Oppenheimer essays

This evening’s activity is to enjoy some very fine student essay tests on Oppenheimer, who really must be one of the most complicated and fascinating human characters of the 20th century.

*A sickly and socially awkward adolescent/young adult, who later became possibly the greatest human project manager in world history, as well as the most suave ladies’ man imaginable.

*An advocate of “doing no harm to any living creature,” who not only built the atomic bomb (partly to stop Hitler, partly from ambition), but also vetoed the desperation idea of poisoning the German food supply with strontium “unless we are capable of causing at least 500,000 deaths”. (The desperation came from intelligence reports that Hitler was about to unleash “a secret weapon.” This turned out to be the V-1 and V-2 rockets, but fearing initially that it was an atomic bomb, the Los Alamos scientists lost their heads and began toying with anti-German genocide.)

*One of the most versatile intellects of the century, but perhaps with a slight touch of superficiality and showboating… An important contributor to quantum theory at a shockingly early date, he also shocked his Dutch hosts at a lecture once by unexpectedly showing up and giving the lecture in Dutch, without prior announcement… But also a devotee of what Rhodes amusingly calls “a physics of bank shots,” and according to Bethe too much of an extrovert to do Nobel-level work. (Alvarez disagreed, claiming that Oppenheimer would have received the Nobel for his theories about the sun, if only he had lived long enough.)

*(ADDENDUM: another of his apparent contradictions… Throughout his life he had an unnerving knack for what Rhodes calls “casual cruelty,” in the verbal sense. He had a rare genius for vicious putdowns of others. And yet, during his time as Director at Los Alamos, a warm and encouraging streak emerged from the man. His probing psychological insight, previously used to wound the weak points of others, took on a healing function when it was needed to get the job done. After the war, it is said, he reverted to his casual viciousness.)

I’ve read lengthier biographical works devoted solely to Oppenheimer, and my sense is that he was one of the most interesting people to have lived in the 20th century, and one of the most interesting and important figures of American history as a whole.

Best of all, my students in Cairo get it. They’re presenting the right nuanced view of the man.