, at the Alamagordo test. But he
was also a crucial figure in bringing the United States into the front
rank of physical science. Later, he became one of the foremost academic
"statesmen of science" who negotiated the change from disengaged
science to science as the helpmate of national and international policy.
And he played a role in such episodes of recent American history as the
rise and fall of McCarthyism, and the acceptance of J ews into the
academic professoriate.
All this, and his own excellent work in the physics of quantum
field theory, cosmic rays, and nuclear phenomena, should be enough to
assure Oppenheimer a place in twentieth-century history. But there is
another reason for the recurrent fascination with him . H e was often a
spellbinding presence; his intelligence and his complex personality
shone through hypnotic eyes.
It
is generally agreed that no one else
could have directed so well the large group of prima donna scientists
assembled at Los Alamos under the difficult and panic-evoking condi–
tions of war. Even now there is a quasi-charismatic air about his
memory, exciting vociferous loyalty among friends and disciples and
strong condemnation from opponents. (One of the very few things I
can expect my students to have read before coming
to
college is the
Heinar Kipphardt play,
In the Malter of
].
Robert Oppenheimer,
based
on the transcript of the 1954 hearings before the Atomic Energy
Commission; and we are presently to be subjected to another television
show based on Oppenheimer's life.) On the popular level, he is seen as
a tragic hero who, chastened by the discovery of "sin" in the light of the
A-bomb, wrestled mightily with his conscience, but in the end made yet
another Faustian bargain when Edward Teller suggested a "sweet"
solution to the problem of making an H-bomb. Oppenheimer provides
an early example of the contemporary dilemma: when society tries to
