"J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Journey Through Science and Politics" In 1926, a 22-year-old J. Robert Oppenheimer, a doctoral student, grapples with anxiety and homesickness while studying under the demanding experimental physicist Patrick Blackett at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Despite his initial discontent, he later retracts a poisoned apple he had intended for Blackett. Niels Bohr, a visiting scientist, suggests that Oppenheimer should study theoretical physics at Göttingen. Oppenheimer heeds this advice and completes his PhD there, where he meets fellow scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi. They later encounter theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland. In the United States, Oppenheimer begins teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology. He marries Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a biologist and former communist, and has an intermittent affair with Jean Tatlock, a troubled member of the Communist Party USA who later commits suicide. In 1938, the discovery of nuclear fission occurs, which Oppenheimer realizes could be weaponized. In 1942, during World War II, U.S. Army General Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project, a mission to develop an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, is particularly driven by the Nazis' potential completion of their nuclear weapons program, led by Heisenberg. He assembles a team of scientists, including Rabi and Edward Teller, in Los Alamos, New Mexico. They also collaborate with scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and David L. Hill at the University of Chicago. Teller's calculations reveal a catastrophic chain reaction could be triggered by an atomic detonation, potentially igniting the atmosphere and causing global destruction. After consulting with Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer concludes that the risk is acceptably low. Teller's proposal to construct a hydrogen bomb is rejected. Despite his initial desire to leave the project, Oppenheimer is convinced to stay. Following Adolf Hitler's death in 1945, some scientists question the relevance of the bomb, while Oppenheimer believes it will end the war in the Pacific and save Allied lives. The Trinity test is successful, and President Harry S. Truman orders the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender. Despite public acclaim, Oppenheimer is haunted by the mass destruction and fatalities, and urges restricting further nuclear weapons development. His stance as an advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) generates controversy. In 1954, Lewis Strauss, AEC Chairman, orchestrates a private hearing to revoke Oppenheimer's Q clearance. Oppenheimer's past communist ties are exploited, and his testimony is twisted against him. The board revokes his clearance, damaging his public image and limiting his influence on nuclear policy. In 1959, during Strauss' Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce, Hill testifies about Strauss' personal motives in engineering Oppenheimer's downfall, leading to the Senate voting against his nomination. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. A flashback reveals that Oppenheimer and Einstein's 1947 conversation never mentioned Strauss. Instead, Oppenheimer expressed his somber belief that he had indeed started a chain reaction that could potentially lead to global destruction.
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