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the city of hiroshima was destroyed in
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about nine seconds by a single atomic
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bomb
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the man responsible for building the
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bomb was a gentle and eloquent physicist
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named j
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robert oppenheimer this is the story of
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robert oppenheimer
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and the atomic bomb
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stinson beach california august 7th 1945
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dear oppie you are probably the most
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famous man in the world today
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and yet i am not sure that this letter
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will reach you
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but if it does i want you to know
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that we are very proud of you and if
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it doesn't you will know it anyway
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we have been irritated by your reticence
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these past few years
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but under the itchy surface we knew that
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it was all right
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that the work was progressing but the
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heart was still there
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and the warm being we have known and
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cherished
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i can understand now as i could guess
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then
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the somber note in you during our last
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meetings
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[Music]
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there is a weight in such a venture
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which few men in history have had to
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bear
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i know that with your love of men it is
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no right thing to have had a part
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and a great part in a diabolical
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contrivance for
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destroying them but in the possibilities
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of death
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are also the possibilities of life
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you have made history we are happy for
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you
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[Music]
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you may well ask why uh
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people with a kind hearth
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and humanist feelings
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why they would go and work on
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weapons of mass destruction
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when j robert oppenheimer was born in
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1904
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the atomic bomb was not yet even science
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fiction
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he was educated at the ethical culture
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school in new york
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and mastered harvard's curriculum in
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three years summa [ __ ]
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he laude six languages and seriously
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considered becoming an architect a poet
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or a scientist
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but it was his love of physics that led
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him to england and germany in the 1920s
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where the atom was beginning to yield
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its secrets to einstein rutherford and
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born
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european scientists would later remember
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him as the
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quick and eccentric young american who
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devoured both theoretical physics and
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16th century french poetry one of his
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best friends was the young american
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writer francis ferguson
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well when i first knew him he knew
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nothing about politics he never read the
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newspaper
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uh he was extremely ignorant about
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practical matters and he didn't care
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about them
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and his whole life was in the intellect
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[Music]
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at the age of 25 he accepted an unusual
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jewel professorship at the university of
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california at berkeley and at caltech
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and pasadena
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he brought with him the radically new
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understanding of the atom
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and the principles of quantum mechanics
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the kind of mechanics was comparatively
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newlin
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and it was though he was opening a new
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world to them and he made it
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tremendous tremendously exciting and
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fascinating to them and in fact
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very few of them didn't take then come
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back and take it a second
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year one of his graduate students was
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robert server
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i think there was i remember one russian
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lightning miss kacharova her name was
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who had taken it three times in the
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fourth year she wanted to come back and
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and roberto refused to allow her into
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the car she went on a hunger strike
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and forced her way in something that
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might have taken me months to have
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learned before
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he would go over in minutes and uh
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robert wilson physicist
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very fast cliff and a very elegant
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manner he was extremely quick and very
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impatient
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and had a very sharp tongue which he
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used on people
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he actually terrorized the students when
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he
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first began to teach they were
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afraid they come into the same room beer
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of a nasty hero martin
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robert oppenheimer and his younger
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brother frank were born into a wealthy
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family and raised in new york city
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throughout the 1930s they spent their
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summers with friends at a small ranch
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leased by the oppenheimer family
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high in the pecos wilderness of northern
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new mexico
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[Music]
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when we first went there we slept on the
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floor
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a board floor and we didn't have enough
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covers
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and we were pretty frozen by morning but
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that didn't bother robert much he was a
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fairly hardy fellow although he didn't
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look that way he looked terribly frail
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but he was pretty tough
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[Music]
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he eventually explored a large part of
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those mountains
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probably knew more about them than
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almost anybody else
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and he would just get on this horse and
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put a
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chocolate bar in his pocket and be gone
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for a day or two at least
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sleeping out probably would see nobody
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else during the whole trip
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everything my brother did would sort of
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be special if he went off in the woods
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to
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take a leak he'd come back with a flower
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and not to disguise the fact that it
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might leak but just to make it an
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occasion i guess
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it was a wonderful time for all of us
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all the different guests
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most of them physicists have brought
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some
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some ideas and new ideas with them also
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we the meals were sort of strange sort
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of peanut butter and vienna sausages and
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whiskey
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and we'd get sort of drunk when we were
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high up and we'd all act kind of silly i
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guess
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[Music]
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i've never been on a horse in my life
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they gave us maps and they sent us off
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on this
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three-day trip now over the mountain
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mountain passes around
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12 500 feet
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[Music]
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it went out an absolute minimum of
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equipment a bottle of whiskey and some
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graham crackers
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and food and oats for the horses
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it was a rainy season finally we noticed
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it didn't rain quite as much at night
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so we started to ride at night and i
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don't know
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what we gained from riding at night
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because it also rained at night
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imagine this you're you're
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riding on a mountain ridge at midnight
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in the middle of a thunderstorm with
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lightning hitting all around you
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you come to a fork in the road in the
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trail
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and robert says this way it's
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only seven miles home this way it's a
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little
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longer but it's much more beautiful
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[Music]
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[Music]
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but far from the pecos wilderness far
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from berkeley was adolf hitler
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and robert oppenheimer was a jew with
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friends and relatives in germany
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he did not keep up with current events
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he read novels he read philosophy books
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or serious books
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but uh all of a sudden and i think it
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was due in large part to
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hitler and to the nazi persecution of
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the dew
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of the jews that he suddenly uh
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i think it must have been fairly
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suddenly he suddenly realized that
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things were getting out of hand and that
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something had to be done about it by
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serious people
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so he began reading hokan chevalier was
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a professor of french literature
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at berkeley active in left-wing causes
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he and oppenheimer grew to be close
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friends
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on one of his many trips to the east on
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the train he had taken the three volumes
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of the das capital and he had read them
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all in the original
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on his way to new york in germany in
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german
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in german yes and then shortly after
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apparently he bought the complete works
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of lenin
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and read those
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he was a tremendous intellect
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i don't believe i have known another
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person
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who was quite so quick in comprehending
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hans bader nobel laureate in
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comprehending
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both scientific and general knowledge
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at berkeley read the back of ad geeta
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and learn sanskrit
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and was really taken by but the charm
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and the kind of
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general wisdom of the bhagavad-gita
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and some people seem to think he was got
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very
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religiously involved in it but that's
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not true at all
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the late 1930s while america endured a
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great depression
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fascism seized in germany a civil war
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raged in spain
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and oppenheimer moved further to the
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left
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kitty harrison was a communist and had
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lost her first husband
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in the spanish civil war in 1940 she and
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robert oppenheimer were married
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shortly before then robert's brother
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frank and his wife jackie had joined the
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communist party in california
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robert not a joiner stayed aloof from
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formal association
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but his left-wing activities did attract
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official attention
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as war clouds gathered in europe the fbi
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added oppenheimer's name to a list of
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people
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to be imprisoned in the event of
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national emergency
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[Music]
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back in 1938
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khan and strassmann in germany
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discovered fission
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and many people realized very quickly
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that it might be possible
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to make atomic bombs to use
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fission as an explosive to use uranium
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as an
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explosive i first heard about but i
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think niels bohr told me i think it was
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in princeton
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and when i came back to colombia and i
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told enrico family about it
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by the end of the day he had calculated
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the
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uh the depth of a crater size of a
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crater which one pound would uh
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would give exploding the first i heard
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about
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fishing was a letter from oppenheimer
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and the news had just gotten to berkeley
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and he
288
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:41,839
he wrote to me i gave a seminar on it
289
00:11:41,839 --> 00:11:42,560
that same
290
00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:45,839
day and uh and uh
291
00:11:45,839 --> 00:11:48,880
urbana i mean once it was one of these
292
00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:49,680
ideas
293
00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:53,519
you know uh when somebody told you say
294
00:11:53,519 --> 00:11:54,560
how could i be so
295
00:11:54,560 --> 00:11:59,120
stupid not to have seen that before
296
00:11:59,279 --> 00:12:01,200
and i think even in the first letter he
297
00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:04,480
mentioned the possibility of making bomb
298
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,839
i suppose that freeman dyson physicist
299
00:12:07,839 --> 00:12:11,040
he was at that time profoundly impressed
300
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:13,120
with the precariousness of the allied
301
00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:14,560
situation that after all
302
00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:17,200
most of his friends were europeans many
303
00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:18,560
of them in countries which had been
304
00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:21,040
occupied by the germans
305
00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:23,760
the germans looked as though they were
306
00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,440
the wave of the future at that time
307
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:32,079
he said there is the danger
308
00:12:32,079 --> 00:12:36,079
that this may mean the end of
309
00:12:36,079 --> 00:12:39,279
western civilization
310
00:12:39,279 --> 00:12:42,720
my brother viewed it as not just
311
00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,800
something persecuting our own
312
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:48,880
relatives but as a kind of thing that
313
00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:50,160
could be a wave
314
00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,079
that would walk over the united states
315
00:12:52,079 --> 00:12:53,620
as well
316
00:12:53,620 --> 00:12:56,639
[Music]
317
00:12:56,639 --> 00:13:00,000
he wanted to help he thought
318
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,800
probably the best way to do this where
319
00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,360
he had most competence
320
00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,240
would be in
321
00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,399
the atomic bomb work and therefore
322
00:13:12,399 --> 00:13:15,519
it was natural for him
323
00:13:15,519 --> 00:13:18,639
almost necessary for him
324
00:13:18,639 --> 00:13:20,480
that this is where he would put his
325
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,040
effort he built
326
00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:25,920
the atomic bomb or he didn't build it
327
00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:27,839
but he led the effort
328
00:13:27,839 --> 00:13:31,040
to build the atomic bomb because he
329
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:33,360
thought this was necessary
330
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:38,240
to save western civilization
331
00:13:38,639 --> 00:13:40,720
it was feared that nazi scientists were
332
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,839
already building an atomic bomb in 1939
333
00:13:43,839 --> 00:13:45,920
when albert einstein informed president
334
00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:47,519
roosevelt that such a thing was even
335
00:13:47,519 --> 00:13:49,279
possible
336
00:13:49,279 --> 00:13:51,199
the program roosevelt initiated was
337
00:13:51,199 --> 00:13:52,959
small and had little momentum until
338
00:13:52,959 --> 00:14:03,839
december 7th 1941
339
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,000
the day after pearl harbor america
340
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,920
declared war on japan and germany
341
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:18,320
we had on the one side this crazy nation
342
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,760
and this demon in germany
343
00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:25,760
aye aye robbie and uh
344
00:14:26,399 --> 00:14:29,360
these funny people who didn't know what
345
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:31,360
the western world was about to tackle
346
00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:33,600
the united states
347
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,839
i mean there was no question in my mind
348
00:14:35,839 --> 00:14:36,959
that this something
349
00:14:36,959 --> 00:14:39,279
had to be done and furthermore we
350
00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:40,880
weren't winning
351
00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:44,399
at all i was caught up in the war effort
352
00:14:44,399 --> 00:14:47,519
and and with a patriotic fever that's
353
00:14:47,519 --> 00:14:48,560
hard to
354
00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:52,160
imagine nowadays it's been so long since
355
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,279
anything of that kind has motivated amer
356
00:14:55,279 --> 00:14:57,440
seems to have motivated americans and
357
00:14:57,440 --> 00:14:58,959
one would have done anything that was
358
00:14:58,959 --> 00:14:59,760
necessary
359
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,480
to get on with the war the bomb project
360
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:03,920
had a sudden urgency
361
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,240
the u.s army was given charge and code
362
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,000
named it the manhattan district
363
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,160
with general leslie groves in command
364
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,240
and secret laboratories scattered across
365
00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,000
the country
366
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:15,920
groves put oppenheimer in charge of a
367
00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:17,040
group at berkeley
368
00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:18,880
to explore the basic scientific
369
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,240
requirements of an atomic bomb
370
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,079
oppenheimer who had taken to wearing a
371
00:15:24,079 --> 00:15:25,600
rakish pork by hat
372
00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:27,839
took pleasure in his new official title
373
00:15:27,839 --> 00:15:31,120
coordinator of rapid rupture
374
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,320
that was the time when the
375
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,920
big change in his life occurred
376
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:42,320
and it must have been during that time
377
00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:47,440
that the dream somehow got hold of him
378
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:49,600
of
379
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,079
really producing a nuclear weapon which
380
00:15:52,079 --> 00:15:53,600
other people had been talking about that
381
00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:54,000
he was
382
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,279
the fellow who really did it it is
383
00:15:57,279 --> 00:16:01,680
a very different
384
00:16:01,759 --> 00:16:05,600
attitude if you want to find out
385
00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,079
the deep secrets of nature which is what
386
00:16:08,079 --> 00:16:08,639
you
387
00:16:08,639 --> 00:16:11,759
had wanted to do before
388
00:16:11,759 --> 00:16:14,880
and on the other hand if you want to
389
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,959
to produce something to produce a
390
00:16:18,959 --> 00:16:23,519
mechanism that works
391
00:16:23,519 --> 00:16:26,160
it was a different problem different
392
00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:27,680
attitude and she
393
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:36,000
completely changed to fit the new role
394
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,199
los alamos boys school high on a mesa 50
395
00:16:39,199 --> 00:16:41,680
miles north of santa fe new mexico
396
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,519
not far from the oppenheimer ranch
397
00:16:45,759 --> 00:16:48,720
in the summer of 1942 students began to
398
00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:50,959
notice low-flying military aircraft
399
00:16:50,959 --> 00:16:52,000
overhead
400
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,040
one student was sterling colgate it was
401
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:56,160
in the fall of
402
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:01,360
42 when this place was invaded by
403
00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:04,720
an armada of bulldozers and construction
404
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:06,079
crew
405
00:17:06,079 --> 00:17:08,799
suddenly we knew that the ward arrived
406
00:17:08,799 --> 00:17:09,839
here and
407
00:17:09,839 --> 00:17:12,720
these two uh characters showed up mr
408
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:14,240
smith and mr jones
409
00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,119
uh one wearing a pork pie hat and the
410
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:18,000
other
411
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,199
suit and a normal hat and these two guys
412
00:17:21,199 --> 00:17:23,199
went around as if
413
00:17:23,199 --> 00:17:24,880
well one they owned the place which
414
00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:26,559
evidently they did
415
00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:28,000
but more than that as if their
416
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,480
pseudonums was a normal sort of thing to
417
00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:31,360
do
418
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:33,120
my god i mean there their pictures were
419
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,039
in our on our physics book and we all
420
00:17:35,039 --> 00:17:36,320
had physics
421
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,360
one is the lead theoretical physicist of
422
00:17:39,360 --> 00:17:40,720
his age and the other
423
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,760
uh head of a major laboratory who'd done
424
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,000
the cyclotron and things like that
425
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,039
so we immediately knew that one uh
426
00:17:49,039 --> 00:17:51,200
they felt that it was so important to be
427
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,200
oppenheimer and lawrence
428
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:56,000
that they had to have a pseudonum uh two
429
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:57,679
that they were putting megabucks
430
00:17:57,679 --> 00:17:59,919
uh multi-megabucks into what seemed to
431
00:17:59,919 --> 00:18:01,679
us the worst place in the world to have
432
00:18:01,679 --> 00:18:03,200
a laboratory
433
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,120
granting oppenheimer's request for a
434
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,120
single isolated lab where the bomb could
435
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:08,559
be designed and built
436
00:18:08,559 --> 00:18:10,559
general groves appropriated the remote
437
00:18:10,559 --> 00:18:12,480
school and officially named oppenheimer
438
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:14,240
scientific director
439
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:16,720
oppenheimer's first job was to convince
440
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:18,640
scientists and their families to join
441
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,400
him for the duration of the war
442
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:21,919
in a place he was not allowed to
443
00:18:21,919 --> 00:18:24,640
identify to work on a project he was not
444
00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,440
always allowed to
445
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:28,880
well describe was a young assistant
446
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,760
professor at the university of wisconsin
447
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,400
stan ulam mathematician and his wife
448
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:35,600
francoise
449
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,520
the war was on i noticed that some other
450
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,760
younger colleagues especially was
451
00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:43,760
disappearing
452
00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:47,120
from town they couldn't tell where they
453
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:48,960
were going
454
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,000
it's very secret
455
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,440
but when i learned that i'm supposed to
456
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:56,559
go somewhere
457
00:18:56,559 --> 00:19:01,679
to new mexico francoise
458
00:19:01,679 --> 00:19:03,520
i wanted to know about the state of new
459
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,360
mexico
460
00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:07,280
so i went to the library and borrowed
461
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,120
one of these
462
00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:12,160
wpa books
463
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:13,520
on various states and there was one
464
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:15,919
volume in new mexico
465
00:19:15,919 --> 00:19:18,799
then looking at it i noticed at the back
466
00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:19,520
of the book
467
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:23,600
there was a list of previous borrowers
468
00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,160
to my amazement several names of people
469
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:27,679
who just disappeared a week or two
470
00:19:27,679 --> 00:19:28,960
before
471
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,360
were put down there as borrowers
472
00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:35,200
robert porton was the private in the
473
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,000
army and i don't know how many people
474
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,840
uh viewing this program ever had the
475
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:43,360
pleasure of getting off the train at
476
00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:45,600
lamey new mexico but
477
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,919
we've looked at it as if it were out of
478
00:19:47,919 --> 00:19:49,280
siberia
479
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:52,080
it was very strange it was nothing but a
480
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,240
lot of sand sagebrush and
481
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,200
but there was a gi vehicle and when we
482
00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,360
got in still wondering where we were and
483
00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:02,320
why we were there
484
00:20:03,140 --> 00:20:04,320
[Music]
485
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,640
scientific and military personnel arrive
486
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:08,559
from all over america many traveling
487
00:20:08,559 --> 00:20:10,159
under assumed names
488
00:20:10,159 --> 00:20:12,480
a station master in princeton new jersey
489
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,400
was baffled at the sudden demand for
490
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:15,600
one-way tickets
491
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:20,000
to the tiny station outside santa fe
492
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,960
it was a little bit awe-inspiring to be
493
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:23,600
in
494
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:25,520
the middle of nowhere like this and not
495
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,000
knowing what we were getting into
496
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,460
not the slightest idea
497
00:20:30,460 --> 00:20:32,559
[Applause]
498
00:20:32,559 --> 00:20:34,720
next stop for newly arrived personnel
499
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:36,799
was an inconspicuous building in santa
500
00:20:36,799 --> 00:20:37,679
fe
501
00:20:37,679 --> 00:20:39,600
dorothy mckibben was in charge of the
502
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:41,520
tiny office
503
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:45,760
santa fe was full of young fbi agents
504
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,720
middle-aged agents and to some of us
505
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,480
they were quite discernible
506
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:52,799
because they were so well dressed what
507
00:20:52,799 --> 00:20:54,080
did they do
508
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:58,000
they wore gray slacks and tweed jackets
509
00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:59,760
and shirt with necktie and they leaned
510
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,159
against the walls of buildings and they
511
00:21:02,159 --> 00:21:04,080
hung around lafonda and the capital
512
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:07,919
pharmacy and all restaurants
513
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,559
we drove through santa fe and then a
514
00:21:12,559 --> 00:21:15,120
place called espanola and then
515
00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:16,640
hit some dips in the road and then
516
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:18,960
started to climb and i had never been in
517
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,320
mountainous country it was very
518
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,640
interesting
519
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:24,880
i had just finished reading the magic
520
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:25,840
mountain by
521
00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,360
thomas mann and of course to go to this
522
00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:31,200
mysterious mountain on the top of which
523
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,919
there would be a secret laboratory
524
00:21:33,919 --> 00:21:35,760
which we would go into the doors would
525
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:38,240
slam and a few years later why we would
526
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:38,880
come out
527
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,080
bearing in atomic bomb
528
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,799
very impressive strange scenery
529
00:21:44,799 --> 00:21:46,799
mountains rocks
530
00:21:46,799 --> 00:21:49,520
the desert
531
00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,760
we crossed rio grande and arrived in a
532
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:55,520
place full of little
533
00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:59,039
well how to call it almost us
534
00:21:59,039 --> 00:22:00,960
oppenheimer had brought scientists and
535
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:02,799
their families fresh from distinguished
536
00:22:02,799 --> 00:22:04,880
campuses all over the country
537
00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:07,760
ivy hall soaring campaniles vaulted
538
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:09,360
chapels
539
00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:12,159
los alamos was a boom town hastily
540
00:22:12,159 --> 00:22:13,760
constructed wooden buildings
541
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,400
dirt streets cold stoves and only five
542
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:19,039
bathtubs
543
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:21,679
there were no sidewalks the streets were
544
00:22:21,679 --> 00:22:22,880
all dirt
545
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:27,120
the water situation was always bad
546
00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:29,919
one young physicist was robert crone it
547
00:22:29,919 --> 00:22:31,760
was not at all unusual to open your
548
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:33,120
faucet
549
00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:36,720
and have worms come out everybody
550
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,240
was wearing western clothes jeans boots
551
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,280
parkas there was a feeling of mountain
552
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,400
resort
553
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,679
in addition to army camp
554
00:22:47,679 --> 00:22:50,480
the mixture was unbelievable then there
555
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:50,880
was an
556
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:54,159
awful mud
557
00:22:54,159 --> 00:22:56,159
the physicist edward teller had brought
558
00:22:56,159 --> 00:22:58,159
a piano and played beethoven late into
559
00:22:58,159 --> 00:22:58,960
the night
560
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:00,400
from his cramped quarters in a
561
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,480
four-family dwelling he could disturb
562
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,400
more nobel laureates at once than he
563
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,039
could have anywhere else in the world
564
00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:09,039
oppenheimer had gathered the elite in
565
00:23:09,039 --> 00:23:11,280
physics mathematics and chemistry
566
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:14,880
to build the atomic bomb i don't believe
567
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:18,080
there was ever before an
568
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,840
assembly of so many first-rate
569
00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,840
for one task they in turn recruited
570
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,039
their best students
571
00:23:27,039 --> 00:23:29,520
promising kids working side by side with
572
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,000
nobel laureates
573
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,480
there was no class distinction between
574
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:35,280
the
575
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,400
small fry and the big shots
576
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,320
when i first came to the to the united
577
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:41,919
states i got to know a lot of the young
578
00:23:41,919 --> 00:23:43,600
people who had been at los alamos most
579
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,279
of them were very young
580
00:23:45,279 --> 00:23:47,279
they'd just gone right into it without
581
00:23:47,279 --> 00:23:50,159
even finishing their scientific training
582
00:23:50,159 --> 00:23:51,919
and for them it was just the most
583
00:23:51,919 --> 00:24:05,279
marvelous time of their lives
584
00:24:05,279 --> 00:24:07,039
people worked hard scientists worked
585
00:24:07,039 --> 00:24:08,799
around the clock and but people
586
00:24:08,799 --> 00:24:11,360
made up for the lack of big city life
587
00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:13,440
and it was a lot of partying
588
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:15,840
we were very young and it was just like
589
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:16,840
a camp
590
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,159
out liquor was short in the area
591
00:24:20,159 --> 00:24:23,440
so in order to spice up the parties
592
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,559
we use lab alcohol lab alcohol
593
00:24:26,559 --> 00:24:33,600
is 200 proof basically
594
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,039
which is just exactly what you're
595
00:24:35,039 --> 00:24:38,000
looking for for punch
596
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,320
if you were in a large hall and you saw
597
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,159
several groups of people the largest
598
00:24:44,159 --> 00:24:44,880
groups
599
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,679
would be hovering around oppenheimer he
600
00:24:47,679 --> 00:24:49,520
was great at a party and women
601
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:53,360
simply loved him and still do
602
00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:56,480
i found it extremely dashing in a sort
603
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:57,600
of
604
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:01,840
elegant way
605
00:25:03,279 --> 00:25:05,840
it was for these young people not only a
606
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,600
great experience it was also
607
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:14,960
fun it was it was a large
608
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:16,880
yes it was a good time it was a good
609
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,039
time in america it was a good time to be
610
00:25:19,039 --> 00:25:20,480
american it was
611
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:22,080
a time when the whole country was
612
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,240
pulling together
613
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,600
in a uh in a cause which
614
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,400
even now i think was just that is the
615
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,720
idea that the nazis would
616
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,120
uh nazi germany would win that war could
617
00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:36,480
have led to
618
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,039
i seem to me a thousand years of dark
619
00:25:39,039 --> 00:25:39,840
ages
620
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:41,039
and everything that we meant by
621
00:25:41,039 --> 00:25:43,520
civilization could have come to an end
622
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,279
that's what it seemed to me was what the
623
00:25:45,279 --> 00:25:47,039
fight was about or something pretty
624
00:25:47,039 --> 00:25:47,919
close to that
625
00:25:47,919 --> 00:25:49,919
and most americans felt that most
626
00:25:49,919 --> 00:25:51,120
americans were
627
00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:55,840
just as as hard as they could be
628
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,320
average age was 29 and their job was to
629
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,000
construct a mechanism which would
630
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,840
trigger in a millionth of a second
631
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,279
a violent chain reaction they had two
632
00:26:05,279 --> 00:26:07,120
dance bands a soda fountain
633
00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:10,000
boy scouts girl scouts a radio station
634
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,360
with no call letters
635
00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:13,679
a cyclotron and seven thousand fire
636
00:26:13,679 --> 00:26:16,480
extinguishers
637
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:18,559
somehow oppenheimer put this thing
638
00:26:18,559 --> 00:26:20,880
together he was the conductor of the
639
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:22,640
orchestra or whatever it was
640
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,840
somehow he created this fantastic esprit
641
00:26:28,559 --> 00:26:30,559
no matter who you talk to they all lived
642
00:26:30,559 --> 00:26:31,679
it and and they all
643
00:26:31,679 --> 00:26:34,480
i think almost without exception felt it
644
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,080
most strongly that without him this
645
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:37,279
wouldn't have happened it couldn't have
646
00:26:37,279 --> 00:26:38,720
happened
647
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:40,559
oppenheimer had envisioned a small
648
00:26:40,559 --> 00:26:42,400
community of 30 scientists and their
649
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:43,279
families
650
00:26:43,279 --> 00:26:46,240
but by 1944 he was in charge of a walled
651
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:47,919
city of six thousand
652
00:26:47,919 --> 00:26:51,919
the cost escalated to 56 million dollars
653
00:26:51,919 --> 00:26:53,200
seven divisions
654
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,919
theoretical physics experimental physics
655
00:26:55,919 --> 00:26:56,799
ordnance
656
00:26:56,799 --> 00:26:59,679
explosives bomb physics chemistry and
657
00:26:59,679 --> 00:27:02,400
metallurgy
658
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,360
he knew and understood everything that
659
00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:07,440
went on in the laboratory
660
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,679
whether it was chemistry or theoretical
661
00:27:09,679 --> 00:27:10,640
physics
662
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,679
or machine shop he could
663
00:27:13,679 --> 00:27:16,240
keep it all in his head and coordinate
664
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,159
it
665
00:27:18,159 --> 00:27:21,840
it was clear also at los alamos that he
666
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,720
was intellectually
667
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,360
superior to us the most striking
668
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:29,440
contradiction is the fact that this man
669
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:30,159
who was so
670
00:27:30,159 --> 00:27:33,520
unworldly so unpolitical in his youth
671
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:35,840
such a great scholar so fond of
672
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,520
metaphysical poetry
673
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:39,440
should suddenly emerge as the great
674
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:40,720
administrator
675
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,720
who put los alamos together and produced
676
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:44,720
the atomic bomb
677
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,799
i saw him change from that almost
678
00:27:47,799 --> 00:27:50,399
irresponsible intellectual
679
00:27:50,399 --> 00:27:54,000
bohemian and radical radical
680
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,240
person that he was that then that i had
681
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:57,279
known it
682
00:27:57,279 --> 00:28:01,679
at berkeley uh to someone who was
683
00:28:01,679 --> 00:28:03,520
just completely dedicated getting on
684
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,159
with the war i think it was a real
685
00:28:06,159 --> 00:28:08,000
stroke of genius and part of general
686
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:09,200
groves
687
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:10,799
who was not generally considered to be a
688
00:28:10,799 --> 00:28:13,600
genius uh to have appointed him it was a
689
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,360
most improbable appointment i was
690
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:17,840
astonished
691
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:19,840
the professor and the general made an
692
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,000
unlikely team
693
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,919
when groves took charge of the manhattan
694
00:28:23,919 --> 00:28:26,480
project in 1942 there was barely enough
695
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,320
plutonium in the world to cover the head
696
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:29,279
of a pin
697
00:28:29,279 --> 00:28:32,320
and very little uranium-235
698
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:34,000
these were the only elements that could
699
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,120
fuel the los alamos bomb
700
00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:40,240
to produce u-235 groves built a secret
701
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,039
44-acre building in oak ridge tennessee
702
00:28:43,039 --> 00:28:45,360
in hanford washington giant reactors
703
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:46,880
labored to produce a few pounds of
704
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:48,240
plutonium
705
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,159
it was the most expensive scientific
706
00:28:50,159 --> 00:28:53,679
project in the history of the world
707
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,600
general groves distrusted liberals and
708
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,039
yet in spite of oppenheimer's
709
00:28:59,039 --> 00:29:01,200
well-documented leftist background
710
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,440
groves overruled the astonished security
711
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:04,720
officers who tried to block
712
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,440
oppenheimer's clearance
713
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,080
he had arguments with general groves but
714
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:10,640
i
715
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:12,399
think they were mostly about sort of
716
00:29:12,399 --> 00:29:13,840
trivial things like
717
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:15,279
that the fact that people were having
718
00:29:15,279 --> 00:29:17,360
too many babies and he couldn't do
719
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,120
anything about that and
720
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,640
when things came up um
721
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,399
that were really important i think
722
00:29:24,399 --> 00:29:26,720
general crows usually supported him
723
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,360
he had to support robert himself against
724
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:30,399
the
725
00:29:30,399 --> 00:29:33,200
intelligence people who of course well
726
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:34,960
in fact i not only wouldn't have cleared
727
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:35,600
robert i
728
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:36,720
obviously wouldn't have cleared
729
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,880
three-quarters of the people on the uh
730
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,000
at the place so why not well
731
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,399
i mean they were all moderately liberal
732
00:29:48,399 --> 00:29:55,840
moderately left-wing people
733
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,159
it was a new and strange world
734
00:30:00,159 --> 00:30:04,159
barbed wire bodyguard censored letters
735
00:30:04,159 --> 00:30:08,320
secrets from their wives and children
736
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:10,960
well i'd written try to be so newsy when
737
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,640
i was in fort leonard wood and when i
738
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:14,559
came here i would write and say
739
00:30:14,559 --> 00:30:17,039
i'm out here in the west and the scenery
740
00:30:17,039 --> 00:30:18,559
is beautiful the weather is just
741
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:20,559
gorgeous and my mother would write back
742
00:30:20,559 --> 00:30:22,399
and say well where are you really and
743
00:30:22,399 --> 00:30:23,919
what are you doing and i would write
744
00:30:23,919 --> 00:30:25,679
back and say i'm out here in the west
745
00:30:25,679 --> 00:30:27,200
and the weather is gorgeous and the
746
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:27,919
scenery
747
00:30:27,919 --> 00:30:29,679
is beautiful and she never understood
748
00:30:29,679 --> 00:30:31,919
that until the war was over and i could
749
00:30:31,919 --> 00:30:34,080
explain it to her
750
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,399
and you heard throughout the town that
751
00:30:36,399 --> 00:30:38,159
they were joking and saying it's a
752
00:30:38,159 --> 00:30:40,320
submarine base to make windshield wipers
753
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:41,760
for submarines
754
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,080
or it was a navy installation or
755
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:45,200
something like that
756
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,399
and they thought it was a great joke
757
00:30:48,399 --> 00:30:51,039
g2 wanted a rumor spreading santa fe
758
00:30:51,039 --> 00:30:51,600
with her
759
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,919
now all kinds of speculation about what
760
00:30:53,919 --> 00:30:55,039
was going on at los
761
00:30:55,039 --> 00:30:57,519
alamos they wanted to get out a rumor
762
00:30:57,519 --> 00:30:59,519
that we were busy making electric
763
00:30:59,519 --> 00:31:03,039
rockets and and we
764
00:31:03,039 --> 00:31:06,480
we tried it we went down and
765
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,039
we tried to fund the bar which is
766
00:31:09,039 --> 00:31:11,200
usually crowded of course that night it
767
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:11,519
was
768
00:31:11,519 --> 00:31:14,720
prac now half deserted and we talked as
769
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:16,640
loudly as we could about electric
770
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:18,960
rockets but nobody seemed to pay any
771
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:20,559
attention
772
00:31:20,559 --> 00:31:24,480
so then we went out to a workman's bar
773
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:28,720
much rougher in the droid dance now some
774
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,440
some spanish-american came along and
775
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,120
asked her to dance
776
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,120
she was trying to tell him about los
777
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:36,720
alamos and he was trying to tell her
778
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:37,039
that
779
00:31:37,039 --> 00:31:38,960
what he wanted was a ranch to raise
780
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:40,240
horses
781
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,039
he couldn't have been less interested
782
00:31:43,039 --> 00:31:43,919
and
783
00:31:43,919 --> 00:31:46,399
finally i grabbed the guy at the bar and
784
00:31:46,399 --> 00:31:47,679
i took him by
785
00:31:47,679 --> 00:31:49,760
lapels and shook him and said you know
786
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,399
we're doing it right now
787
00:31:52,399 --> 00:31:54,159
he was so drunk i'm sure he didn't
788
00:31:54,159 --> 00:31:56,159
remember a word of
789
00:31:56,159 --> 00:31:58,559
the complete flop it's not as easy as it
790
00:31:58,559 --> 00:32:01,840
sounds to be a spy
791
00:32:03,679 --> 00:32:06,240
back in berkeley an industrial scientist
792
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:08,080
named george eltonton had approached
793
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,320
oppenheimer's old friend jokan chevalier
794
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:11,919
in 1943
795
00:32:11,919 --> 00:32:14,000
with a request that chevalier convinced
796
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,679
oppenheimer to share secrets with
797
00:32:15,679 --> 00:32:17,120
russian scientists
798
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,600
chevalier refused and when oppenheimer
799
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:21,120
passed through berkeley on secret
800
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:21,760
business
801
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,960
chevalier told him about the incident
802
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,320
i told oppenheimer that this
803
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,159
was not something that he could do
804
00:32:30,159 --> 00:32:31,519
anything about and that
805
00:32:31,519 --> 00:32:34,159
if there were to be such exchanges they
806
00:32:34,159 --> 00:32:35,840
would have to be proposed on the highest
807
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:37,840
levels of government and
808
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:39,840
it would have to be worked out in that
809
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,360
way and then
810
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,559
he agreed that this would not be
811
00:32:44,559 --> 00:32:46,559
any there was no possibility of doing
812
00:32:46,559 --> 00:32:48,240
anything
813
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,519
and that is all and uh i forgot about it
814
00:32:51,519 --> 00:32:53,200
and i think that he forgot about it for
815
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,039
a long time too
816
00:32:55,039 --> 00:32:56,720
this seemingly insignificant
817
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:58,799
conversation would later have enormous
818
00:32:58,799 --> 00:33:02,399
impact on the lives of both men
819
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,519
in late 1944 american intelligence
820
00:33:05,519 --> 00:33:07,279
learned that the german atomic bomb
821
00:33:07,279 --> 00:33:08,640
effort had failed
822
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:10,720
nevertheless shortly afterwards los
823
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:12,799
alamos scientists picked up the pace and
824
00:33:12,799 --> 00:33:13,600
began working
825
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:15,840
six day weeks where everything was
826
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:17,039
coming together
827
00:33:17,039 --> 00:33:19,200
everything was going at a very rapid
828
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,600
rate we were building up to the
829
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,200
trinity test at that time we were
830
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,000
a great deal of production with of
831
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:29,840
devices to be used and the
832
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,559
atomic bomb were being made everybody
833
00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:34,399
was working day and night
834
00:33:34,399 --> 00:33:37,200
and it was very hard in the you know and
835
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:38,240
the push
836
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,440
to make that uh test
837
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,640
to stop and think i said what do you
838
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:47,440
young men do in the evening for pleasure
839
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,279
and they said we'd go back to the lab
840
00:33:49,279 --> 00:33:52,640
and stay till midnight
841
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,519
as one would i remember i would walk
842
00:33:55,519 --> 00:33:57,200
work almost every
843
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,760
every night i'd nearly drop then go home
844
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,240
sleep a bit and then come back
845
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,840
saturdays and sundays just constantly
846
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,840
working
847
00:34:08,699 --> 00:34:12,560
[Music]
848
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,639
across the pacific the war raged on
849
00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:17,119
against japan but in the spring of 45
850
00:34:17,119 --> 00:34:21,839
there was victory in europe
851
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:26,719
the nazis had never come close to
852
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,599
building an atomic bomb
853
00:34:29,599 --> 00:34:35,280
germany surrendered the e day
854
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:39,040
eisenhower return triumphant
855
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,839
i would like to have to think now that
856
00:34:43,839 --> 00:34:46,719
that i at the time of the german defeat
857
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:47,599
that
858
00:34:47,599 --> 00:34:50,719
i would have stopped taken stock thought
859
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:52,399
it all over very carefully
860
00:34:52,399 --> 00:34:54,399
and that i would have walked away from
861
00:34:54,399 --> 00:34:56,239
los alamos at that time
862
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:59,599
and i in terms of all of my everything
863
00:34:59,599 --> 00:35:00,160
that i
864
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,680
believe in before and during and
865
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,800
after the war i cannot understand why i
866
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:07,440
did not
867
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:09,680
take that i make that act on the other
868
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,160
hand it simply was not in the air
869
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,720
i do not know of a single instance of
870
00:35:14,720 --> 00:35:15,440
anyone
871
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,160
who had made that suggestion or who did
872
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:18,800
leave
873
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,720
the time it there might have been
874
00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:22,160
someone that i didn't know
875
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,280
but at the time it just was not
876
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:27,599
something that was part of our lives
877
00:35:27,599 --> 00:35:30,160
where our life was directed to do
878
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,599
one thing it's as though we had been
879
00:35:31,599 --> 00:35:33,520
programmed to do that and we
880
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,480
as automatons were doing it amazing how
881
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,400
the technology
882
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,440
tools trap one i mean they're so
883
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,400
powerful that when i i was impressed
884
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,040
because most of the sort of fervor for
885
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,599
developing the bomb came in a kind of
886
00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:51,280
anti-fascist fervor
887
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,000
against germany but when ve day came
888
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:55,760
along nobody slowed up one
889
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:58,160
little bit no one said ah well the main
890
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:00,079
thing it doesn't matter now
891
00:36:00,079 --> 00:36:01,680
we all kept working and it wasn't
892
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:03,680
because we understood the significance
893
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:04,880
against japan
894
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,440
it was because the machinery had caught
895
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:08,160
us
896
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:09,920
in its trap and we were anxious to get
897
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:12,400
this thing to go
898
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:16,480
i organized a a a small meeting
899
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:18,640
at our building i think the title was
900
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:20,320
the impact of the
901
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:23,839
gadget on civilization
902
00:36:23,839 --> 00:36:27,040
happy tried to persuade me not to have
903
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:27,760
it
904
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,079
i don't know quite why but he certainly
905
00:36:30,079 --> 00:36:31,200
didn't try to
906
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,599
dissuade me on the other hand i went
907
00:36:33,599 --> 00:36:34,480
ahead and did
908
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:37,440
hold the meeting and perhaps between 30
909
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:37,839
and
910
00:36:37,839 --> 00:36:41,119
50 people came hobby came too
911
00:36:41,119 --> 00:36:44,320
which added a certain always added tone
912
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:45,040
to any
913
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:49,040
meeting we did discuss whether we should
914
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:49,680
go on
915
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,720
or not and in the context of what was
916
00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:53,280
happening
917
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,079
in the world of course it was called in
918
00:36:56,079 --> 00:36:58,320
the context that perhaps what we
919
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:02,079
are we were doing was morally wrong
920
00:37:02,079 --> 00:37:04,880
particularly opie pointed out that but
921
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:06,640
it would be well that the world
922
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,520
knew about the possibility of an atomic
923
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:10,320
bomb
924
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:12,079
rather than to be something that would
925
00:37:12,079 --> 00:37:14,480
be kept secret while the
926
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,359
united nations was being formed on that
927
00:37:17,359 --> 00:37:18,320
basis
928
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:21,280
on that logical basis we all decided
929
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:22,480
that that was right
930
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:23,839
and that we ought to go back in the
931
00:37:23,839 --> 00:37:26,160
laboratory and work as hard as we could
932
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,280
to demonstrate a nuclear
933
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,560
weapon before the uh
934
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:34,320
so that the united nations would be set
935
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,400
up in the awareness of this
936
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:38,720
horrible thing to come the faustian
937
00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:39,920
bargain is
938
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:41,599
when you sell your soul to the devil in
939
00:37:41,599 --> 00:37:44,079
exchange for knowledge and power
940
00:37:44,079 --> 00:37:45,680
and that of course in a way is what
941
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:48,000
oppenheimer did there's no doubt
942
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,599
he made this alliance with
943
00:37:51,599 --> 00:37:54,640
the united states army in the person of
944
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,000
general groves
945
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:00,560
who gave him undreamed of resources
946
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:03,520
huge armies of people and as much money
947
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:04,000
as he could
948
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,040
possibly spend in order to do
949
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,359
physics on the grand scale in order to
950
00:38:09,359 --> 00:38:11,200
create this marvelous weapon
951
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,359
and it was a faustian bargain if ever
952
00:38:13,359 --> 00:38:14,400
there was one
953
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:15,920
and of course we are still living with
954
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:17,680
it ever since
955
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:19,119
when once you sell your soul to the
956
00:38:19,119 --> 00:38:23,440
devil then there's no going back on it
957
00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:27,520
well i can't tell you exactly but right
958
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,520
over there between here in the us
959
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,240
in the uh high part of the oscura
960
00:38:32,240 --> 00:38:33,520
mountains there where that little peak
961
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,640
is on the mcdonald ranch is where they
962
00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:40,400
detonated the first atomic bomb
963
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,640
what was this country like then not like
964
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:47,839
it is now
965
00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:52,960
200 miles south of los alamos near
966
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,040
alamogordo new mexico
967
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:58,160
a vast unbroken stretch of prairie here
968
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,000
robert oppenheimer chose to test
969
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,280
the first atomic bomb
970
00:39:03,599 --> 00:39:06,000
he named the place trinity site it had
971
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:07,440
been apache country
972
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,079
but in late 44 it was populated only by
973
00:39:10,079 --> 00:39:12,839
a handful of cattle ranchers and
974
00:39:12,839 --> 00:39:14,240
homesteaders
975
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:16,720
they called it by the spanish name
976
00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:17,440
hornada
977
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:21,839
del muerto the journey of death
978
00:39:26,079 --> 00:39:29,520
dave mcdonald i was put out of here in
979
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:31,680
42.
980
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,160
who puts you out of here the court of
981
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,760
engineers and
982
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:39,680
federal judge and so forth and
983
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:40,960
they said they had to have it for
984
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,599
air-to-air gunnery range and so forth
985
00:39:43,599 --> 00:39:44,800
you see
986
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:47,040
and later on why it wound up being this
987
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:48,880
you see when they've got the atomic bomb
988
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:50,240
the working way
989
00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:52,400
they come in for a place and they
990
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,480
selected this right here
991
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,560
at that time they were living that is
992
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:58,800
the people that was assembling this bomb
993
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:01,760
and preparing to shoot it was there at
994
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:02,640
my place
995
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:04,800
somewhere around five to seven hundred
996
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,880
people they said there
997
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,040
and living in my house and around it and
998
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:10,480
so forth you see with
999
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,359
other buildings and so forth it began
1000
00:40:13,359 --> 00:40:15,520
with 15 men in december
1001
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:17,040
by may there were several hundred
1002
00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,280
civilians and gis working in secret
1003
00:40:21,839 --> 00:40:25,760
at night nearby ranchers heard gunfire
1004
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,079
gi's hunting antelope with submachine
1005
00:40:28,079 --> 00:40:30,400
guns
1006
00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:33,680
about 1939 i think it was on the fronts
1007
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:35,440
piece of time magazine that had a
1008
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:36,880
picture of an atom buster at the
1009
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:39,040
university of california
1010
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:40,720
and when they shipped the shell in for
1011
00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:44,960
this experimental detonation down here
1012
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,160
why i thought i said if i didn't think i
1013
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:49,440
was crazy or something i think maybe
1014
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:51,119
they're
1015
00:40:51,119 --> 00:40:53,760
fooling around with uh busting an atoms
1016
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:55,599
or doing something with
1017
00:40:55,599 --> 00:40:58,480
atomic power but and i was just talking
1018
00:40:58,480 --> 00:40:59,680
because i certainly didn't know anything
1019
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:00,400
about it
1020
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,480
i had no conception of what an atomic
1021
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,400
bomb was or what the
1022
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:06,880
violence of in the strength of it when i
1023
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:07,599
arrived there
1024
00:41:07,599 --> 00:41:10,800
they um they were in the process of
1025
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,040
in the end of may of constructing a 100
1026
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:14,400
foot tall tower
1027
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,359
in this desert which was really a very
1028
00:41:17,359 --> 00:41:18,560
empty very
1029
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,200
it wasn't sandy but it was a typical dry
1030
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:22,240
sagebrushy
1031
00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:24,800
desert with one wall off to the east of
1032
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,119
rock
1033
00:41:27,119 --> 00:41:29,920
and base camp which had a couple of
1034
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,359
extra buildings but which
1035
00:41:31,359 --> 00:41:35,839
really was just some old ranch houses
1036
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,280
people were feverishly setting up wires
1037
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:40,560
all over the desert
1038
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:43,520
building the tower building little huts
1039
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,480
in which to put cameras and house people
1040
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:49,839
at the time of the explosion
1041
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,040
the the army had just accidentally
1042
00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:59,040
bombed the place a little bit before i
1043
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:03,839
got there but nobody was hurt
1044
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,200
the work had been so frantic that it was
1045
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:09,599
a relief to know that it was coming to
1046
00:42:09,599 --> 00:42:12,000
a conclusion and we knew that they were
1047
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:12,720
preparing
1048
00:42:12,720 --> 00:42:15,680
the big experiment to see if the gadget
1049
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,839
as it was called would work
1050
00:42:17,839 --> 00:42:21,440
what did you expect i hope
1051
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:25,440
what did i expect francois
1052
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:28,560
i always had mixed feelings i expected
1053
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:30,319
wanted it to succeed because it would
1054
00:42:30,319 --> 00:42:32,640
help to end the war i didn't want it to
1055
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:33,920
be dangerous
1056
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,720
there was of course it was there was a
1057
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:38,480
chance that it would be very dangerous
1058
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:40,400
could be very dangerous
1059
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,599
the 11th of july 1945 an unmarked
1060
00:42:43,599 --> 00:42:45,760
pontiac sedan arrives at the mcdonald
1061
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,000
ranch carrying the world's entire supply
1062
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,400
of plutonium about 10 pounds
1063
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,160
the courier demands a receipt
1064
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:53,520
approximate value
1065
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:56,079
1 billion dollars at oppenheimer's
1066
00:42:56,079 --> 00:42:58,240
request general groves has made a secret
1067
00:42:58,240 --> 00:42:59,680
arrangement with the governor of new
1068
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:00,560
mexico
1069
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,400
to evacuate the state in case of
1070
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:04,000
catastrophe
1071
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,359
now prior to the shot back in the lab
1072
00:43:07,359 --> 00:43:09,599
there had been some speculation that it
1073
00:43:09,599 --> 00:43:11,599
might be possible to explode the
1074
00:43:11,599 --> 00:43:13,280
atmosphere
1075
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,960
in which case the world disappears
1076
00:43:17,119 --> 00:43:20,560
did you sense a lot of anxiety in your
1077
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:21,200
brother
1078
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,680
a lot of anxiety in everybody including
1079
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:24,880
my brother
1080
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,359
both whether it would work or not work
1081
00:43:27,359 --> 00:43:28,560
frank oppenheimer
1082
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:33,599
physicist i think mostly that but also
1083
00:43:33,599 --> 00:43:37,680
it was you see it was a time in which
1084
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:40,800
i think it his interest in in
1085
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,760
using the bomb to help produce a better
1086
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:44,800
world
1087
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,920
priest was was was didn't happen just
1088
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:49,119
after the war
1089
00:43:49,119 --> 00:43:51,440
but he really had hoped that truman
1090
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:53,680
would tell stalin about it fairly
1091
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:55,920
forthrightly of course that didn't
1092
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:58,160
happen and set the stage almost at that
1093
00:43:58,160 --> 00:43:59,839
instant to the cold war
1094
00:43:59,839 --> 00:44:03,920
rather than to a warmer
1095
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,400
humanity and so i think both of those
1096
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:07,520
things seemed
1097
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:09,680
everything there was wearing him right
1098
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:10,800
there there was
1099
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,520
it was building up tremendous almost
1100
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,040
hysterical
1101
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:18,000
anxiety many people feeling that we
1102
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,560
couldn't possibly hold the test because
1103
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:22,800
every time we tested some component that
1104
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:24,960
had to do with the test it would fail
1105
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,440
everybody was rushing around things did
1106
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,119
not appear to be ready
1107
00:44:29,119 --> 00:44:33,040
yet there did seem to be a certain
1108
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,280
momentum to the work that was going on
1109
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:36,160
that we wouldn't
1110
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,800
make a test i think it had been put back
1111
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:40,160
several times
1112
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:42,960
but on july 16th that there would be the
1113
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:43,599
test come
1114
00:44:43,599 --> 00:44:51,119
hell or high water
1115
00:44:51,119 --> 00:44:54,319
memo 11 july 1700 hours
1116
00:44:54,319 --> 00:44:56,880
both charges completely papered work
1117
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:58,720
another night shift if necessary to
1118
00:44:58,720 --> 00:45:00,160
complete this job
1119
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:05,839
request personnel as necessary
1120
00:45:08,079 --> 00:45:11,280
memo 12 july 1600 hours
1121
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,920
seal all holes in case wrap with scotch
1122
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:14,560
wrap
1123
00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:16,880
box charges inner and outer with two
1124
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,839
spares for each
1125
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:25,440
memo 13 july 1300 hours assembly starts
1126
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,079
remove polar cap and dummy plug gadget
1127
00:45:28,079 --> 00:45:30,079
now belongs to tamper people
1128
00:45:30,079 --> 00:45:32,880
g engineers work until 1600 with active
1129
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:34,640
material insertion
1130
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:36,560
dummy plug hole is covered with a clean
1131
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,160
cloth and explosives people take over
1132
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:43,040
insert he this is to be done as slowly
1133
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,400
as the g engineers wish
1134
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:51,040
remove all chains clear the deck
1135
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,040
well i expected that what they were
1136
00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:58,000
working on
1137
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,839
they were going to try
1138
00:46:01,990 --> 00:46:05,560
[Music]
1139
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,040
14 july or 800 hours rig guidelines lift
1140
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:12,160
a tower top
1141
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:15,200
ready for x unit at 0-900 bring up
1142
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:18,480
g-engineer's footstool
1143
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:22,880
14 july 0-900 hours wiring of the x-unit
1144
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:24,480
proceeds under the direction of the
1145
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:26,079
explosives people
1146
00:46:26,079 --> 00:46:28,000
tower platforms should be tested with
1147
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:30,400
concrete weight as per oppenheimer
1148
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,160
detonator is placed to conform with
1149
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,480
requirements of informer switches
1150
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,560
he people stand by to criticize
1151
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,760
potential rough handling
1152
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:43,680
note that once detonators are on sphere
1153
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:45,599
no live electrical connection can be
1154
00:46:45,599 --> 00:46:46,880
brought to the x unit
1155
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:48,880
in form a unit or anywhere else on the
1156
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:49,920
sphere
1157
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:51,920
all testing must be done before sphere
1158
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:53,280
is lifted to tower
1159
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,640
after that it is too late
1160
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:01,440
14 july 1700 hours gadget complete
1161
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:10,640
should we have the chaplain here
1162
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:12,960
the betting pool cost a dollar edward
1163
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:14,800
teller bet on a blast equal to forty
1164
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:16,880
five thousand tons of tnt
1165
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,520
oppenheimer bet low three thousand tons
1166
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:21,599
and ii robbie put his money on twenty
1167
00:47:21,599 --> 00:47:22,880
kilotons
1168
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:24,800
young technicians were horrified to
1169
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:27,119
overhear enrico fermi taking side bets
1170
00:47:27,119 --> 00:47:28,400
on the possibility
1171
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:32,559
of incinerating the state of new mexico
1172
00:47:34,079 --> 00:47:36,640
the test was set at midnight the
1173
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:39,119
prediction was there'd be 60 mile
1174
00:47:39,119 --> 00:47:42,000
visibility and a certain wind pattern
1175
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:43,359
well it with midnight
1176
00:47:43,359 --> 00:47:46,319
it was raining cats and dogs lightning
1177
00:47:46,319 --> 00:47:47,760
and thunder
1178
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:50,319
really scared about this object there in
1179
00:47:50,319 --> 00:47:54,400
the tower would be set off accidentally
1180
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:56,880
so you can imagine the strain on
1181
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,440
oppenheimer
1182
00:48:00,319 --> 00:48:03,680
i remember it was one of my
1183
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:07,040
memories of that time having to go up
1184
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:08,400
the the
1185
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,040
tower to turn on a piece of equipment so
1186
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:12,000
i was one of the
1187
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:13,760
last not the last person by any means
1188
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:15,280
but one of the last people to
1189
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:17,440
get our equipment that was right next to
1190
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:18,800
the bomb
1191
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,760
uh how to have it all turned on and
1192
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:23,359
tested before
1193
00:48:23,359 --> 00:48:26,319
before starting the test and it was
1194
00:48:26,319 --> 00:48:27,839
quite dramatic because lightning was
1195
00:48:27,839 --> 00:48:29,280
striking all around it was
1196
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,599
quite a fair storm going on in
1197
00:48:31,599 --> 00:48:33,119
particular one
1198
00:48:33,119 --> 00:48:35,119
had a certain amount of respect for that
1199
00:48:35,119 --> 00:48:37,200
atomic bomb being right next to us
1200
00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:40,000
sparks seemed to be flying uh did give
1201
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:41,280
me a little bit of a
1202
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:44,400
sense of apprehension
1203
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,440
um i think he and i were lying down
1204
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:49,040
right next to each other flat in the
1205
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:49,680
desert
1206
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,359
right outside the control
1207
00:48:53,359 --> 00:48:56,559
hot at the time the bomb went off
1208
00:48:56,559 --> 00:48:58,720
and we had prepared ourselves with glass
1209
00:48:58,720 --> 00:49:00,079
and
1210
00:49:00,079 --> 00:49:02,400
when we we could hear the countdown when
1211
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:03,359
it went off we all
1212
00:49:03,359 --> 00:49:05,760
were looking through the glass and then
1213
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:06,400
we saw
1214
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:09,599
what was just a tremendous
1215
00:49:09,599 --> 00:49:14,319
uh the overpowering
1216
00:49:14,319 --> 00:49:16,160
vision of this thing happening seeing
1217
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:17,359
the mountains small
1218
00:49:17,359 --> 00:49:20,400
beside it seeing perhaps with some kind
1219
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:21,280
of beauty but
1220
00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:23,280
awesome was what i would call it as it
1221
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:24,880
slowly developed
1222
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,480
went up in the air and made those
1223
00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:31,839
the whole desert light up is at noon
1224
00:49:31,839 --> 00:49:34,960
and appears small a large desert
1225
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:36,880
the rimmed by mountains appear to be a
1226
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:38,079
small place
1227
00:49:38,079 --> 00:49:40,319
and that was just something that once
1228
00:49:40,319 --> 00:49:41,839
that had happened
1229
00:49:41,839 --> 00:49:45,839
i was a different person from then on
1230
00:49:48,000 --> 00:50:08,010
[Music]
1231
00:50:10,839 --> 00:50:13,730
so
1232
00:50:13,730 --> 00:50:17,099
[Music]
1233
00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:21,440
oh at the time it went off it was i
1234
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:21,760
think
1235
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,319
absolutely it wasn't i knew sort of what
1236
00:50:24,319 --> 00:50:25,920
would happen but i didn't expect the
1237
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:27,440
heat from the flash
1238
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:30,800
at five miles away to be nearly that
1239
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:31,359
intense
1240
00:50:31,359 --> 00:50:33,920
and then there was a cloud sort of the
1241
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:35,680
radioactive cloud went and sort of
1242
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:36,960
hovered there
1243
00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:39,839
and i and ken had been working on
1244
00:50:39,839 --> 00:50:42,000
developing escape routes
1245
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:43,680
because if that thing had gone a little
1246
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:45,680
bit south it would have
1247
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:48,079
fallen wouldn't fall out on the camp and
1248
00:50:48,079 --> 00:50:50,319
we would have to get out to the
1249
00:50:50,319 --> 00:50:52,160
to the south rather than where the north
1250
00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:54,319
was a road was to the north
1251
00:50:54,319 --> 00:50:56,720
and um so there was this sense of this
1252
00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:58,559
ominous cloud
1253
00:50:58,559 --> 00:51:00,720
hanging over us it was so brilliant
1254
00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:03,280
purple with all the radioactive blowing
1255
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:04,960
and it just seemed to hang there forever
1256
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:06,800
of course it didn't it went and it must
1257
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:08,800
have been just a very short time for
1258
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:10,559
until it went out but it was very
1259
00:51:10,559 --> 00:51:13,520
terrifying and the thunder from the
1260
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,640
blast um it bounced on the rocks and
1261
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:17,920
then went i don't know where
1262
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:19,760
else it bounced but it never seemed to
1263
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:21,839
stop but not like an ordinary echo of
1264
00:51:21,839 --> 00:51:23,359
the thunder just kept
1265
00:51:23,359 --> 00:51:25,520
echoing back and forth and that jonathan
1266
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:27,359
don't work on it it was a very
1267
00:51:27,359 --> 00:51:30,559
scary time when that when it went off
1268
00:51:30,559 --> 00:51:34,240
um and god i wish i could remember what
1269
00:51:34,240 --> 00:51:36,000
my brother said but um
1270
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:38,559
i can't or but i think we just said it
1271
00:51:38,559 --> 00:51:40,800
worked
1272
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:42,720
i think that's what we said both of us
1273
00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:44,720
that worked and nobody knew it was gonna
1274
00:51:44,720 --> 00:51:45,280
work
1275
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:50,000
he was in the uh in the forward bunker
1276
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,960
and then when he came back there he was
1277
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:54,800
you know his hat you've seen pictures
1278
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:55,200
that
1279
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,640
robert's hat and so on and uh
1280
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,599
he came to where we were in this in the
1281
00:52:01,599 --> 00:52:03,359
headquarters so to speak
1282
00:52:03,359 --> 00:52:06,800
and the way
1283
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:10,480
his walk was like high noon
1284
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:14,319
i think it's the best i could describe
1285
00:52:14,319 --> 00:52:19,839
it this kind of struck
1286
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:23,599
he done it
1287
00:52:26,079 --> 00:52:29,119
it felt like an earthquake we lived in a
1288
00:52:29,119 --> 00:52:32,880
good adobe house and it just
1289
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:34,480
and he said my goodness that's an
1290
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:35,760
earthquake and wonder if it hurt the
1291
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:36,720
house
1292
00:52:36,720 --> 00:52:39,119
and he got out of bed and he got up and
1293
00:52:39,119 --> 00:52:41,040
he says i want you to come look
1294
00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:44,960
the sun's rising in the wrong direction
1295
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,200
must have been nearly 20 miles away
1296
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:48,559
where this is if somebody had
1297
00:52:48,559 --> 00:52:51,920
set off a flash bulb right in your face
1298
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,960
and completely blinded burn for about 30
1299
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:56,000
seconds
1300
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:57,760
then gradually your vision cleared you
1301
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:01,280
saw this huge
1302
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:04,319
orange and purple and green violently
1303
00:53:04,319 --> 00:53:05,359
colored boys
1304
00:53:05,359 --> 00:53:09,200
rolling up towards the sky so
1305
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:10,480
we knew something that happened over
1306
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:12,960
here and we had a car long had a radio
1307
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:15,359
in it so we kept that radio on and long
1308
00:53:15,359 --> 00:53:16,559
noon left and told us
1309
00:53:16,559 --> 00:53:18,160
you know that there's ammunition that
1310
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:20,640
went off we were headed
1311
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,720
up to albuquerque to take her back to
1312
00:53:22,720 --> 00:53:23,920
school
1313
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,839
and we were between paul vader and
1314
00:53:26,839 --> 00:53:29,359
limitar when we saw this great big
1315
00:53:29,359 --> 00:53:33,040
flash of light and my sister she said
1316
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:34,960
what happened and that was she got to
1317
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:36,480
see the light
1318
00:53:36,480 --> 00:53:37,760
and it just seemed like it lit up the
1319
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:41,119
whole prairie all around us
1320
00:53:41,119 --> 00:53:42,559
was there anything odd about your sister
1321
00:53:42,559 --> 00:53:44,559
asking about the light yes because she
1322
00:53:44,559 --> 00:53:46,559
was blind
1323
00:53:46,559 --> 00:53:48,559
it didn't take very long i was just
1324
00:53:48,559 --> 00:53:51,040
after the first few minutes
1325
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:54,160
that i realized sort of viscerally what
1326
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:57,359
had happened and
1327
00:53:57,359 --> 00:54:00,319
had goose flesh
1328
00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:04,160
of the consequences of what what would
1329
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:04,720
happen
1330
00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,599
to the world when did you find out what
1331
00:54:07,599 --> 00:54:08,240
happened
1332
00:54:08,240 --> 00:54:09,760
well it was quite a while you know and
1333
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:11,040
until they begin to talk about the
1334
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:12,160
cattle you know that the hair was
1335
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:13,839
turning white on them like frost you
1336
00:54:13,839 --> 00:54:14,079
know
1337
00:54:14,079 --> 00:54:15,280
looked like they had frost on their
1338
00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:17,680
backs and so forth the way we noticed
1339
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:18,720
him was
1340
00:54:18,720 --> 00:54:20,800
the uh where that fallout fell on the
1341
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:22,480
couch he's lying on her left side while
1342
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:24,880
her right side would get burned
1343
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:26,720
and the particles of dust that were
1344
00:54:26,720 --> 00:54:28,319
radioactive would fall on her and then
1345
00:54:28,319 --> 00:54:29,119
they've
1346
00:54:29,119 --> 00:54:31,920
caused to burn like a skull and the hair
1347
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:32,960
instead of coming back
1348
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:35,599
red like on a hereford cow would come
1349
00:54:35,599 --> 00:54:36,880
back white
1350
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:41,280
just like a saddle burn on a black horse
1351
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,119
and old man max smith that had the white
1352
00:54:43,119 --> 00:54:44,799
store up there had a black cat just as
1353
00:54:44,799 --> 00:54:46,559
black as the ace of spades
1354
00:54:46,559 --> 00:54:48,720
and that thing had white spots all over
1355
00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:50,079
after the
1356
00:54:50,079 --> 00:54:52,799
atomic blast he sold it some tourists
1357
00:54:52,799 --> 00:54:54,240
for five dollars i think
1358
00:54:54,240 --> 00:54:56,880
curiosity
1359
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,960
iwo jima lady gulf mindanao the marshall
1360
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:07,839
islands
1361
00:55:07,839 --> 00:55:10,400
at okinawa alone 50 000 american
1362
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:13,119
casualties
1363
00:55:13,119 --> 00:55:21,200
110 000 japanese casualties
1364
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:24,960
the beginning of the end for japan
1365
00:55:25,359 --> 00:55:28,799
saturation bombing thousands of b-29s
1366
00:55:28,799 --> 00:55:30,799
reigning incendiary bombs on all but a
1367
00:55:30,799 --> 00:55:35,839
few cities
1368
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:42,640
harry truman who has assumed the
1369
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:44,559
presidency after roosevelt's death in
1370
00:55:44,559 --> 00:55:45,920
early 45
1371
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:49,040
calls for total surrender our demand
1372
00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:52,520
has been and it remains
1373
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:54,380
unconditional surrender
1374
00:55:54,380 --> 00:55:58,439
[Applause]
1375
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,520
japan was in ruins most of her major
1376
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:04,079
cities destroyed
1377
00:56:04,079 --> 00:56:07,440
tokyo reduced to rubble
1378
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:12,640
more than a million civilians dead the
1379
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,359
japanese fought on
1380
00:56:15,359 --> 00:56:18,400
now when the question of use came up
1381
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:21,680
then i did have quite long discussions
1382
00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:24,960
with opie uh about how it might be used
1383
00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:25,599
and he
1384
00:56:25,599 --> 00:56:28,079
did bring up to me one day that he would
1385
00:56:28,079 --> 00:56:29,760
serve on a panel
1386
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:32,079
to make a recommendation about the use
1387
00:56:32,079 --> 00:56:33,920
of the bomb
1388
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:38,160
so then i suggested to him that it would
1389
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:39,520
be a good idea
1390
00:56:39,520 --> 00:56:43,040
if it would be used in a demonstration
1391
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:45,119
for example as the demonstration of
1392
00:56:45,119 --> 00:56:46,880
trinity where japanese
1393
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:49,760
observers might have been invited to
1394
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:50,640
attend
1395
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:52,480
and i can remember very specifically
1396
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:54,640
when oppenheimer brought up a counter
1397
00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:56,160
argument to that
1398
00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:58,799
that well supposing it didn't go off and
1399
00:56:58,799 --> 00:56:59,760
i turned to him
1400
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:01,280
coldly and said well we could kill them
1401
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:03,760
all and of course i was not
1402
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:06,079
didn't say that for real but even so i
1403
00:57:06,079 --> 00:57:07,760
was aghast at having
1404
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,400
even to make a point that i had said
1405
00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:12,319
such a bloodthirsty thing
1406
00:57:12,319 --> 00:57:14,000
why did the bomb get dropped on people
1407
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:16,720
at hiroshima i would say
1408
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:18,559
it's almost inevitable that it would
1409
00:57:18,559 --> 00:57:20,160
have happened
1410
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:22,960
simply because all the bureaucratic
1411
00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:25,040
apparatus existed by that time to do it
1412
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:26,640
the air force was ready and waiting
1413
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:27,520
there had
1414
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,000
been prepared big airfields in the
1415
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:31,760
island of tinian in the pacific from
1416
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:33,839
which you could operate
1417
00:57:33,839 --> 00:57:36,559
the whole machinery was ready the
1418
00:57:36,559 --> 00:57:37,440
president
1419
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:39,520
would have had to be a man of iron will
1420
00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:42,880
in order to put a stop to it
1421
00:57:43,839 --> 00:57:47,680
the question was whether we want to save
1422
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,799
our people and japanese as well and win
1423
00:57:50,799 --> 00:57:51,680
the war
1424
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:54,960
or whether we want to take a chance on
1425
00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:57,920
being able to win the war by killing all
1426
00:57:57,920 --> 00:57:59,119
our young men
1427
00:57:59,119 --> 00:58:01,040
i don't think they would have developed
1428
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:03,119
that to show at a garden party
1429
00:58:03,119 --> 00:58:04,880
i think they had to do it and we felt
1430
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:06,960
this was our own defense
1431
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:09,119
and also there was a hurricane that
1432
00:58:09,119 --> 00:58:10,880
would have wiped out a lot of our troops
1433
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:11,920
out there
1434
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,240
and the parole japanese hadn't been very
1435
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:15,040
nice to us
1436
00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:17,760
john they kind of demolished our navy
1437
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:19,119
without any warning
1438
00:58:19,119 --> 00:58:21,440
it would have come out sooner or later
1439
00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:23,200
in a congressional hearing
1440
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:25,920
if nowhere else just when we could have
1441
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:27,280
dropped the bomb
1442
00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:30,720
if we didn't use it and then
1443
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,200
knowing american politics you know as
1444
00:58:33,200 --> 00:58:35,200
well as i do that
1445
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:37,119
there'd been elections fought on the
1446
00:58:37,119 --> 00:58:38,559
basis that every
1447
00:58:38,559 --> 00:58:41,839
mother whose son was killed after such
1448
00:58:41,839 --> 00:58:43,520
and such a date
1449
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:47,760
uh the blood is on the head of the
1450
00:58:48,839 --> 00:58:50,000
president
1451
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:52,319
americans braced themselves for a bloody
1452
00:58:52,319 --> 00:58:56,160
invasion of the japanese mainland
1453
00:58:56,240 --> 00:58:59,520
and in those days most people did not
1454
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:00,559
realize the
1455
00:59:00,559 --> 00:59:02,160
qualitative difference between the
1456
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:04,000
atomic bomb and the number
1457
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:08,799
of ordinary bombs there was really no
1458
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:13,119
immediate feeling that
1459
00:59:13,119 --> 00:59:16,160
the world is changing as a result but
1460
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:18,720
rather that it would be a good way to
1461
00:59:18,720 --> 00:59:20,720
win the war more quickly
1462
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:22,480
so i would say it was nobody's fault
1463
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:25,680
that the bomb was dropped
1464
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:28,079
as usual the reason it was dropped was
1465
00:59:28,079 --> 00:59:29,760
just that nobody had the courage or the
1466
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:33,839
foresight to say no
1467
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:38,160
certainly not oppenheimer oppenheimer
1468
00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:41,920
gave his consent in a certain sense he
1469
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:42,640
was
1470
00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:45,119
on a committee which advised the
1471
00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:47,440
secretary of war
1472
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,040
and that committee did not take any kind
1473
00:59:51,040 --> 00:59:53,119
of a stand against dropping the bomb
1474
00:59:53,119 --> 00:59:55,040
of course we never expected i don't
1475
00:59:55,040 --> 00:59:56,720
think even the people who
1476
00:59:56,720 --> 00:59:59,359
were doing the testing expected uh the
1477
00:59:59,359 --> 01:00:01,040
the bomb to be thrown on
1478
01:00:01,040 --> 01:00:04,240
japan so fast
1479
01:00:04,480 --> 01:00:07,839
hiroshima a city the size of houston
1480
01:00:07,839 --> 01:00:09,359
one of the few cities spared the
1481
01:00:09,359 --> 01:00:12,079
firebombing
1482
01:00:12,559 --> 01:00:14,480
months earlier orders had been given to
1483
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:16,880
leave several japanese cities untouched
1484
01:00:16,880 --> 01:00:18,880
to provide virgin targets where the
1485
01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:22,640
effects of the new bomb could be clearly
1486
01:00:26,839 --> 01:00:29,839
seen
1487
01:00:34,559 --> 01:00:37,040
the uh
1488
01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:42,720
the announcement that of hiroshima
1489
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:44,720
i think i was in the hall right outside
1490
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:45,839
my brother's
1491
01:00:45,839 --> 01:00:47,440
office and it came over the sort of
1492
01:00:47,440 --> 01:00:49,440
loudspeaker that
1493
01:00:49,440 --> 01:00:51,680
went through was distributed through
1494
01:00:51,680 --> 01:00:53,280
apple
1495
01:00:53,280 --> 01:00:55,359
um that the bomb had been dropped and
1496
01:00:55,359 --> 01:00:58,640
then it had devastated
1497
01:00:58,640 --> 01:01:01,680
that talk
1498
01:01:01,680 --> 01:01:04,400
the first reaction was thank god it
1499
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:05,839
wasn't a dud
1500
01:01:05,839 --> 01:01:10,079
but before the whole
1501
01:01:10,079 --> 01:01:11,760
the sentence of the broadcast was
1502
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:13,520
finished when something got this horror
1503
01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:16,960
of all the people that have been killed
1504
01:01:17,599 --> 01:01:19,839
and i don't know why up to then i don't
1505
01:01:19,839 --> 01:01:21,680
think we'd really i'd really thought of
1506
01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:24,400
all those flattened people
1507
01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:26,400
we talked often about having a
1508
01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:28,720
demonstration where there weren't people
1509
01:01:28,720 --> 01:01:31,040
maybe on the mainland so that the
1510
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:32,480
military would see it
1511
01:01:32,480 --> 01:01:35,440
but where there weren't people and then
1512
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:36,160
the thought
1513
01:01:36,160 --> 01:01:38,160
that they had that they'd actually
1514
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:39,680
dropped it on a place where all those
1515
01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:42,079
people were in the image of those people
1516
01:01:42,079 --> 01:01:44,559
which came before any pictures of it uh
1517
01:01:44,559 --> 01:01:46,319
really was pretty awful
1518
01:01:46,319 --> 01:01:48,559
but the first thing was i'm sure it was
1519
01:01:48,559 --> 01:01:53,440
thank god it worked
1520
01:01:53,440 --> 01:02:00,780
[Music]
1521
01:02:01,359 --> 01:02:06,079
the first reaction which we had
1522
01:02:06,079 --> 01:02:09,200
was one of fulfillment
1523
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,400
now it has been done now the work that
1524
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:14,480
we have been engaged
1525
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:18,839
in for so many years has
1526
01:02:18,839 --> 01:02:22,880
contributed to the wall
1527
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:24,079
[Music]
1528
01:02:24,079 --> 01:02:26,480
the second reaction was of course one of
1529
01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:27,599
shock and
1530
01:02:27,599 --> 01:02:30,260
power what have we done
1531
01:02:30,260 --> 01:02:32,160
[Music]
1532
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:35,839
what have we done
1533
01:02:37,119 --> 01:02:40,880
and the third reaction it shouldn't be
1534
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:43,440
done again
1535
01:02:45,760 --> 01:02:47,760
you were very depressed i came back from
1536
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:49,920
san francisco and uh
1537
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:53,200
found you very depressed you as in as a
1538
01:02:53,200 --> 01:02:56,240
in opposition to your euphoria
1539
01:02:56,240 --> 01:03:00,079
when the war uh the at ve day
1540
01:03:00,079 --> 01:03:02,720
when we had that very nice party and uh
1541
01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:04,640
you started throwing the garbage cans
1542
01:03:04,640 --> 01:03:05,760
around
1543
01:03:05,760 --> 01:03:08,880
uh you were uh very depressed
1544
01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:11,520
and uh we didn't have a party i think
1545
01:03:11,520 --> 01:03:13,359
there was a party i don't even know if
1546
01:03:13,359 --> 01:03:14,640
we went
1547
01:03:14,640 --> 01:03:17,440
were you depressed yes oh yes i remember
1548
01:03:17,440 --> 01:03:17,839
being
1549
01:03:17,839 --> 01:03:22,000
just ill yeah just say uh sick
1550
01:03:22,000 --> 01:03:24,880
to the point that i thought it would be
1551
01:03:24,880 --> 01:03:26,720
um
1552
01:03:26,720 --> 01:03:30,240
you know vomit i was so uh overwhelmed
1553
01:03:30,240 --> 01:03:32,640
when it happened that that thing had
1554
01:03:32,640 --> 01:03:34,319
happened
1555
01:03:34,319 --> 01:03:37,599
still am what was willis robert's
1556
01:03:37,599 --> 01:03:39,359
reaction to the news from here
1557
01:03:39,359 --> 01:03:42,480
i i don't know i um i
1558
01:03:42,480 --> 01:03:44,160
i can't imagine that it was very
1559
01:03:44,160 --> 01:03:45,760
different
1560
01:03:45,760 --> 01:03:49,359
a a a feeling
1561
01:03:49,359 --> 01:03:52,079
that an initial feeling that thank god
1562
01:03:52,079 --> 01:03:53,440
it wasn't a dud
1563
01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:55,760
and an almost immediate horror of what
1564
01:03:55,760 --> 01:03:58,960
it really happened
1565
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:03,119
it did bring home to one
1566
01:04:03,119 --> 01:04:06,480
how powerful this is
1567
01:04:07,140 --> 01:04:10,160
[Laughter]
1568
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:15,200
the treated humans as matter
1569
01:04:16,079 --> 01:04:19,520
hiroshima august 6 1945
1570
01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:21,920
the first uranium bomb exploded with the
1571
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:22,960
light so bright
1572
01:04:22,960 --> 01:04:24,839
it could have been seen from another
1573
01:04:24,839 --> 01:04:26,960
planet
1574
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:29,920
more than one hundred thousand killed
1575
01:04:29,920 --> 01:04:31,520
forty thousand injured
1576
01:04:31,520 --> 01:04:33,750
twenty thousand missing
1577
01:04:33,750 --> 01:04:35,440
[Music]
1578
01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:40,710
burns blindness radiation sickness
1579
01:04:40,710 --> 01:04:43,680
[Music]
1580
01:04:43,680 --> 01:04:47,200
it took only nine seconds today even now
1581
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:50,960
the victims still suffer and die
1582
01:04:51,839 --> 01:04:54,000
three days later a second bomb a
1583
01:04:54,000 --> 01:04:55,119
plutonium bomb
1584
01:04:55,119 --> 01:04:59,440
dropped on nagasaki 80 000 dead
1585
01:04:59,440 --> 01:05:01,599
in early september a scientific team
1586
01:05:01,599 --> 01:05:02,880
from los alamos
1587
01:05:02,880 --> 01:05:05,119
was sent to japan to study the effects
1588
01:05:05,119 --> 01:05:06,720
of the two bombs
1589
01:05:06,720 --> 01:05:09,599
one member of the team was robert serber
1590
01:05:09,599 --> 01:05:10,319
when
1591
01:05:10,319 --> 01:05:13,359
you know everybody you have defense
1592
01:05:13,359 --> 01:05:13,920
defense
1593
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:16,559
mechanisms of some kind that build up in
1594
01:05:16,559 --> 01:05:17,520
the
1595
01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:20,880
under under any uh under stresses of
1596
01:05:20,880 --> 01:05:22,160
black kind somehow
1597
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:25,359
you you get hardened to it in a couple
1598
01:05:25,359 --> 01:05:26,079
of days
1599
01:05:26,079 --> 01:05:29,680
no matter what you see and
1600
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:32,880
you manage to manage to survive that way
1601
01:05:32,880 --> 01:05:35,119
i'm sure it happens to all soldiers in
1602
01:05:35,119 --> 01:05:36,880
all wars
1603
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:39,520
but they i mean the thing that was
1604
01:05:39,520 --> 01:05:43,039
really astonishing about the whole thing
1605
01:05:43,039 --> 01:05:46,319
that bill penny and i wandered around
1606
01:05:46,319 --> 01:05:49,599
nagasaki and lightning hiroshima
1607
01:05:49,599 --> 01:05:52,799
you know for several weeks uh
1608
01:05:52,799 --> 01:05:56,079
completely completely alone on our on
1609
01:05:56,079 --> 01:05:57,200
our own
1610
01:05:57,200 --> 01:05:59,839
and we had no difficulty at all with the
1611
01:05:59,839 --> 01:06:01,599
people they were
1612
01:06:01,599 --> 01:06:05,039
perfectly friendly not what would say
1613
01:06:05,039 --> 01:06:07,599
not really friendly but but but there
1614
01:06:07,599 --> 01:06:10,480
was no antagonism visible
1615
01:06:10,480 --> 01:06:12,720
we wandered around the ruins among
1616
01:06:12,720 --> 01:06:13,760
people whose
1617
01:06:13,760 --> 01:06:16,079
families had all been killed we had no
1618
01:06:16,079 --> 01:06:17,440
feeling of danger at
1619
01:06:17,440 --> 01:06:21,440
all now it's a piece of the
1620
01:06:21,440 --> 01:06:24,799
wall of a schoolhouse in the school room
1621
01:06:24,799 --> 01:06:28,480
in hiroshima which about half a mile
1622
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:31,599
from where the bomb went off and
1623
01:06:31,599 --> 01:06:35,520
it's flashburned scarred by broken glass
1624
01:06:35,520 --> 01:06:38,880
and you can see the shadows of the
1625
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:43,440
uh of the window sash and the and the
1626
01:06:43,440 --> 01:06:47,359
and the cord of the uh shade
1627
01:06:47,359 --> 01:06:50,720
and and from the the angle of
1628
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:54,079
at which this shadow was cast
1629
01:06:54,079 --> 01:06:56,160
we could met we could measure the height
1630
01:06:56,160 --> 01:06:57,520
at which the bomb
1631
01:06:57,520 --> 01:06:59,920
went off and this was the inhabitants
1632
01:06:59,920 --> 01:07:01,760
that it really went off that the height
1633
01:07:01,760 --> 01:07:03,520
was supposed to
1634
01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:06,079
erosion
1635
01:07:11,599 --> 01:07:13,680
after this was all over about two years
1636
01:07:13,680 --> 01:07:15,280
later
1637
01:07:15,280 --> 01:07:18,720
oppenheimer gave a talk i think at mit
1638
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:20,559
it was then afterwards republished and
1639
01:07:20,559 --> 01:07:22,480
quoted all over the world and became one
1640
01:07:22,480 --> 01:07:24,559
of his most famous utterances and it
1641
01:07:24,559 --> 01:07:25,520
said
1642
01:07:25,520 --> 01:07:28,559
roughly the physicists have known sin
1643
01:07:28,559 --> 01:07:30,000
and this is a knowledge which they
1644
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:32,720
cannot lose
1645
01:07:32,960 --> 01:07:36,640
and it became a kind of
1646
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:39,520
motif for the for the for the whole
1647
01:07:39,520 --> 01:07:42,960
community of physicists
1648
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:44,720
and there were violent arguments many
1649
01:07:44,720 --> 01:07:47,119
people who had been at los alamos
1650
01:07:47,119 --> 01:07:49,119
were very angry they said oppenheimer
1651
01:07:49,119 --> 01:07:51,039
has no right to weep in public for our
1652
01:07:51,039 --> 01:07:51,920
sins
1653
01:07:51,920 --> 01:07:54,960
what we were doing was an honest piece
1654
01:07:54,960 --> 01:07:56,720
of
1655
01:07:56,720 --> 01:07:58,640
technical work to win the war we were no
1656
01:07:58,640 --> 01:08:00,400
more guilty than anybody else who built
1657
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:00,960
weapons
1658
01:08:00,960 --> 01:08:03,200
in order to win the war and he has no
1659
01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:05,599
right to talk about our having sinned
1660
01:08:05,599 --> 01:08:08,160
at the end of the war then i gave up my
1661
01:08:08,160 --> 01:08:08,880
clearance
1662
01:08:08,880 --> 01:08:10,960
and have not worked on didn't work on
1663
01:08:10,960 --> 01:08:14,079
nuclear energy in any
1664
01:08:14,079 --> 01:08:16,158
in any of its aspect on the developing
1665
01:08:16,158 --> 01:08:19,358
horror on bombs
1666
01:08:20,799 --> 01:08:24,000
i i don't
1667
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:27,679
it's it's somehow um i can't feel that
1668
01:08:27,679 --> 01:08:28,080
it was
1669
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:29,920
something that i should would not have
1670
01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:32,238
done um
1671
01:08:32,238 --> 01:08:34,640
uh or should not have done at the time
1672
01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:37,439
that is that the
1673
01:08:37,439 --> 01:08:40,719
that the reasons for doing that the
1674
01:08:40,719 --> 01:08:45,198
the worry about fascism the um
1675
01:08:45,198 --> 01:08:48,880
were quite valid the sense that um
1676
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:50,799
there was almost no way of stopping this
1677
01:08:50,799 --> 01:08:53,839
from being done
1678
01:08:54,399 --> 01:08:56,080
i think it would have been good to have
1679
01:08:56,080 --> 01:08:58,319
stopped a little sooner maybe after ve
1680
01:08:58,319 --> 01:08:59,120
day
1681
01:08:59,120 --> 01:09:00,399
i think it certainly would have been
1682
01:09:00,399 --> 01:09:02,158
good never to have
1683
01:09:02,158 --> 01:09:04,719
used the thing on the city and certainly
1684
01:09:04,719 --> 01:09:08,400
never to have used two of them
1685
01:09:10,158 --> 01:09:13,120
they were poised to land on the beaches
1686
01:09:13,120 --> 01:09:14,399
of japan
1687
01:09:14,399 --> 01:09:16,238
and they knew that the number of
1688
01:09:16,238 --> 01:09:18,640
casualties would be astronomical
1689
01:09:18,640 --> 01:09:20,399
those people were happy for the bomb
1690
01:09:20,399 --> 01:09:21,260
believe me
1691
01:09:21,260 --> 01:09:22,880
[Applause]
1692
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:25,600
i was supposed to build some sample
1693
01:09:25,600 --> 01:09:27,520
catching equipment to go on the third
1694
01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:28,158
shot
1695
01:09:28,158 --> 01:09:30,880
which was to be dropped on japan and i
1696
01:09:30,880 --> 01:09:32,960
was to go with it
1697
01:09:32,960 --> 01:09:35,759
however as you know japan gave up before
1698
01:09:35,759 --> 01:09:38,799
there was a third shot
1699
01:09:41,920 --> 01:09:45,600
dear hook on your letter your marvelous
1700
01:09:45,600 --> 01:09:46,880
warm letter
1701
01:09:46,880 --> 01:09:48,719
was one of the very few things that
1702
01:09:48,719 --> 01:09:50,080
brought warmth to us
1703
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:53,279
over these troubled days
1704
01:09:53,279 --> 01:09:56,080
a few days after the surrender we went
1705
01:09:56,080 --> 01:09:57,840
over to our ranch for a little time of
1706
01:09:57,840 --> 01:09:59,040
solitude
1707
01:09:59,040 --> 01:10:03,440
horses and the slow return to sanity
1708
01:10:03,440 --> 01:10:05,280
we are not sure we'll be coming back to
1709
01:10:05,280 --> 01:10:07,040
berkeley for permanent
1710
01:10:07,040 --> 01:10:10,239
despite the ties that make us want to
1711
01:10:10,239 --> 01:10:12,880
we are not too sure of anything personal
1712
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:13,600
longing
1713
01:10:13,600 --> 01:10:16,400
both of us so much for stability yet
1714
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:16,960
knowing
1715
01:10:16,960 --> 01:10:19,679
that we have been put in a time and a
1716
01:10:19,679 --> 01:10:20,560
place
1717
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:22,880
where we may not be able in conscience
1718
01:10:22,880 --> 01:10:25,199
to attain it
1719
01:10:25,199 --> 01:10:29,040
circumstances are heavy with misgiving
1720
01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:30,880
and far far more difficult than they
1721
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:33,280
should be had we power to remake the
1722
01:10:33,280 --> 01:10:33,840
world
1723
01:10:33,840 --> 01:10:45,840
to be as we think it
1724
01:10:52,510 --> 01:10:55,199
[Music]
1725
01:10:55,199 --> 01:10:57,840
the veil of secrecy was lifted and most
1726
01:10:57,840 --> 01:10:59,840
americans believed the atomic bomb had
1727
01:10:59,840 --> 01:11:02,560
played a decisive role in ending the war
1728
01:11:02,560 --> 01:11:05,040
the scholarly professor the unworldly
1729
01:11:05,040 --> 01:11:07,120
student of metaphysical poetry
1730
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:09,199
the former leftist was suddenly a
1731
01:11:09,199 --> 01:11:10,239
national hero
1732
01:11:10,239 --> 01:11:13,440
a celebrity father of the atomic bomb
1733
01:11:13,440 --> 01:11:16,159
in 1947 he was appointed director of the
1734
01:11:16,159 --> 01:11:16,960
prestigious
1735
01:11:16,960 --> 01:11:18,640
institute for advanced studies in
1736
01:11:18,640 --> 01:11:21,840
princeton he was einstein's boss
1737
01:11:21,840 --> 01:11:23,679
but much of his time in the post-war
1738
01:11:23,679 --> 01:11:25,520
years was spent in washington
1739
01:11:25,520 --> 01:11:27,520
where his council was eagerly sought at
1740
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:29,520
the highest levels of government
1741
01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:31,520
he served on two dozen committees
1742
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:33,840
testified frequently before congress
1743
01:11:33,840 --> 01:11:35,600
and was even asked to run for public
1744
01:11:35,600 --> 01:11:37,679
office although he advised the
1745
01:11:37,679 --> 01:11:39,679
government on its atomic arsenal
1746
01:11:39,679 --> 01:11:42,239
he argued adamantly and publicly for the
1747
01:11:42,239 --> 01:11:46,480
international control of atomic weapons
1748
01:11:46,800 --> 01:11:49,280
and his sense of what he wanted to
1749
01:11:49,280 --> 01:11:50,480
accomplish
1750
01:11:50,480 --> 01:11:52,320
when he was in the government had less
1751
01:11:52,320 --> 01:11:54,080
to do with physics than it had to do
1752
01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:55,280
with
1753
01:11:55,280 --> 01:11:58,640
with the with the um
1754
01:11:59,840 --> 01:12:02,640
sensible use of the of this awful
1755
01:12:02,640 --> 01:12:04,159
instrument that we'd
1756
01:12:04,159 --> 01:12:06,480
made
1757
01:12:07,679 --> 01:12:10,080
i have been asked whether in the years
1758
01:12:10,080 --> 01:12:12,640
to come it will be possible to kill
1759
01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:15,679
40 million american people in the 20
1760
01:12:15,679 --> 01:12:16,880
largest american
1761
01:12:16,880 --> 01:12:20,560
towns by the use of atomic bombs
1762
01:12:20,560 --> 01:12:23,440
in a single night i am afraid that the
1763
01:12:23,440 --> 01:12:26,080
answer to that question is yes
1764
01:12:26,080 --> 01:12:29,199
i have been asked oppenheimer tried
1765
01:12:29,199 --> 01:12:32,320
to maintain control of the atomic energy
1766
01:12:32,320 --> 01:12:35,040
enterprise to prevent the air force from
1767
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:36,960
abusing the weapons that he had
1768
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:40,159
created i think the only hope for our
1769
01:12:40,159 --> 01:12:41,520
future safety
1770
01:12:41,520 --> 01:12:44,320
must lie in a collaboration based on
1771
01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:46,239
confidence and good faith
1772
01:12:46,239 --> 01:12:48,320
with the other peoples of the world i
1773
01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:49,760
think he felt that
1774
01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:53,679
he wanted to make a big difference um
1775
01:12:53,679 --> 01:12:56,239
i would i argued with him quite a lot
1776
01:12:56,239 --> 01:12:57,120
after the war
1777
01:12:57,120 --> 01:13:00,239
um i felt that the
1778
01:13:00,239 --> 01:13:02,960
um the kind of big difference would
1779
01:13:02,960 --> 01:13:03,520
happen
1780
01:13:03,520 --> 01:13:06,960
if one really taught people a lot about
1781
01:13:06,960 --> 01:13:08,480
the dangers of the bomb about the
1782
01:13:08,480 --> 01:13:10,400
possibilities of cooperation he said
1783
01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:12,000
there wasn't time for this he'd been in
1784
01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:13,520
the washington scene
1785
01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:16,000
he saw that everything was moving he
1786
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:17,280
felt that he had to
1787
01:13:17,280 --> 01:13:21,120
change things from within history again
1788
01:13:21,120 --> 01:13:21,760
and again
1789
01:13:21,760 --> 01:13:25,520
shows that we have no monopoly on ideas
1790
01:13:25,520 --> 01:13:27,679
but we do better with them than most
1791
01:13:27,679 --> 01:13:28,640
other countries
1792
01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:30,480
he was a philosopher king in his own
1793
01:13:30,480 --> 01:13:32,480
mind a man of wisdom
1794
01:13:32,480 --> 01:13:34,480
who could get along with other men of
1795
01:13:34,480 --> 01:13:37,199
wisdom who also had power
1796
01:13:37,199 --> 01:13:40,239
he had the way of impressing himself
1797
01:13:40,239 --> 01:13:42,560
very strongly as a wise man on people
1798
01:13:42,560 --> 01:13:44,239
who were influential
1799
01:13:44,239 --> 01:13:47,120
but it is certainly not possible to take
1800
01:13:47,120 --> 01:13:49,280
the definition of atomic energy
1801
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:51,600
and the prohibition against indus
1802
01:13:51,600 --> 01:13:53,600
helping other nations industrially
1803
01:13:53,600 --> 01:13:54,480
literally
1804
01:13:54,480 --> 01:13:56,400
it is certainly not possible to do that
1805
01:13:56,400 --> 01:13:58,080
mr senator because
1806
01:13:58,080 --> 01:14:02,239
everything we do is contrary to it
1807
01:14:02,480 --> 01:14:04,300
contrary to it
1808
01:14:04,300 --> 01:14:08,560
[Applause]
1809
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:11,120
it was a different world after the war
1810
01:14:11,120 --> 01:14:13,199
americans perceived a new threat
1811
01:14:13,199 --> 01:14:16,800
russian and chinese communism
1812
01:14:18,159 --> 01:14:20,880
arms control was an unpopular idea even
1813
01:14:20,880 --> 01:14:23,120
before the russians shocked america by
1814
01:14:23,120 --> 01:14:26,400
exploiting their own atomic bomb in 1949
1815
01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:28,250
far sooner than anyone expected
1816
01:14:28,250 --> 01:14:30,960
[Applause]
1817
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:33,120
the arms race began in earnest and
1818
01:14:33,120 --> 01:14:35,440
oppenheimer's council for international
1819
01:14:35,440 --> 01:14:36,640
collaboration
1820
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:39,280
was now less attractive to policymakers
1821
01:14:39,280 --> 01:14:41,280
than the advice of his fellow scientist
1822
01:14:41,280 --> 01:14:42,719
edward teller
1823
01:14:42,719 --> 01:14:45,360
even during the war years at los alamos
1824
01:14:45,360 --> 01:14:47,199
teller had urged the development of a
1825
01:14:47,199 --> 01:14:48,400
secret weapon
1826
01:14:48,400 --> 01:14:50,080
radically different and radically more
1827
01:14:50,080 --> 01:14:52,159
destructive than the atom bomb
1828
01:14:52,159 --> 01:14:56,560
the hydrogen bomb
1829
01:14:56,560 --> 01:14:58,560
the general advisory committee to the
1830
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:00,000
atomic energy commission
1831
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:02,080
chaired by oppenheimer issued a secret
1832
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:04,640
report opposing immediate development of
1833
01:15:04,640 --> 01:15:06,000
the hydrogen bomb
1834
01:15:06,000 --> 01:15:09,520
on both technical and moral grounds
1835
01:15:09,520 --> 01:15:12,320
i'm sure he thought that there was
1836
01:15:12,320 --> 01:15:14,400
absolutely no need for
1837
01:15:14,400 --> 01:15:16,159
the hydrogen bomb that there was no need
1838
01:15:16,159 --> 01:15:18,000
really for any of these bombs
1839
01:15:18,000 --> 01:15:19,679
and he felt that way even though he had
1840
01:15:19,679 --> 01:15:22,480
worked on on the arsenal of
1841
01:15:22,480 --> 01:15:26,400
fission bombs despite the committee's
1842
01:15:26,400 --> 01:15:28,640
advice president truman initiated a
1843
01:15:28,640 --> 01:15:31,199
program to develop the hydrogen bomb
1844
01:15:31,199 --> 01:15:33,600
and scientists at los alamos began to
1845
01:15:33,600 --> 01:15:35,520
design the new device
1846
01:15:35,520 --> 01:15:39,840
robert oppenheimer was not among them
1847
01:15:39,950 --> 01:15:43,020
[Music]
1848
01:15:47,520 --> 01:15:49,920
this is an atomic bomb about the size of
1849
01:15:49,920 --> 01:15:52,400
the one that devastated hiroshima
1850
01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:55,040
by 1950 it was considered too small for
1851
01:15:55,040 --> 01:15:56,159
our defense
1852
01:15:56,159 --> 01:15:58,159
the hydrogen bomb being developed would
1853
01:15:58,159 --> 01:16:02,320
have one thousand times the destructive
1854
01:16:04,840 --> 01:16:06,239
force
1855
01:16:06,239 --> 01:16:08,640
one morning in november of 1952 the
1856
01:16:08,640 --> 01:16:10,560
pacific island of elugalab
1857
01:16:10,560 --> 01:16:12,560
was vaporized by the first hydrogen
1858
01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:13,400
blast
1859
01:16:13,400 --> 01:16:17,060
[Music]
1860
01:16:18,320 --> 01:16:20,560
all that remained was a mile wide crater
1861
01:16:20,560 --> 01:16:23,440
on the ocean floor
1862
01:16:29,170 --> 01:16:31,760
[Music]
1863
01:16:31,760 --> 01:16:34,000
a disbelieving america saw the russians
1864
01:16:34,000 --> 01:16:36,080
explode a hydrogen bomb within the same
1865
01:16:36,080 --> 01:16:36,520
year
1866
01:16:36,520 --> 01:16:38,480
[Music]
1867
01:16:38,480 --> 01:16:41,360
there are no secrets uh insofar as
1868
01:16:41,360 --> 01:16:42,880
atomic and hydrogen bomb
1869
01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:44,080
development is concerned from the
1870
01:16:44,080 --> 01:16:46,320
communists i think i don't think we have
1871
01:16:46,320 --> 01:16:48,560
any secrets from them at all
1872
01:16:48,560 --> 01:16:50,640
senator mccarthy's anti-communism
1873
01:16:50,640 --> 01:16:52,480
dominated the 1950s
1874
01:16:52,480 --> 01:16:53,920
when he mentioned oppenheimer's
1875
01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:55,920
left-wing past publicly it meant to some
1876
01:16:55,920 --> 01:16:58,400
that oppenheimer was fair game
1877
01:16:58,400 --> 01:17:01,199
affidavits to the fact that he had been
1878
01:17:01,199 --> 01:17:02,400
a member of the party that he had
1879
01:17:02,400 --> 01:17:03,600
recommended
1880
01:17:03,600 --> 01:17:06,400
uh communists or work in the a-bomb
1881
01:17:06,400 --> 01:17:08,480
h-bomb plants
1882
01:17:08,480 --> 01:17:11,199
uh a lot of close routers of course
1883
01:17:11,199 --> 01:17:12,560
communists that doesn't again doesn't
1884
01:17:12,560 --> 01:17:14,320
make him a communist
1885
01:17:14,320 --> 01:17:17,920
but his wife uh admittedly was a
1886
01:17:17,920 --> 01:17:20,640
uh the wife of a official of the
1887
01:17:20,640 --> 01:17:22,480
communist party
1888
01:17:22,480 --> 01:17:25,440
uh brother a very active feminist
1889
01:17:25,440 --> 01:17:27,360
mccarthy did not attack oppenheimer
1890
01:17:27,360 --> 01:17:28,159
directly
1891
01:17:28,159 --> 01:17:29,840
but he had helped create the climate
1892
01:17:29,840 --> 01:17:31,840
that prompted president eisenhower to
1893
01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:33,600
seriously consider a letter
1894
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:35,520
from a former congressional aide
1895
01:17:35,520 --> 01:17:37,440
charging that oppenheimer was a russian
1896
01:17:37,440 --> 01:17:39,840
spy
1897
01:17:42,159 --> 01:17:44,640
thirteen years of surveillance by campus
1898
01:17:44,640 --> 01:17:46,000
police the fbi
1899
01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:49,199
military intelligence
1900
01:17:51,440 --> 01:17:54,320
wiretaps reports from informants as many
1901
01:17:54,320 --> 01:17:56,840
as five agents shattered him in a single
1902
01:17:56,840 --> 01:17:59,440
day
1903
01:17:59,440 --> 01:18:01,600
most of it was old news material
1904
01:18:01,600 --> 01:18:03,520
disregarded in the past by general
1905
01:18:03,520 --> 01:18:04,640
groves and others
1906
01:18:04,640 --> 01:18:06,239
when oppenheimer was considered
1907
01:18:06,239 --> 01:18:08,320
essential
1908
01:18:08,320 --> 01:18:10,719
but in 1953 when presented with the
1909
01:18:10,719 --> 01:18:12,000
thick dossier
1910
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:13,600
eisenhower immediately ordered
1911
01:18:13,600 --> 01:18:15,520
oppenheimer's clearance suspended
1912
01:18:15,520 --> 01:18:18,320
pending hearing
1913
01:18:18,640 --> 01:18:21,120
he had very much the feeling that he was
1914
01:18:21,120 --> 01:18:24,880
giving the best to the united states
1915
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:28,000
in the years during the war and after
1916
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,400
the war
1917
01:18:31,679 --> 01:18:34,800
in my personal opinion he did
1918
01:18:34,800 --> 01:18:38,960
but others did not agree
1919
01:18:39,520 --> 01:18:42,560
and in 1954 he was
1920
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:47,360
hauled before a tribunal
1921
01:18:47,920 --> 01:18:51,840
and accused of being a security risk
1922
01:18:51,840 --> 01:18:55,120
a risk to the united states
1923
01:18:55,120 --> 01:18:59,280
risk to betray secrets
1924
01:18:59,280 --> 01:19:01,120
the proceedings were conducted by the
1925
01:19:01,120 --> 01:19:03,360
atomic energy commission in secret
1926
01:19:03,360 --> 01:19:05,360
there were no photographers no reporters
1927
01:19:05,360 --> 01:19:06,719
no television
1928
01:19:06,719 --> 01:19:08,560
even oppenheimer's attorneys were
1929
01:19:08,560 --> 01:19:10,640
excluded when classified material was
1930
01:19:10,640 --> 01:19:13,040
discussed
1931
01:19:13,040 --> 01:19:15,280
at issue was whether robert oppenheimer
1932
01:19:15,280 --> 01:19:17,360
principal architect of the atomic bomb
1933
01:19:17,360 --> 01:19:22,400
could be trusted with state secrets
1934
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:24,640
along with numerous accusations relating
1935
01:19:24,640 --> 01:19:25,920
to his left-wing past
1936
01:19:25,920 --> 01:19:28,000
oppenheimer was specifically accused of
1937
01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:29,520
opposing the hydrogen bomb
1938
01:19:29,520 --> 01:19:32,960
on technical political and moral grounds
1939
01:19:32,960 --> 01:19:35,280
and of having misled security officers
1940
01:19:35,280 --> 01:19:37,120
and matters relating to his old friend
1941
01:19:37,120 --> 01:19:40,159
ho khan chevalier
1942
01:19:41,440 --> 01:19:43,600
during the war oppenheimer had reported
1943
01:19:43,600 --> 01:19:45,920
george elton's attempts to share secrets
1944
01:19:45,920 --> 01:19:47,040
with the russians
1945
01:19:47,040 --> 01:19:49,120
he told the story in such an ambiguous
1946
01:19:49,120 --> 01:19:51,600
way that intelligence officers were left
1947
01:19:51,600 --> 01:19:52,640
with the impression
1948
01:19:52,640 --> 01:19:54,880
that ho khan chevalier was the center of
1949
01:19:54,880 --> 01:19:55,760
aspiring
1950
01:19:55,760 --> 01:19:57,360
and that he had contacted several
1951
01:19:57,360 --> 01:19:59,280
physicists
1952
01:19:59,280 --> 01:20:01,679
this mysterious fabrication was to cost
1953
01:20:01,679 --> 01:20:03,600
the unwitting chevalier his job
1954
01:20:03,600 --> 01:20:05,199
and was the most damaging evidence
1955
01:20:05,199 --> 01:20:08,880
presented at oppenheimer's hearing
1956
01:20:09,920 --> 01:20:13,040
this friend of mine who was the closest
1957
01:20:13,040 --> 01:20:16,320
human being to me really
1958
01:20:16,320 --> 01:20:19,040
at that time that he had betrayed me in
1959
01:20:19,040 --> 01:20:20,960
this way and told about me
1960
01:20:20,960 --> 01:20:24,239
uh a lie which uh
1961
01:20:24,239 --> 01:20:26,880
constituted uh if this had been true it
1962
01:20:26,880 --> 01:20:28,560
would have been a criminal conspiracy
1963
01:20:28,560 --> 01:20:30,480
for which i would have been
1964
01:20:30,480 --> 01:20:31,920
i could have been sentenced to a
1965
01:20:31,920 --> 01:20:35,120
prolonged prison term
1966
01:20:36,560 --> 01:20:38,800
oppenheimer never explained to chevalier
1967
01:20:38,800 --> 01:20:40,159
nor to anyone else
1968
01:20:40,159 --> 01:20:42,560
why he had for 13 years failed to undo
1969
01:20:42,560 --> 01:20:44,880
the lie
1970
01:20:44,880 --> 01:20:46,960
also damaging to oppenheimer was the
1971
01:20:46,960 --> 01:20:49,040
testimony of his former los alamos
1972
01:20:49,040 --> 01:20:50,880
colleague edward teller
1973
01:20:50,880 --> 01:20:52,719
the father of the hydrogen bomb had
1974
01:20:52,719 --> 01:20:54,400
previously complained to government
1975
01:20:54,400 --> 01:20:55,280
attorneys
1976
01:20:55,280 --> 01:20:57,520
that oppenheimer was a complex and vain
1977
01:20:57,520 --> 01:20:59,600
man who had for moral reasons
1978
01:20:59,600 --> 01:21:02,320
impeded development of the hydrogen bomb
1979
01:21:02,320 --> 01:21:04,080
teller was somewhat more restrained at
1980
01:21:04,080 --> 01:21:04,880
the hearing
1981
01:21:04,880 --> 01:21:06,880
but he did testify that oppenheimer
1982
01:21:06,880 --> 01:21:09,360
should not be granted clearance
1983
01:21:09,360 --> 01:21:11,840
although the majority of witnesses nobel
1984
01:21:11,840 --> 01:21:14,239
laureates government advisers even
1985
01:21:14,239 --> 01:21:16,239
general groves came to oppenheimer's
1986
01:21:16,239 --> 01:21:17,040
defense
1987
01:21:17,040 --> 01:21:20,800
it was to no avail the atomic energy
1988
01:21:20,800 --> 01:21:22,880
commission found that oppenheimer was a
1989
01:21:22,880 --> 01:21:24,000
security risk
1990
01:21:24,000 --> 01:21:26,960
and his clearance was never restored he
1991
01:21:26,960 --> 01:21:28,960
was never again asked to advise the
1992
01:21:28,960 --> 01:21:30,639
government of the united states
1993
01:21:30,639 --> 01:21:32,400
and he never again worked in nuclear
1994
01:21:32,400 --> 01:21:34,880
energy
1995
01:21:39,360 --> 01:21:45,040
he was not the same person afterwards
1996
01:21:45,600 --> 01:21:49,440
i think it really knocked him for luke
1997
01:21:49,440 --> 01:21:51,920
he felt frustrated in accomplishing what
1998
01:21:51,920 --> 01:21:52,560
he
1999
01:21:52,560 --> 01:21:55,040
hoped to do in the way of of getting
2000
01:21:55,040 --> 01:21:56,880
peace he felt
2001
01:21:56,880 --> 01:21:59,920
um really
2002
01:21:59,920 --> 01:22:02,960
injured by not being part of the of the
2003
01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:05,199
by not being respected in government and
2004
01:22:05,199 --> 01:22:06,719
official circles
2005
01:22:06,719 --> 01:22:09,520
he wanted to get back into that i think
2006
01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:10,320
um
2007
01:22:10,320 --> 01:22:12,800
i don't know why but but i i think it's
2008
01:22:12,800 --> 01:22:14,400
one of those things where there's a
2009
01:22:14,400 --> 01:22:16,159
when you get the taste of it it's hard
2010
01:22:16,159 --> 01:22:18,480
to not want it
2011
01:22:18,480 --> 01:22:22,239
i think to a certain extent it actually
2012
01:22:22,239 --> 01:22:27,040
almost killed him spiritually yes
2013
01:22:28,560 --> 01:22:31,120
it achieved just what his opponents
2014
01:22:31,120 --> 01:22:34,159
wanted to achieve
2015
01:22:34,320 --> 01:22:39,840
destroyed him
2016
01:22:40,560 --> 01:22:43,600
uh dr abenhammer could you tell us
2017
01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:47,760
uh what your thoughts are about what our
2018
01:22:47,760 --> 01:22:50,080
atomic policy should be
2019
01:22:50,080 --> 01:22:53,280
no i i i can't do that i'm not
2020
01:22:53,280 --> 01:22:56,320
not close enough to the
2021
01:22:56,320 --> 01:22:59,440
facts and i'm not close enough to the
2022
01:22:59,440 --> 01:23:02,719
to the thoughts of those who
2023
01:23:02,719 --> 01:23:06,560
are worrying about it
2024
01:23:06,560 --> 01:23:08,880
what your thoughts are about the uh
2025
01:23:08,880 --> 01:23:11,120
proposal of senator robert kennedy
2026
01:23:11,120 --> 01:23:14,239
that uh president johnson
2027
01:23:14,239 --> 01:23:17,760
uh initiate talks with the view to uh
2028
01:23:17,760 --> 01:23:21,840
halt the spread of nuclear weapons
2029
01:23:22,080 --> 01:23:26,639
it's 20 years too late
2030
01:23:30,560 --> 01:23:33,280
it should have been done the day after
2031
01:23:33,280 --> 01:23:35,840
trinity
2032
01:23:43,520 --> 01:23:45,920
the atomic bomb robert oppenheimer built
2033
01:23:45,920 --> 01:23:47,600
and the hydrogen bomb he hoped could
2034
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:48,080
never be
2035
01:23:48,080 --> 01:23:51,679
built are now facts of life
2036
01:23:51,680 --> 01:23:54,729
[Music]
2037
01:23:58,080 --> 01:24:00,880
since the trinity blast in 1945 there
2038
01:24:00,880 --> 01:24:02,719
have been more than 1200 nuclear
2039
01:24:02,719 --> 01:24:03,679
explosions
2040
01:24:03,679 --> 01:24:06,159
on the face of the earth the largest has
2041
01:24:06,159 --> 01:24:08,000
four thousand times the force of the
2042
01:24:08,000 --> 01:24:08,639
bomb
2043
01:24:08,639 --> 01:24:11,760
that leveled hiroshima
2044
01:24:13,360 --> 01:24:16,560
i felt it myself the glitter of nuclear
2045
01:24:16,560 --> 01:24:18,000
weapons
2046
01:24:18,000 --> 01:24:20,400
it is irresistible if you come to them
2047
01:24:20,400 --> 01:24:22,239
as a scientist
2048
01:24:22,239 --> 01:24:24,320
to feel it's there in your hands to
2049
01:24:24,320 --> 01:24:25,920
release this energy that
2050
01:24:25,920 --> 01:24:29,120
fuels the stars to let it do your
2051
01:24:29,120 --> 01:24:30,719
bidding
2052
01:24:30,719 --> 01:24:32,960
and to perform these miracles to lift a
2053
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:34,880
million tons of rock into the sky
2054
01:24:34,880 --> 01:24:37,120
it is something that gives people an
2055
01:24:37,120 --> 01:24:38,960
illusion of illimitable power
2056
01:24:38,960 --> 01:24:42,239
and it is in some ways responsible for
2057
01:24:42,239 --> 01:24:44,080
all our troubles i would say
2058
01:24:44,080 --> 01:24:45,760
this what you might call technical
2059
01:24:45,760 --> 01:24:48,480
arrogance that overcomes people
2060
01:24:48,480 --> 01:24:49,760
when they see what they can do with
2061
01:24:49,760 --> 01:24:58,670
their minds
2062
01:24:58,670 --> 01:25:10,840
[Music]
2063
01:25:10,840 --> 01:25:13,679
so
2064
01:25:13,679 --> 01:25:16,560
i expect the human race may live on for
2065
01:25:16,560 --> 01:25:17,150
a while
2066
01:25:17,150 --> 01:25:21,280
[Music]
2067
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:23,600
and the differences between us and any
2068
01:25:23,600 --> 01:25:24,960
possible
2069
01:25:24,960 --> 01:25:28,400
opponent are not that great in fact i
2070
01:25:28,400 --> 01:25:30,639
don't know any part of history
2071
01:25:30,639 --> 01:25:33,360
where it could be proper to use one of
2072
01:25:33,360 --> 01:25:41,840
those very powerful bombs
2073
01:25:47,040 --> 01:25:50,320
nothing turned out quite as well
2074
01:25:50,320 --> 01:25:54,960
as one thought it would
2075
01:25:54,960 --> 01:25:57,120
during the war we all thought that with
2076
01:25:57,120 --> 01:25:58,719
this
2077
01:25:58,719 --> 01:26:01,600
device which was a thousand times more
2078
01:26:01,600 --> 01:26:03,199
powerful than anything else we could
2079
01:26:03,199 --> 01:26:03,920
really
2080
01:26:03,920 --> 01:26:05,760
influence the way nations talked about
2081
01:26:05,760 --> 01:26:07,600
war and this is what my brother was so
2082
01:26:07,600 --> 01:26:08,159
involved
2083
01:26:08,159 --> 01:26:11,280
with after the war because there was no
2084
01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:12,719
there were no vested interests there
2085
01:26:12,719 --> 01:26:14,480
were no manufacturers of
2086
01:26:14,480 --> 01:26:16,400
atomic bombs nobody knew about it one
2087
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:18,400
said here is a fresh start
2088
01:26:18,400 --> 01:26:21,840
and it's a weapon that you can't use for
2089
01:26:21,840 --> 01:26:23,360
war
2090
01:26:23,360 --> 01:26:26,320
we can it can produce a change but it
2091
01:26:26,320 --> 01:26:27,440
didn't
2092
01:26:27,440 --> 01:26:29,360
everybody regards the atomic bomb as
2093
01:26:29,360 --> 01:26:30,960
just another weapon as part of our
2094
01:26:30,960 --> 01:26:33,520
security
2095
01:26:35,440 --> 01:26:39,360
we knew the world would not be the same
2096
01:26:40,719 --> 01:26:44,639
few people laughed
2097
01:26:44,639 --> 01:26:48,840
a few people cried most people were
2098
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:51,840
silent
2099
01:26:51,840 --> 01:26:55,280
i remembered the line from the hindu
2100
01:26:55,280 --> 01:26:58,880
scripture the bhagavad-gita
2101
01:27:00,560 --> 01:27:03,120
vishnu
2102
01:27:03,679 --> 01:27:08,239
is trying to persuade the prince that
2103
01:27:08,239 --> 01:27:11,360
he should do his duty and
2104
01:27:11,360 --> 01:27:14,960
to impress him takes on his multi-armed
2105
01:27:14,960 --> 01:27:16,880
form
2106
01:27:16,880 --> 01:27:20,800
and says now i am become death
2107
01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:24,159
the destroyer of worlds
2108
01:27:25,199 --> 01:27:29,280
i suppose we all thought that one way or
2109
01:27:30,840 --> 01:27:33,840
another
2110
01:27:34,390 --> 01:28:43,119
[Music]
2111
01:28:49,199 --> 01:28:51,280
you
136683
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