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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,919 --> 00:00:04,963 -(clock ticking) -(birds chirping) 2 00:00:05,005 --> 00:00:06,756 J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER: I have been asked whether, 3 00:00:06,798 --> 00:00:09,592 in the years to come, it will be possible 4 00:00:09,634 --> 00:00:12,762 to kill 40 million American people 5 00:00:12,804 --> 00:00:17,225 by the use of atomic bombs in a single night. 6 00:00:19,728 --> 00:00:22,522 I am afraid that the answer to that question is yes. 7 00:00:22,564 --> 00:00:24,858 -* * -(clock ticking) 8 00:00:24,899 --> 00:00:27,902 JON ELSE: Robert Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb. 9 00:00:28,695 --> 00:00:32,741 He was this complex ball of contradictions. 10 00:00:33,908 --> 00:00:36,036 OPPENHEIMER: They are weapons of aggression, 11 00:00:36,077 --> 00:00:37,871 of surprise and of terror. 12 00:00:37,912 --> 00:00:41,916 RICHARD RHODES: Oppenheimer wanted the bomb to be used. 13 00:00:41,958 --> 00:00:45,253 How else would the world know what it was? 14 00:00:45,295 --> 00:00:47,380 ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: Dr. Oppenheimer, 15 00:00:47,422 --> 00:00:52,427 are we creating something we may not be able to control? 16 00:00:54,012 --> 00:00:58,600 OPPENHEIMER: In a world of atomic weapons, wars will cease. 17 00:00:58,641 --> 00:01:00,560 (ticking) 18 00:01:00,602 --> 00:01:02,312 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: It is D-minus one for the test 19 00:01:02,354 --> 00:01:04,439 of the world's first atomic device. 20 00:01:05,607 --> 00:01:08,610 ELSE: This cultured, nonviolent man 21 00:01:08,651 --> 00:01:10,737 was responsible for birthing 22 00:01:10,779 --> 00:01:14,032 the most violent weapon in human history. 23 00:01:14,074 --> 00:01:16,659 And he devoted the rest of his life to trying to control 24 00:01:16,701 --> 00:01:19,120 the monster that he had unleashed. 25 00:01:19,954 --> 00:01:22,665 OPPENHEIMER: If there is another world war... 26 00:01:26,169 --> 00:01:29,631 ...this civilization may go under. 27 00:01:31,508 --> 00:01:34,928 KAI BIRD: He became a political pariah. 28 00:01:34,969 --> 00:01:36,596 EDWARD R. MURROW: Is it true that humans have already 29 00:01:36,638 --> 00:01:40,100 discovered a method of destroying humanity? 30 00:01:40,141 --> 00:01:41,810 (cameras clicking) 31 00:01:43,311 --> 00:01:45,772 ELSE: And it finally ruined him. 32 00:01:46,940 --> 00:01:50,110 OPPENHEIMER: "Now I am become Death, 33 00:01:50,151 --> 00:01:52,487 the destroyer of worlds." 34 00:01:53,321 --> 00:01:55,532 (explosion booming) 35 00:01:57,033 --> 00:01:59,119 We have made a thing that, by all standards 36 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:03,665 of the world we grew up in, is an evil thing. 37 00:02:07,794 --> 00:02:09,838 (birds chirping) 38 00:02:12,340 --> 00:02:14,467 ELLEN BRADBURY REID: When I was 15, 39 00:02:14,509 --> 00:02:17,512 I had a chance to speak to Oppenheimer alone. 40 00:02:19,097 --> 00:02:21,224 He was at a cocktail party. 41 00:02:21,266 --> 00:02:24,352 I was serving hors d'oeuvres... 42 00:02:24,394 --> 00:02:26,813 (faint chatter) 43 00:02:26,855 --> 00:02:29,983 ...and found Oppenheimer standing alone. 44 00:02:30,025 --> 00:02:34,070 I said, "I think you're some sort of a saint." 45 00:02:34,112 --> 00:02:36,906 And he was very taken aback. 46 00:02:38,450 --> 00:02:42,662 And he said, "Wh-Why would you say that to me?" 47 00:02:42,704 --> 00:02:46,833 And I said, "Because you had second thoughts." 48 00:02:46,875 --> 00:02:49,210 And he turned around and picked his hat up 49 00:02:49,252 --> 00:02:51,338 and walked out the door. 50 00:02:51,379 --> 00:02:55,675 It obviously struck him in a way 51 00:02:55,717 --> 00:02:58,553 that I had never imagined. 52 00:02:59,387 --> 00:03:01,431 MAN: Oppenheimer for Cronkite, take one. 53 00:03:01,473 --> 00:03:02,766 (film beeps) 54 00:03:02,807 --> 00:03:04,517 WALTER CRONKITE: Dr. Oppenheimer, 55 00:03:04,559 --> 00:03:07,228 with all the inevitability of the decision 56 00:03:07,270 --> 00:03:10,357 that history demonstrates to us, 57 00:03:10,398 --> 00:03:13,026 you still seem to suffer, may I say, 58 00:03:13,068 --> 00:03:15,987 from a bad conscience about it. 59 00:03:16,029 --> 00:03:17,155 Is that true, sir? 60 00:03:17,197 --> 00:03:20,033 Uh, I think when you play 61 00:03:20,075 --> 00:03:23,536 a meaningful part in bringing about the death 62 00:03:23,578 --> 00:03:26,373 of over a hundred thousand people... 63 00:03:27,957 --> 00:03:32,379 ...uh, you naturally, uh, 64 00:03:32,420 --> 00:03:36,925 don't think of that with ease. 65 00:03:38,218 --> 00:03:42,555 CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: When you look at the history of Oppenheimer, 66 00:03:42,597 --> 00:03:45,558 it's very difficult to find any person in history 67 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,937 sitting in such a complex situation 68 00:03:48,978 --> 00:03:53,358 with all kinds of impossible questions 69 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,777 and very few answers. 70 00:03:55,819 --> 00:03:57,654 (ticking) 71 00:03:57,696 --> 00:04:00,281 ELSE: Everybody has their own idea 72 00:04:00,323 --> 00:04:02,826 of what Robert Oppenheimer is. 73 00:04:02,867 --> 00:04:05,662 I mean, the fact is that he invented a weapon 74 00:04:05,704 --> 00:04:08,039 that can destroy human life on Earth. 75 00:04:08,832 --> 00:04:10,917 I mean, don't forget that this weapon, 76 00:04:10,959 --> 00:04:14,254 which has the capacity to end civilization, 77 00:04:14,295 --> 00:04:18,758 was developed as a means to save Western civilization. 78 00:04:19,759 --> 00:04:22,804 -(newsreel music playing) -(bell clanging) 79 00:04:29,936 --> 00:04:32,981 (shouting in German) 80 00:04:34,482 --> 00:04:36,234 (crowd chanting in German) 81 00:04:36,276 --> 00:04:38,278 BIRD: In the 1930s, millions of Americans 82 00:04:38,319 --> 00:04:40,947 were following the news coming out of Europe 83 00:04:40,989 --> 00:04:45,410 in their local theaters, watching newsreels. 84 00:04:45,452 --> 00:04:47,454 And Oppenheimer was 85 00:04:47,495 --> 00:04:49,581 horrified by the rise of Hitler. 86 00:04:50,915 --> 00:04:54,794 NOLAN: His sense of his own Jewishness made him immediately 87 00:04:54,836 --> 00:04:58,006 and massively aware of the danger of fascism. 88 00:04:58,048 --> 00:04:59,591 (bell tolling) 89 00:04:59,632 --> 00:05:02,385 BIRD: When the war started in 1939, 90 00:05:02,427 --> 00:05:04,471 he was a professor at Berkeley. 91 00:05:04,512 --> 00:05:06,765 And that same year, 92 00:05:06,806 --> 00:05:10,226 one of his students comes rushing into his office 93 00:05:10,268 --> 00:05:13,605 to convey the news that fission has been discovered. 94 00:05:13,646 --> 00:05:17,025 MAN: Word has just come through from Germany 95 00:05:17,067 --> 00:05:20,612 that the uranium atom under neutron bombardment 96 00:05:20,653 --> 00:05:23,990 actually splits into two parts. 97 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:28,620 BIRD: Initially, Oppenheimer can't believe it. 98 00:05:28,661 --> 00:05:31,873 He runs to the blackboard and does some mathematics, 99 00:05:31,915 --> 00:05:34,918 and he comes to the understanding 100 00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:39,631 that you could use fission to generate energy. 101 00:05:39,673 --> 00:05:41,758 Einstein showed explicitly 102 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:46,680 that if you can convert matter into pure energy, 103 00:05:46,721 --> 00:05:48,848 the amount of energy is extraordinary. 104 00:05:48,890 --> 00:05:52,560 It's the speed of light squared, for crying out loud. 105 00:05:52,602 --> 00:05:54,688 (crackling) 106 00:05:54,729 --> 00:05:58,149 RHODES: They realize that from a very small amount of matter, 107 00:05:58,191 --> 00:06:01,111 you could make power to drive ships and planes 108 00:06:01,152 --> 00:06:04,531 and trains, whatever, make electricity, of course. 109 00:06:04,572 --> 00:06:07,867 And they also realize very quickly 110 00:06:07,909 --> 00:06:09,577 that it might be possible to make 111 00:06:09,619 --> 00:06:12,247 a weapon of untold destruction. 112 00:06:12,288 --> 00:06:14,541 (Hitler shouting in German) 113 00:06:14,582 --> 00:06:16,126 (crowd chanting) 114 00:06:16,167 --> 00:06:18,378 We were deeply worried. 115 00:06:18,420 --> 00:06:22,007 After all, the discovery of fission was in Nazi Germany. 116 00:06:23,591 --> 00:06:27,220 MAREENA ROBINSON SNOWDEN: Nazi Germany could potentially build 117 00:06:27,262 --> 00:06:30,056 a nuclear bomb. 118 00:06:30,098 --> 00:06:32,517 This was the worry. And it was very tangible. 119 00:06:32,559 --> 00:06:33,727 It was very real. 120 00:06:33,768 --> 00:06:36,563 (plane engines buzzing) 121 00:06:40,316 --> 00:06:44,696 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: December 7, 1941, 122 00:06:44,738 --> 00:06:48,700 a date which will live in infamy. 123 00:06:48,742 --> 00:06:50,368 Pearl Harbor happens. 124 00:06:50,410 --> 00:06:52,328 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: I assert 125 00:06:52,370 --> 00:06:55,582 that this form of treachery 126 00:06:55,623 --> 00:06:58,418 shall never again endanger us. 127 00:06:58,460 --> 00:07:00,754 (cheering, applause) 128 00:07:00,795 --> 00:07:02,881 ALAN CARR: Now the United States 129 00:07:02,922 --> 00:07:06,009 is an active combatant in the war. 130 00:07:08,386 --> 00:07:11,348 The idea at this point is 131 00:07:11,389 --> 00:07:13,600 we basically need to get this done as quickly as possible, 132 00:07:13,641 --> 00:07:15,101 because we could wake up tomorrow 133 00:07:15,143 --> 00:07:17,562 and Hitler could have that nuclear monopoly 134 00:07:17,604 --> 00:07:20,357 that we all want to avoid. 135 00:07:20,398 --> 00:07:24,444 So, we need a place where we can design, build, test 136 00:07:24,486 --> 00:07:27,739 and help deliver nuclear weapons. 137 00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:31,284 But even before we pick the place though, 138 00:07:31,326 --> 00:07:34,454 we need to find somebody who can lead that installation. 139 00:07:34,496 --> 00:07:39,084 And virtually nobody expected Oppenheimer to be named 140 00:07:39,125 --> 00:07:42,212 the director of the weapons design laboratory. 141 00:07:43,338 --> 00:07:45,924 He was kind of this ethereal personality. 142 00:07:45,965 --> 00:07:49,427 He had no record of having big achievements. 143 00:07:49,469 --> 00:07:52,764 One of the scientists who knew Oppenheimer said, 144 00:07:52,806 --> 00:07:55,725 "This is a man who couldn't run a hot dog stand." 145 00:07:55,767 --> 00:07:58,311 RHODES: Oppenheimer's friends felt 146 00:07:58,353 --> 00:08:03,733 that he was a divided man not quite sure of his identity. 147 00:08:03,775 --> 00:08:07,946 He said at one point, "From my earliest days, 148 00:08:07,987 --> 00:08:10,031 "I never did anything 149 00:08:10,073 --> 00:08:12,867 "or thought anything or knew anyone 150 00:08:12,909 --> 00:08:18,039 where I didn't feel about myself the deepest loathing." 151 00:08:21,918 --> 00:08:23,962 (ticking) 152 00:08:29,217 --> 00:08:31,928 JENNET CONANT: Oppenheimer was born in 1904 153 00:08:31,970 --> 00:08:36,349 and into an age of great scientific possibility. 154 00:08:36,391 --> 00:08:39,853 The first two decades of the 20th century 155 00:08:39,894 --> 00:08:43,523 were periods of incredible intellectual daring. 156 00:08:43,565 --> 00:08:47,193 Electricity, automobiles, flight 157 00:08:47,235 --> 00:08:50,113 were all transforming daily life. 158 00:08:50,155 --> 00:08:53,950 And then you had incredible advances in science, 159 00:08:53,992 --> 00:08:56,077 and it looks like 160 00:08:56,119 --> 00:08:57,912 almost anything could be achieved. 161 00:09:00,457 --> 00:09:02,208 DAVID EISENBACH: Story of Robert Oppenheimer 162 00:09:02,250 --> 00:09:04,711 is really the story of immigrant America. 163 00:09:04,753 --> 00:09:07,380 His father comes over from Germany, 164 00:09:07,422 --> 00:09:11,134 gets a job in the garment industry 165 00:09:11,176 --> 00:09:12,886 and makes a tremendous amount of money, 166 00:09:12,927 --> 00:09:18,308 winds up on the Upper West Side on Riverside Drive. 167 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:25,273 And he's got a Picasso, and he's got three van Goghs. 168 00:09:27,233 --> 00:09:29,986 HERKEN: His mother was a Paris-trained artist 169 00:09:30,028 --> 00:09:32,655 who exhibited her work at various galleries in Manhattan. 170 00:09:33,865 --> 00:09:36,534 RHODES: She was a nervous person. 171 00:09:36,576 --> 00:09:41,206 She really didn't let this little boy go outside. 172 00:09:43,375 --> 00:09:46,419 BIRD: And he was very sheltered 173 00:09:46,461 --> 00:09:48,588 and extremely socially awkward. 174 00:09:49,589 --> 00:09:53,802 RHODES: When he finally went to camp one summer, he was so nasty 175 00:09:53,843 --> 00:09:57,555 to the other kids that they roughed him up. 176 00:09:58,765 --> 00:10:04,437 He said later they put him in the icehouse all night naked 177 00:10:04,479 --> 00:10:07,649 and painted him green, 178 00:10:07,691 --> 00:10:09,859 including his genitals. 179 00:10:09,901 --> 00:10:13,071 Oddly enough, Oppenheimer didn't protest. 180 00:10:13,113 --> 00:10:16,700 He just took his punishment stoically. 181 00:10:18,993 --> 00:10:21,079 It was a very odd reaction 182 00:10:21,121 --> 00:10:23,498 for a young boy at that age. 183 00:10:24,582 --> 00:10:28,378 RHODES: Imagine this sensitive boy, this very smart boy, 184 00:10:28,420 --> 00:10:32,090 but one who has no idea how to deal with other people. 185 00:10:32,132 --> 00:10:34,342 Certainly not with children his own age. 186 00:10:34,384 --> 00:10:36,678 He's had no experience. 187 00:10:38,179 --> 00:10:40,724 ALEX WELLERSTEIN: The real core psychological moment 188 00:10:40,765 --> 00:10:44,227 for Oppenheimer appears to have been when he was in college. 189 00:10:45,645 --> 00:10:48,898 And he goes to study physics at Cambridge, 190 00:10:48,940 --> 00:10:52,569 and he doesn't do very well. 191 00:10:52,610 --> 00:10:54,112 He ends up in a laboratory 192 00:10:54,154 --> 00:10:56,072 that's really about experimental physics, 193 00:10:56,114 --> 00:10:58,867 and he is not good at that. 194 00:10:58,908 --> 00:11:03,204 He doesn't really know how to do an experiment with his hands. 195 00:11:04,873 --> 00:11:07,292 And he has this sort of crisis of confidence. 196 00:11:08,418 --> 00:11:11,963 BIRD: This came to a head when he had a... 197 00:11:12,005 --> 00:11:13,506 what I think can only be described 198 00:11:13,548 --> 00:11:14,758 as a nervous breakdown. 199 00:11:15,717 --> 00:11:20,096 One of his friends stumbled upon him in an empty classroom 200 00:11:20,138 --> 00:11:22,390 where Oppenheimer was standing at the blackboard. 201 00:11:23,391 --> 00:11:27,520 EISENBACH: Muttering to himself over and over again, 202 00:11:27,562 --> 00:11:29,898 "The point is, the point is, the point is." 203 00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:34,486 BIRD: And he could never finish the sentence. 204 00:11:34,527 --> 00:11:36,529 MARTIN J. SHERWIN: And then another one of his friends 205 00:11:36,571 --> 00:11:40,700 went to his dorm room and heard this moaning inside 206 00:11:40,742 --> 00:11:42,369 and opened the door, 207 00:11:42,410 --> 00:11:44,913 and there was Oppenheimer in a fetal position, 208 00:11:44,954 --> 00:11:47,791 rolling back and forth, groaning. 209 00:11:47,832 --> 00:11:51,002 He literally came close 210 00:11:51,044 --> 00:11:53,505 to committing suicide at that point. 211 00:11:54,881 --> 00:11:58,635 EISENBACH: He saw a psychiatrist as a result of this, 212 00:11:58,677 --> 00:12:00,303 and the psychiatrist said 213 00:12:00,345 --> 00:12:04,224 that he's kind of living in his own world. 214 00:12:04,265 --> 00:12:06,184 RHODES: He was having an identity crisis, 215 00:12:06,226 --> 00:12:09,562 something we're clearer about these days than we were then. 216 00:12:09,604 --> 00:12:11,606 BIRD: His parents took him to Paris, 217 00:12:11,648 --> 00:12:14,067 where he saw yet another psychologist, 218 00:12:14,109 --> 00:12:17,237 and in a very French way, 219 00:12:17,278 --> 00:12:20,532 prescribed a professional woman and red wine. 220 00:12:20,573 --> 00:12:23,201 (laughs) So... 221 00:12:23,243 --> 00:12:25,787 Uh, we don't know if that happened. 222 00:12:27,580 --> 00:12:31,459 SHERWIN: He had always been the top of the class, 223 00:12:31,501 --> 00:12:34,087 the smartest person, 224 00:12:34,129 --> 00:12:37,257 admired for his intellectual capability 225 00:12:37,298 --> 00:12:40,301 by all his classmates. 226 00:12:40,343 --> 00:12:44,097 And suddenly, he was an incompetent. 227 00:12:44,139 --> 00:12:48,184 And he just couldn't deal with that at that point. 228 00:12:48,226 --> 00:12:51,438 And what snapped him out of that 229 00:12:51,479 --> 00:12:56,026 was his discovery of theoretical physics, of quantum physics. 230 00:12:57,318 --> 00:13:00,655 At the time, it was sort of the golden age of physics. 231 00:13:01,448 --> 00:13:04,325 It's a very exciting time to be a theorist. 232 00:13:04,367 --> 00:13:07,787 And if you are young and quick and willing to think 233 00:13:07,829 --> 00:13:11,124 weird ideas that nobody else has ever thought, 234 00:13:11,166 --> 00:13:13,501 you can potentially make a huge amount of progress 235 00:13:13,543 --> 00:13:14,961 and a name for yourself. 236 00:13:17,297 --> 00:13:19,424 BIRD: So, when Oppenheimer decided to move 237 00:13:19,466 --> 00:13:21,968 to Göttingen in Germany to study 238 00:13:22,010 --> 00:13:25,930 with Max Born, a theoretical physicist, 239 00:13:25,972 --> 00:13:27,474 he blossomed. 240 00:13:27,515 --> 00:13:31,019 He meets some of the leading physicists 241 00:13:31,061 --> 00:13:32,645 in Germany at the time-- 242 00:13:32,687 --> 00:13:36,066 Heisenberg, who, ironically enough, 243 00:13:36,107 --> 00:13:39,194 would lead the German atomic bomb project. 244 00:13:40,362 --> 00:13:42,072 WELLERSTEIN: And while he's over there, 245 00:13:42,113 --> 00:13:45,367 he sort of invents this Oppie personality. 246 00:13:46,326 --> 00:13:47,994 This is where he gets the name. 247 00:13:48,036 --> 00:13:50,955 They call him Opje, and this turns into Oppie. 248 00:13:52,165 --> 00:13:56,169 And Oppie is not an insecure young American 249 00:13:56,211 --> 00:13:58,672 who doesn't really know what he wants to do. 250 00:13:58,713 --> 00:14:00,674 Oppie is the brilliant guy 251 00:14:00,715 --> 00:14:03,218 who is always five steps ahead of everybody else 252 00:14:03,259 --> 00:14:05,011 and can keep everything in his head. 253 00:14:05,053 --> 00:14:08,014 Oppie is a genius who's very eccentric and interesting 254 00:14:08,056 --> 00:14:13,353 and strikes a really dashing figure and is chain-smoking. 255 00:14:13,395 --> 00:14:17,065 And you see these pictures of him from the '20s. 256 00:14:18,274 --> 00:14:20,527 It's very Bob Dylan. 257 00:14:20,568 --> 00:14:24,239 ELSE: He had the eyes of an Old Testament prophet 258 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:26,658 inside this frail body, 259 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:29,160 and he sort of cocked himself with his funny little 260 00:14:29,202 --> 00:14:31,663 porkpie hat on top. 261 00:14:32,414 --> 00:14:36,209 WELLERSTEIN: So, Oppie is this sort of construction 262 00:14:36,251 --> 00:14:39,671 of everything that he would want to be. 263 00:14:40,964 --> 00:14:44,592 And that recreation is immensely successful. 264 00:14:46,011 --> 00:14:48,513 (ticking) 265 00:14:51,474 --> 00:14:54,060 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: When the cancerous Nazi growth 266 00:14:54,102 --> 00:14:57,022 spread farther still, the people of Europe-- 267 00:14:57,063 --> 00:15:00,692 and the world-- enter the new era. 268 00:15:00,734 --> 00:15:04,070 RHODES: Certainly the first motivation for the scientists 269 00:15:04,112 --> 00:15:06,573 was to beat the Germans to the bomb. 270 00:15:06,614 --> 00:15:09,159 There's nothing like the prospect of a hanging 271 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:10,744 to concentrate the mind. 272 00:15:10,785 --> 00:15:14,539 And the threat of death of civilization as they knew it 273 00:15:14,581 --> 00:15:20,670 was so great that it swept away any ethical or moral doubts 274 00:15:20,712 --> 00:15:22,297 that they might have had. 275 00:15:23,089 --> 00:15:27,052 WELLERSTEIN: Ultimately, whoever gets the bomb first 276 00:15:27,093 --> 00:15:28,345 is not just gonna win World War II 277 00:15:28,386 --> 00:15:30,013 but is gonna run the entire world. 278 00:15:31,056 --> 00:15:32,766 * * 279 00:15:32,807 --> 00:15:35,310 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: By the summer of 1942, 280 00:15:35,352 --> 00:15:38,772 control of the atom bomb project passes to the hands of the Army, 281 00:15:38,813 --> 00:15:42,650 under the code name Manhattan Engineering District. 282 00:15:42,692 --> 00:15:44,861 CARR: The Manhattan Project really was 283 00:15:44,903 --> 00:15:47,280 a huge national effort. 284 00:15:47,322 --> 00:15:51,618 RHODES: And to plot out the industrial scale 285 00:15:51,659 --> 00:15:55,747 of the operation, they chose a dynamic, burly, 286 00:15:55,789 --> 00:15:57,123 six-foot-three, 287 00:15:57,165 --> 00:16:00,293 240-pound general 288 00:16:00,335 --> 00:16:03,630 named Leslie Richard Groves. 289 00:16:04,673 --> 00:16:07,759 He hated Leslie. He went by Dick. 290 00:16:08,885 --> 00:16:11,346 General Groves had a problem. 291 00:16:11,388 --> 00:16:13,848 He was entrusted to hire the people 292 00:16:13,890 --> 00:16:15,350 that would build the atomic bomb. 293 00:16:15,392 --> 00:16:18,311 But he knew that we're talking about 294 00:16:18,353 --> 00:16:22,357 the people who are the finest scientists in the world. 295 00:16:23,858 --> 00:16:26,027 These are prima donnas. 296 00:16:27,404 --> 00:16:29,322 And now you have to have somebody who's gonna be 297 00:16:29,364 --> 00:16:31,199 the whipmaster. 298 00:16:31,241 --> 00:16:32,909 You have to have somebody 299 00:16:32,951 --> 00:16:35,578 that understands the physics, who has a reputation, 300 00:16:35,620 --> 00:16:38,665 so that these prima donnas will follow you. 301 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,879 CARR: Oppenheimer and General Groves are introduced 302 00:16:44,921 --> 00:16:47,340 in the fall of 1942. 303 00:16:47,382 --> 00:16:49,384 And these two individuals are just about 304 00:16:49,426 --> 00:16:51,386 as different as you can imagine. 305 00:16:52,721 --> 00:16:54,973 But General Groves saw something in him 306 00:16:55,015 --> 00:16:56,766 that apparently no one else saw. 307 00:16:58,393 --> 00:17:00,270 GROVES: When meeting Oppenheimer, 308 00:17:00,311 --> 00:17:02,355 you were immediately impressed. 309 00:17:02,397 --> 00:17:04,941 You couldn't help it. 310 00:17:04,983 --> 00:17:07,527 There wasn't a better man. 311 00:17:08,862 --> 00:17:11,865 RHODES: He chose Oppenheimer against the advice 312 00:17:11,906 --> 00:17:14,826 of most of these leaders that he had around him 313 00:17:14,868 --> 00:17:16,453 in the scientific community. 314 00:17:16,494 --> 00:17:20,915 Oppenheimer had never led any large enterprise. 315 00:17:20,957 --> 00:17:24,794 But Oppenheimer was really good at explaining things. 316 00:17:25,587 --> 00:17:27,380 WELLERSTEIN: He was extremely charming, 317 00:17:27,422 --> 00:17:29,716 and he had this ability 318 00:17:29,758 --> 00:17:32,844 to sort of hold a lot of things in his head at once 319 00:17:32,886 --> 00:17:36,848 and keep aware of how they all fit together. 320 00:17:38,850 --> 00:17:40,352 And this is apparently 321 00:17:40,393 --> 00:17:43,104 what General Groves recognized in him. 322 00:17:45,523 --> 00:17:47,609 EISENBACH: For security purposes, 323 00:17:47,650 --> 00:17:52,280 this project needs to happen away from everything. 324 00:17:53,323 --> 00:17:55,909 So Groves tells Oppenheimer 325 00:17:55,950 --> 00:17:59,579 to just come up with a place where this would actually work. 326 00:17:59,621 --> 00:18:02,415 And it was Oppenheimer who suggests 327 00:18:02,457 --> 00:18:05,543 the New Mexico desert. 328 00:18:05,585 --> 00:18:08,296 So they go to scope out a site. 329 00:18:08,338 --> 00:18:10,632 It's called Los Alamos. 330 00:18:12,676 --> 00:18:14,594 CARR: Oppenheimer knew the area well. 331 00:18:14,636 --> 00:18:16,429 He had spent a lot of time here. 332 00:18:18,014 --> 00:18:21,101 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: When he left New York as a young man 333 00:18:21,142 --> 00:18:24,062 and went to New Mexico... 334 00:18:25,271 --> 00:18:28,650 ...that was a-- just a really important part of his life. 335 00:18:29,484 --> 00:18:32,320 Going to New Mexico and meeting cowboys 336 00:18:32,362 --> 00:18:33,780 and riding horses. 337 00:18:33,822 --> 00:18:36,282 He just loved it. He loved every part of it. 338 00:18:38,159 --> 00:18:41,121 BIRD: He once said that his ambition was to combine 339 00:18:41,162 --> 00:18:43,790 the two loves in his life, 340 00:18:43,832 --> 00:18:46,418 physics and New Mexico. 341 00:18:48,837 --> 00:18:51,798 And of course, he did precisely this. 342 00:18:55,343 --> 00:18:57,220 CARR: Now, the government shows up 343 00:18:57,262 --> 00:18:59,347 with bulldozers and architects 344 00:18:59,389 --> 00:19:01,641 and laborers and craftsmen 345 00:19:01,683 --> 00:19:05,478 to build a new community and laboratory 346 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,690 where there essentially had not been one before. 347 00:19:10,650 --> 00:19:13,028 SNOWDEN: They're starting from scratch. 348 00:19:13,778 --> 00:19:16,698 And so much of what they were doing was unknown 349 00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:18,658 and unproven at the time. 350 00:19:18,700 --> 00:19:20,160 They didn't actually know 351 00:19:20,201 --> 00:19:21,327 that they would be able to achieve this. 352 00:19:21,369 --> 00:19:22,662 This was all theoretical. 353 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,833 ELSE: They knew that they had to get the best scientists 354 00:19:26,875 --> 00:19:30,920 if they were gonna get this weapon before the Nazis did. 355 00:19:30,962 --> 00:19:33,340 (crowd chanting) 356 00:19:33,381 --> 00:19:35,508 (ship horn blowing) 357 00:19:35,550 --> 00:19:37,052 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Albert Einstein flees 358 00:19:37,093 --> 00:19:38,595 to the United States. 359 00:19:38,636 --> 00:19:41,056 He leads a vanguard of refugee scientists, 360 00:19:41,097 --> 00:19:43,350 virtually stripping German universities 361 00:19:43,391 --> 00:19:44,726 of their best minds. 362 00:19:46,686 --> 00:19:48,938 WELLERSTEIN: All of the turmoil in Europe had forced out 363 00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:52,859 a huge number of really top-grade physicists. 364 00:19:54,444 --> 00:19:57,530 Enrico Fermi. 365 00:19:57,572 --> 00:20:00,700 Hans Bethe. 366 00:20:00,742 --> 00:20:04,037 Edward Teller, who famously would go on 367 00:20:04,079 --> 00:20:06,539 to develop the hydrogen bomb. 368 00:20:06,581 --> 00:20:08,708 One can sort of go down the lists 369 00:20:08,750 --> 00:20:12,253 and find more and more and more of these amazing people. 370 00:20:13,421 --> 00:20:15,757 Oppenheimer was famously known for 371 00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:17,717 his intellectual sex appeal. 372 00:20:17,759 --> 00:20:19,427 And he could go around the country 373 00:20:19,469 --> 00:20:22,097 and sort of flash his brain to people, 374 00:20:22,138 --> 00:20:23,848 and, you know, they'd sign up. 375 00:20:24,641 --> 00:20:26,142 RHODES: He would say, 376 00:20:26,184 --> 00:20:30,063 "I unfortunately can't tell you what we're doing, 377 00:20:30,105 --> 00:20:34,192 "but I can tell you that if we succeed, 378 00:20:34,234 --> 00:20:36,945 "it's likely to end this war, 379 00:20:36,986 --> 00:20:39,406 and it may end all war." 380 00:20:39,447 --> 00:20:40,990 ROBERT CHRISTY: Oppenheimer asked 381 00:20:41,032 --> 00:20:44,452 if I would join him in Los Alamos. 382 00:20:44,494 --> 00:20:47,080 And I said I would be delighted. 383 00:20:47,122 --> 00:20:48,790 Like most of his students, 384 00:20:48,832 --> 00:20:53,753 I would more or less follow him to the ends of the Earth. 385 00:20:53,795 --> 00:20:56,798 If you had the choice of fighting the Nazis 386 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:58,967 by going to this exotic mountaintop 387 00:20:59,009 --> 00:21:02,137 and doing the greatest physics in history, 388 00:21:02,178 --> 00:21:04,264 I mean, what would you do? 389 00:21:04,305 --> 00:21:05,974 I would've been on the next train. 390 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:08,977 I don't think people thought 391 00:21:09,019 --> 00:21:10,562 that much about the consequences. 392 00:21:10,603 --> 00:21:12,355 You know, can we blame them? 393 00:21:12,397 --> 00:21:14,274 OPPENHEIMER: We were all aware of 394 00:21:14,315 --> 00:21:18,778 the fact that, in one way or another, we were intervening 395 00:21:18,820 --> 00:21:23,867 explicitly and heavy-handedly in the course of human history. 396 00:21:28,830 --> 00:21:31,666 CARR: By the time the laboratory was established, 397 00:21:31,708 --> 00:21:33,043 Oppenheimer was a family man. 398 00:21:33,084 --> 00:21:35,670 He was married. He had a little boy. 399 00:21:37,630 --> 00:21:39,924 During his tenure as director at the laboratory, 400 00:21:39,966 --> 00:21:42,510 he had a little girl as well. 401 00:21:43,636 --> 00:21:45,680 BIRD: The summer of 1939, 402 00:21:45,722 --> 00:21:47,974 he was at a cocktail party in Berkeley, 403 00:21:48,016 --> 00:21:52,062 and a young woman named Kitty Puening had spied him 404 00:21:52,103 --> 00:21:57,692 from across the garden and was immediately attracted to him. 405 00:21:58,693 --> 00:22:03,698 She was a firecracker (laughs) of a young woman. 406 00:22:07,786 --> 00:22:10,997 They fell in love, and by 1940, 407 00:22:11,039 --> 00:22:12,332 she was pregnant. 408 00:22:12,374 --> 00:22:14,042 (laughs) 409 00:22:15,835 --> 00:22:17,754 SHERWIN: They live ever after. 410 00:22:17,796 --> 00:22:21,549 And notice I didn't say "happily." (laughs) 411 00:22:21,591 --> 00:22:25,178 They are devoted to each other. 412 00:22:25,220 --> 00:22:28,640 But it's a difficult marriage because of 413 00:22:28,682 --> 00:22:34,020 the complexity of Robert's life, of their personalities, 414 00:22:34,062 --> 00:22:36,648 of the environment in which they live. 415 00:22:39,901 --> 00:22:41,611 NOLAN: She was an academic, 416 00:22:41,653 --> 00:22:43,446 and she was a biologist and a botanist, 417 00:22:43,488 --> 00:22:46,491 and ultimately, that work was all put to one side 418 00:22:46,533 --> 00:22:48,618 for the years at Los Alamos. 419 00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:50,662 I think she was very frustrated 420 00:22:50,704 --> 00:22:53,498 by being put in the position of 421 00:22:53,540 --> 00:22:55,750 a mother and a wife and nothing else. 422 00:22:58,294 --> 00:23:01,631 CONANT: She did not thrive at Los Alamos. 423 00:23:01,673 --> 00:23:04,092 It was a lonely and hard existence. 424 00:23:05,260 --> 00:23:08,847 And she disappeared into the bottle somewhat. 425 00:23:13,768 --> 00:23:17,480 Oppenheimer was famous for mixing his gin martinis. 426 00:23:17,522 --> 00:23:19,691 (laughter) 427 00:23:19,733 --> 00:23:24,571 He persuaded his scientists to work very hard during the week 428 00:23:24,612 --> 00:23:28,408 and to party hard on the weekends. 429 00:23:28,450 --> 00:23:31,077 RHODES: Everyone was hungover on Sunday morning, 430 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,371 but they worked a lot, and they worked hard, 431 00:23:33,413 --> 00:23:34,664 and they worked together. 432 00:23:34,706 --> 00:23:37,167 And that was largely Oppenheimer. 433 00:23:42,255 --> 00:23:44,716 BIRD: Los Alamos for many of these people were 434 00:23:44,758 --> 00:23:46,843 the most momentous years of their lives. 435 00:23:50,013 --> 00:23:52,432 They felt part of something, 436 00:23:52,474 --> 00:23:56,269 part of something meaningful and important. 437 00:23:56,311 --> 00:24:00,273 And they were led by this very enigmatic, 438 00:24:00,315 --> 00:24:05,820 strange, bright, blue-eyed young man whom they all admired. 439 00:24:11,659 --> 00:24:14,162 REID: I grew up at Los Alamos. 440 00:24:16,373 --> 00:24:19,834 And my father came to Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. 441 00:24:21,670 --> 00:24:26,966 It was a-a curious place to live 442 00:24:27,008 --> 00:24:30,929 because they're blowing things up three times a day. 443 00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:32,472 (explosion rumbles) 444 00:24:32,514 --> 00:24:35,809 Explosions were at 10:00 and 12:00 and 3:00, 445 00:24:35,850 --> 00:24:37,102 so when you're in first grade, 446 00:24:37,143 --> 00:24:38,520 it means recess, lunch and school's out. 447 00:24:38,561 --> 00:24:40,814 (excited chatter) 448 00:24:40,855 --> 00:24:42,732 We were actually, as little kids, 449 00:24:42,774 --> 00:24:45,151 connoisseurs of explosions. 450 00:24:47,195 --> 00:24:48,863 And at some point, I asked my father, 451 00:24:48,905 --> 00:24:50,365 "What-what are you doing?" 452 00:24:50,407 --> 00:24:52,742 And he said, "Well, we're doing something 453 00:24:52,784 --> 00:24:54,452 that has never been done before." 454 00:24:54,494 --> 00:24:57,372 I thought, "That's got to be pretty interesting, 455 00:24:57,414 --> 00:24:58,456 whatever it is." 456 00:24:58,498 --> 00:25:00,709 * * 457 00:25:08,675 --> 00:25:13,805 CARR: We get about a year into the laboratory's existence, 458 00:25:13,847 --> 00:25:15,765 and we come to find that it's gonna be 459 00:25:15,807 --> 00:25:17,350 a lot harder than we thought. 460 00:25:17,392 --> 00:25:20,228 Every little thing is hard. 461 00:25:20,270 --> 00:25:24,232 These are some very complex machines. 462 00:25:25,567 --> 00:25:27,902 A nuclear weapon is not an idea. 463 00:25:27,944 --> 00:25:31,614 Think of a nuclear weapon more as like a million ideas 464 00:25:31,656 --> 00:25:35,076 that have to come together and work perfectly together. 465 00:25:36,953 --> 00:25:39,956 To make an atomic bomb, you need the fuel for it. 466 00:25:39,998 --> 00:25:42,542 (electrical warbling) 467 00:25:42,584 --> 00:25:45,837 CARR: We have plutonium, and we have enriched uranium. 468 00:25:45,879 --> 00:25:47,380 We have two different types of material 469 00:25:47,422 --> 00:25:49,716 that we're going to try and use. 470 00:25:49,758 --> 00:25:52,886 Plutonium was the better material to use. 471 00:25:52,927 --> 00:25:54,763 There was gonna be more of it. 472 00:25:54,804 --> 00:25:57,390 You needed less of it to make a bomb, 473 00:25:57,432 --> 00:26:00,602 and yet it was harder to detonate. 474 00:26:00,643 --> 00:26:02,145 (electrical popping) 475 00:26:02,187 --> 00:26:07,108 The initial way to make a bomb was called gun assembly. 476 00:26:07,150 --> 00:26:12,989 It was to take two pieces of material 477 00:26:13,031 --> 00:26:15,241 and slam them together... 478 00:26:15,283 --> 00:26:16,576 (explosion) 479 00:26:16,618 --> 00:26:19,329 ...causing a critical mass and an explosion. 480 00:26:19,371 --> 00:26:23,249 And that was fine if you used highly enriched uranium. 481 00:26:23,291 --> 00:26:27,754 But one day, they discovered it won't work with plutonium. 482 00:26:27,796 --> 00:26:31,341 The plutonium turned out to be so reactive 483 00:26:31,383 --> 00:26:33,593 that you couldn't fire it up a barrel 484 00:26:33,635 --> 00:26:36,262 even at 3,000 feet per second. 485 00:26:36,304 --> 00:26:37,639 It would fizzle. 486 00:26:37,681 --> 00:26:39,974 It would melt down before it got up the barrel. 487 00:26:40,016 --> 00:26:41,476 NORRIS: It was a great shock. 488 00:26:41,518 --> 00:26:44,270 I mean, maybe this whole plutonium thing had been wasted, 489 00:26:44,312 --> 00:26:47,273 hundreds of millions of dollars to develop plutonium. 490 00:26:50,860 --> 00:26:52,278 WELLERSTEIN: Oppenheimer was distraught, 491 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,406 and-and Los Alamos was distraught. 492 00:26:55,490 --> 00:26:59,369 RHODES: He considered resigning, he was so depressed, 493 00:26:59,411 --> 00:27:01,454 and his friends at the laboratory said, 494 00:27:01,496 --> 00:27:02,872 "You can't, Robert. 495 00:27:02,914 --> 00:27:04,791 "You've got to stay and finish this work. 496 00:27:04,833 --> 00:27:07,002 It's got to happen. We must do it." 497 00:27:07,043 --> 00:27:09,921 And-and reluctantly, he stayed. 498 00:27:09,963 --> 00:27:11,965 (filmstrip rattling) 499 00:27:12,007 --> 00:27:13,633 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: ...war under the supreme command of 500 00:27:13,675 --> 00:27:15,468 General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 501 00:27:15,510 --> 00:27:17,929 Allied forces have nearly three million troops 502 00:27:17,971 --> 00:27:19,472 trained for the assault. 503 00:27:19,514 --> 00:27:20,765 (crowd cheering) 504 00:27:20,807 --> 00:27:22,308 On the other side of the channel... 505 00:27:22,350 --> 00:27:23,685 -(shouting in German) -(crowd chanting in German) 506 00:27:23,727 --> 00:27:25,353 ...the Nazis also know 507 00:27:25,395 --> 00:27:28,231 what the Allied forces are preparing for, 508 00:27:28,273 --> 00:27:30,859 and they are making preparations of their own. 509 00:27:30,900 --> 00:27:32,902 (Hitler shouting in German) 510 00:27:33,945 --> 00:27:35,613 BIRD: Oppenheimer feared 511 00:27:35,655 --> 00:27:38,033 he was still in a race with the Germans. 512 00:27:38,074 --> 00:27:40,535 Even as late as the summer of '44, 513 00:27:40,577 --> 00:27:42,203 they had no real intelligence 514 00:27:42,245 --> 00:27:45,790 about where they were on the German bomb project. 515 00:27:47,375 --> 00:27:49,794 CARR: And so, if they don't crack the plutonium problem, 516 00:27:49,836 --> 00:27:52,213 they may not have a bomb in time. 517 00:27:53,423 --> 00:27:56,551 NORRIS: Oppenheimer shifted the laboratory into, you know, 518 00:27:56,593 --> 00:27:58,970 full-speed panic mode. 519 00:28:00,930 --> 00:28:02,599 WELLERSTEIN: They had had some ideas 520 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,684 for other types of bomb designs, which they had thrown around 521 00:28:04,726 --> 00:28:06,394 at the very beginning of the project 522 00:28:06,436 --> 00:28:08,855 but dismissed 'cause they seemed too difficult. 523 00:28:08,897 --> 00:28:11,358 But one of them was called implosion. 524 00:28:13,234 --> 00:28:16,237 The way implosion in a nutshell works was 525 00:28:16,279 --> 00:28:18,698 they had a solid ball of plutonium, 526 00:28:18,740 --> 00:28:20,575 just a solid sphere of it, 527 00:28:20,617 --> 00:28:23,703 about the size of a softball, maybe a little bit smaller. 528 00:28:23,745 --> 00:28:28,792 And this is encased by tons of high explosives. 529 00:28:30,251 --> 00:28:33,296 And these high explosives are really specially made, 530 00:28:33,338 --> 00:28:36,591 so that when they explode, they're gonna end up 531 00:28:36,633 --> 00:28:40,595 sort of focusing a blast wave onto this ball, 532 00:28:40,637 --> 00:28:42,722 pushing on the top and pushing on the bottom 533 00:28:42,764 --> 00:28:44,391 and pushing on both sides of it. 534 00:28:44,432 --> 00:28:46,935 Every angle of this is gonna be being pushed upon 535 00:28:46,976 --> 00:28:50,480 with a lot of explosive force. 536 00:28:50,522 --> 00:28:53,775 What you want to do is get this pressure 537 00:28:53,817 --> 00:28:58,279 to squeeze the plutonium target evenly. 538 00:28:58,321 --> 00:29:01,324 If it were asymmetrical, it probably wouldn't work. 539 00:29:01,366 --> 00:29:04,744 You had to have enough pressure quickly enough 540 00:29:04,786 --> 00:29:08,915 to smash these subatomic particles together hard enough 541 00:29:08,957 --> 00:29:12,127 to get them to have this a-amazing reaction. 542 00:29:13,128 --> 00:29:15,338 WELLERSTEIN: This is really hard to do. 543 00:29:15,380 --> 00:29:19,300 Every aspect of this is an almost totally new problem. 544 00:29:19,342 --> 00:29:21,094 It is a technology that would have benefited from 545 00:29:21,136 --> 00:29:22,429 another decade of development. 546 00:29:22,470 --> 00:29:25,140 And they didn't have that. They had a year. 547 00:29:28,226 --> 00:29:30,603 CONANT: Oppenheimer was working night and day 548 00:29:30,645 --> 00:29:32,439 building the bomb. 549 00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,900 And as the project grew in size, the security service 550 00:29:35,942 --> 00:29:39,154 protecting the project also grew. 551 00:29:39,195 --> 00:29:41,656 And even though he was beloved and admired 552 00:29:41,698 --> 00:29:43,408 by most of the scientists 553 00:29:43,450 --> 00:29:45,702 working at the Los Alamos project, 554 00:29:45,744 --> 00:29:48,788 he had fallen under a greater veil of suspicion 555 00:29:48,830 --> 00:29:51,958 because there were certain aspects of his past 556 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,627 that raised the possibility 557 00:29:54,669 --> 00:29:57,005 that he could be a security risk. 558 00:30:02,469 --> 00:30:04,512 * * 559 00:30:10,685 --> 00:30:12,604 RHODES: When Oppenheimer was teaching 560 00:30:12,645 --> 00:30:14,939 at the University of California at Berkeley, 561 00:30:14,981 --> 00:30:19,819 he really was a very unworldly man 562 00:30:19,861 --> 00:30:21,946 focused on science, 563 00:30:21,988 --> 00:30:24,908 until the Depression began. 564 00:30:27,118 --> 00:30:28,703 He discovered, to his shock, 565 00:30:28,745 --> 00:30:32,999 that his students often didn't even have enough to eat. 566 00:30:33,041 --> 00:30:35,835 One of them told me he was living on 567 00:30:35,877 --> 00:30:38,338 cat food, cans of cat food. 568 00:30:38,380 --> 00:30:40,382 That was the only thing he could afford. 569 00:30:41,633 --> 00:30:46,137 Oppenheimer was changed by this discovery 570 00:30:46,179 --> 00:30:49,015 of-of suffering in the world, really. 571 00:30:51,685 --> 00:30:54,688 BIRD: And Oppenheimer sort of naturally, 572 00:30:54,729 --> 00:30:57,691 like many of his friends in Berkeley at the time, 573 00:30:57,732 --> 00:31:00,402 drifted politically to the left. 574 00:31:08,410 --> 00:31:13,581 CARR: Communism was a very appealing idea in the 1930s. 575 00:31:13,623 --> 00:31:15,208 There was no Internet. 576 00:31:15,250 --> 00:31:17,127 People didn't know what was going on real time 577 00:31:17,168 --> 00:31:18,878 in the Soviet Union, 578 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,715 where Joseph Stalin, of course, was in the process of murdering 579 00:31:21,756 --> 00:31:24,551 20 million of his own people. 580 00:31:24,592 --> 00:31:26,219 (gunfire) 581 00:31:29,556 --> 00:31:32,225 What people here in the United States saw instead was, 582 00:31:32,267 --> 00:31:35,520 hey, you know, here in the Soviet Union, 583 00:31:35,562 --> 00:31:38,398 everybody is free and equal and has a job 584 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,359 and a place to live and-and a future, 585 00:31:41,401 --> 00:31:44,738 an important role to play in the greater collective. 586 00:31:44,779 --> 00:31:46,740 (crowd cheering) 587 00:31:46,781 --> 00:31:50,160 Now, if I don't know where my next meal is coming from, 588 00:31:50,201 --> 00:31:53,371 that sounds like a pretty good idea. 589 00:31:55,498 --> 00:31:59,919 It's debatable if Oppenheimer ever really joined, officially, 590 00:31:59,961 --> 00:32:02,255 the Communist Party. 591 00:32:02,297 --> 00:32:04,341 But his brother did. 592 00:32:04,382 --> 00:32:06,384 Frank Oppenheimer joined the party. 593 00:32:06,426 --> 00:32:09,554 Frank's wife Jackie joined the party. 594 00:32:09,596 --> 00:32:12,057 Many of Oppenheimer's close friends 595 00:32:12,098 --> 00:32:13,641 had joined the Communist Party. 596 00:32:13,683 --> 00:32:15,602 Many of his students at Berkeley and elsewhere 597 00:32:15,643 --> 00:32:18,438 had been members of the Communist Party as well. 598 00:32:19,647 --> 00:32:21,399 BIRD: And in the mid '30s, 599 00:32:21,441 --> 00:32:24,277 he met a young woman named Jean Tatlock, 600 00:32:24,319 --> 00:32:28,031 who was studying to become a psychiatrist. 601 00:32:28,073 --> 00:32:30,700 Brilliant young woman. 602 00:32:30,742 --> 00:32:32,160 He fell in love with her. 603 00:32:33,828 --> 00:32:36,414 NOLAN: They were engaged to be married twice. 604 00:32:36,456 --> 00:32:38,667 I think it's probably a reasonable interpretation 605 00:32:38,708 --> 00:32:40,960 to say he was somewhat obsessed with her. 606 00:32:41,002 --> 00:32:43,463 She was a communist. 607 00:32:43,505 --> 00:32:45,632 He was interested in communist ideas. 608 00:32:46,758 --> 00:32:48,593 BIRD: And for the next four years, 609 00:32:48,635 --> 00:32:51,638 Oppenheimer actually contributed quite a bit of money 610 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,640 to the Communist Party. 611 00:32:53,682 --> 00:32:58,103 But his political activities began to be noticed. 612 00:33:02,023 --> 00:33:03,650 HERKEN: What the FBI did in those days, 613 00:33:03,692 --> 00:33:06,152 they were following the communists. 614 00:33:06,986 --> 00:33:08,947 They would walk around and they would take down 615 00:33:08,988 --> 00:33:10,824 the license numbers of the cars that were parked 616 00:33:10,865 --> 00:33:13,451 in front of the house or the building and look them up. 617 00:33:13,493 --> 00:33:15,078 That's when Oppenheimer 618 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:17,163 first came to the attention of the FBI. 619 00:33:17,205 --> 00:33:20,750 EISENBACH: Even while he's heading up the A-bomb project, 620 00:33:20,792 --> 00:33:23,920 the FBI is wiretapping and following him. 621 00:33:23,962 --> 00:33:28,341 Military Intelligence is constantly asking him questions. 622 00:33:28,383 --> 00:33:31,011 RHODES: He was, I think, in a strange way, 623 00:33:31,052 --> 00:33:32,512 comfortable with that because 624 00:33:32,554 --> 00:33:35,348 he knew he wasn't doing anything wrong. 625 00:33:36,349 --> 00:33:38,518 Even when he went to visit his old girlfriend 626 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,688 when he should not have probably done so. 627 00:33:43,648 --> 00:33:47,736 In 1943, he heard from Jean Tatlock. 628 00:33:47,777 --> 00:33:49,821 She was going through some emotional crisis, 629 00:33:49,863 --> 00:33:51,197 and she wanted to see him. 630 00:33:51,239 --> 00:33:53,158 He had kept in touch with Jean. 631 00:33:53,199 --> 00:33:55,410 He still loved her. 632 00:33:55,452 --> 00:33:58,121 She had rejected him. He had married Kitty. 633 00:33:58,163 --> 00:34:03,043 But he knew that Jean Tatlock was in a depressed state, 634 00:34:03,084 --> 00:34:04,753 and so he visited her. 635 00:34:07,881 --> 00:34:12,260 RHODES: He had to leave Los Alamos and go to San Francisco. 636 00:34:16,264 --> 00:34:18,600 And that was, of course, just red meat 637 00:34:18,641 --> 00:34:21,102 for the, for the dog, as it were. 638 00:34:22,062 --> 00:34:25,899 There were two guys sitting outside the apartment. 639 00:34:25,940 --> 00:34:29,861 BIRD: Jean Tatlock was under surveillance. 640 00:34:29,903 --> 00:34:32,155 She was still a member of the Communist Party. 641 00:34:32,947 --> 00:34:35,075 RHODES: He spent the night with her. 642 00:34:35,116 --> 00:34:36,743 They had been lovers, 643 00:34:36,785 --> 00:34:39,371 and I think they probably were lovers again that night. 644 00:34:41,831 --> 00:34:43,458 (engine starts) 645 00:34:43,500 --> 00:34:47,629 BIRD: This was reported back to Colonel Boris Pash, 646 00:34:47,671 --> 00:34:49,255 who was head of Army Intelligence 647 00:34:49,297 --> 00:34:50,757 for all the West Coast. 648 00:34:50,799 --> 00:34:53,426 And Pash was convinced that this was 649 00:34:53,468 --> 00:34:57,931 a serious breach of security 650 00:34:57,972 --> 00:34:59,808 and that perhaps Oppenheimer was conveying nuclear secrets 651 00:34:59,849 --> 00:35:03,520 and atomic secrets to the Communist Party through Tatlock. 652 00:35:05,188 --> 00:35:08,441 Sadly, tragically, she died 653 00:35:08,483 --> 00:35:11,695 just a few months later, in the spring of 1944. 654 00:35:12,821 --> 00:35:17,659 Under mysterious circumstances, her father found her naked 655 00:35:17,701 --> 00:35:20,704 with her head plunged in a bathtub 656 00:35:20,745 --> 00:35:24,165 with her body slumped over the edge of the bathtub. 657 00:35:25,625 --> 00:35:29,421 Which is a very odd way to commit suicide. 658 00:35:29,462 --> 00:35:32,132 There's some speculation that 659 00:35:32,173 --> 00:35:34,426 perhaps she was murdered. 660 00:35:35,844 --> 00:35:40,181 Oppenheimer was horrified and devastated by the news. 661 00:35:41,558 --> 00:35:45,145 The security officer who informed him 662 00:35:45,186 --> 00:35:47,981 said that he wept openly, 663 00:35:48,023 --> 00:35:50,734 that he was absolutely bereft 664 00:35:50,775 --> 00:35:53,153 and actually confided that there was nobody 665 00:35:53,194 --> 00:35:54,863 that he could speak to about it. 666 00:35:54,904 --> 00:35:59,576 So you sense, uh, the loneliness of his grief. 667 00:36:01,202 --> 00:36:02,620 (radio static crackling) 668 00:36:02,662 --> 00:36:04,372 RADIO ANNOUNCER: We interrupt this program 669 00:36:04,414 --> 00:36:05,540 with a special bulletin. 670 00:36:05,582 --> 00:36:07,667 President Roosevelt is dead. 671 00:36:07,709 --> 00:36:10,211 The president died of a cerebral hemorrhage. 672 00:36:11,379 --> 00:36:13,548 April 1945 was one of those months 673 00:36:13,590 --> 00:36:16,885 in which the fate of the world seemed to turn on a dime. 674 00:36:18,678 --> 00:36:20,096 FDR dies, 675 00:36:20,138 --> 00:36:22,766 followed by Hitler committing suicide. 676 00:36:22,807 --> 00:36:26,686 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Hitler's empire burns and shrivels. 677 00:36:26,728 --> 00:36:31,232 ELSE: The bomb was conceived in a kind of anti-Hitler fervor. 678 00:36:31,274 --> 00:36:34,027 By the spring of 1945, Hitler's out of the picture. 679 00:36:34,069 --> 00:36:36,446 The Nazis are no longer a threat. 680 00:36:36,488 --> 00:36:38,907 Hitler is not gonna build an atomic bomb 681 00:36:38,948 --> 00:36:40,450 and drop it on New York. 682 00:36:40,492 --> 00:36:42,285 That's not gonna happen. 683 00:36:42,327 --> 00:36:45,497 But there was no way they were not gonna finish that weapon. 684 00:36:46,956 --> 00:36:48,750 RHODES: They wanted to make this happen. 685 00:36:48,792 --> 00:36:51,753 They didn't want the war to end before it happened. 686 00:36:51,795 --> 00:36:54,005 Oppenheimer wanted the bomb to be used, 687 00:36:54,047 --> 00:36:57,676 because how else would the world know what it was? 688 00:36:57,717 --> 00:36:59,928 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Harry S. Truman was sworn in 689 00:36:59,969 --> 00:37:01,846 as President of the United States. 690 00:37:01,888 --> 00:37:04,557 EISENBACH: By the time Truman gets to the presidency, 691 00:37:04,599 --> 00:37:05,850 the wheels are in motion. 692 00:37:05,892 --> 00:37:08,103 This bomb is going to be dropped somewhere. 693 00:37:08,144 --> 00:37:11,856 With the death of Hitler, the target then becomes Japan. 694 00:37:13,233 --> 00:37:15,610 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The never-ending air campaign 695 00:37:15,652 --> 00:37:17,696 against Japan's stolen empire continues, 696 00:37:17,737 --> 00:37:21,950 as B-24s hammer installations in the Palau islands. 697 00:37:25,954 --> 00:37:28,623 We were marching up from island to island. 698 00:37:33,336 --> 00:37:37,882 Landing on the beaches against dug-in Japanese defenses. 699 00:37:39,092 --> 00:37:44,431 Losing young men in large numbers. 700 00:37:44,472 --> 00:37:46,016 Every day that went by 701 00:37:46,057 --> 00:37:48,977 without this bomb being successfully tested 702 00:37:49,019 --> 00:37:51,896 was a day in which thousands of Americans are dying. 703 00:37:51,938 --> 00:37:53,857 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Thousands of Yanks have been wounded 704 00:37:53,898 --> 00:37:56,693 and other thousands have sacrificed their lives 705 00:37:56,735 --> 00:37:58,778 to drive a fanatical foe from this vital base, 706 00:37:58,820 --> 00:38:01,656 the doorstep to Japan itself. 707 00:38:02,824 --> 00:38:05,201 NORRIS: They knew the Japanese were defeated, 708 00:38:05,243 --> 00:38:07,787 but defeat and surrender are two different things. 709 00:38:07,829 --> 00:38:10,915 So how do you get them to surrender? 710 00:38:13,168 --> 00:38:17,130 OPPENHEIMER: In a world of atomic weapons, wars will cease. 711 00:38:17,172 --> 00:38:19,341 And that is not a small thing. 712 00:38:21,468 --> 00:38:23,845 EISENBACH: The way Oppenheimer looked at the bomb 713 00:38:23,887 --> 00:38:28,808 is in a kind of Eastern metaphysical way of 714 00:38:28,850 --> 00:38:31,644 it is a act of destruction and creation 715 00:38:31,686 --> 00:38:33,813 potentially at the same time, 716 00:38:33,855 --> 00:38:37,567 act of war and an act of peace, 717 00:38:37,609 --> 00:38:41,363 that this thing, if mishandled, 718 00:38:41,404 --> 00:38:45,200 could end humanity, but if properly handled and harnessed, 719 00:38:45,241 --> 00:38:47,619 could actually lead to an era 720 00:38:47,660 --> 00:38:50,330 of peace and prosperity for the entire world. 721 00:38:50,372 --> 00:38:52,665 (playful chatter) 722 00:39:01,549 --> 00:39:03,176 CONANT: By the summer of '45, 723 00:39:03,218 --> 00:39:06,763 they had been working on the implosion design for a year, 724 00:39:06,805 --> 00:39:12,560 tweaking, devising and struggling with the challenges. 725 00:39:12,602 --> 00:39:14,062 WELLERSTEIN: For this thing to work, 726 00:39:14,104 --> 00:39:16,189 all of those explosives and their detonators 727 00:39:16,231 --> 00:39:18,108 and the things powering them and the batteries 728 00:39:18,149 --> 00:39:21,528 and everything else has got to work perfectly. 729 00:39:21,569 --> 00:39:22,987 And there wasn't a really good way to figure out 730 00:39:23,029 --> 00:39:24,614 if that was actually gonna happen, 731 00:39:24,656 --> 00:39:26,991 other than setting off a full-size test. 732 00:39:32,747 --> 00:39:34,666 HERKEN: They settle upon the site 733 00:39:34,708 --> 00:39:36,292 where the bomb will be tested, 734 00:39:36,334 --> 00:39:40,880 and Oppenheimer chooses the name for the site: Trinity. 735 00:39:40,922 --> 00:39:42,632 CARR: He had been reading 736 00:39:42,674 --> 00:39:44,217 the poetry of John Donne at the time, 737 00:39:44,259 --> 00:39:47,220 and one of those poems, uh, include the line, 738 00:39:47,262 --> 00:39:49,305 "Batter my heart, three-personed God," 739 00:39:49,347 --> 00:39:53,059 a reference to the Holy Trinity in Christianity. 740 00:39:54,019 --> 00:39:57,647 HERKEN: And I think that that was a tribute to Jean Tatlock, 741 00:39:57,689 --> 00:40:00,608 because Jean and Oppie used to read 742 00:40:00,650 --> 00:40:03,570 the poetry of John Donne in bed. 743 00:40:05,113 --> 00:40:07,490 (ticking) 744 00:40:12,829 --> 00:40:16,416 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Sunday, July 15, 1945. 745 00:40:16,458 --> 00:40:18,752 Alamogordo, New Mexico. 746 00:40:18,793 --> 00:40:20,920 It is D-minus one for the test 747 00:40:20,962 --> 00:40:23,214 of the world's first atomic device. 748 00:40:24,299 --> 00:40:26,760 NOLAN: The hours leading up to the Trinity test 749 00:40:26,801 --> 00:40:29,596 are one of the most extraordinary moments 750 00:40:29,637 --> 00:40:32,390 of-of tension imaginable. 751 00:40:32,432 --> 00:40:34,934 The stakes, the billions of dollars, 752 00:40:34,976 --> 00:40:37,145 the hundreds of thousands of people who'd been involved 753 00:40:37,187 --> 00:40:41,691 in building to this one moment of this test of this new weapon, 754 00:40:41,733 --> 00:40:43,985 all of that responsibility falling 755 00:40:44,027 --> 00:40:46,363 very squarely on Oppenheimer's shoulders. 756 00:40:46,404 --> 00:40:48,490 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: At the bomb test site, 757 00:40:48,531 --> 00:40:51,034 the scientists are working under growing pressure. 758 00:40:51,076 --> 00:40:53,912 They are told there must be no further delays. 759 00:40:53,953 --> 00:40:56,623 The president must know the results of the test 760 00:40:56,664 --> 00:40:58,792 when he meets with Stalin. 761 00:40:58,833 --> 00:41:00,794 CARR: The President of the United States 762 00:41:00,835 --> 00:41:02,796 is about to enter into the Potsdam Conference-- 763 00:41:02,837 --> 00:41:05,090 Potsdam, a city in Germany. 764 00:41:05,131 --> 00:41:06,466 He's gonna meet with Joseph Stalin, 765 00:41:06,508 --> 00:41:08,009 Winston Churchill as well, 766 00:41:08,051 --> 00:41:09,803 and talk about the future of Europe 767 00:41:09,844 --> 00:41:11,638 and the future of the Pacific War. 768 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:13,348 The president must know 769 00:41:13,390 --> 00:41:17,686 if he has a nuclear weapon in his back pocket or not. 770 00:41:26,528 --> 00:41:28,405 NORRIS: Everybody was on edge, 771 00:41:28,446 --> 00:41:30,573 and they had to calm down Oppenheimer. 772 00:41:30,615 --> 00:41:33,118 He was a bundle of nerves. 773 00:41:34,077 --> 00:41:35,704 RHODES: He chain-smoked, 774 00:41:35,745 --> 00:41:37,664 which he pretty much always did anyway. 775 00:41:38,998 --> 00:41:41,668 GROVES: It was a situation where I did not want 776 00:41:41,710 --> 00:41:44,295 Dr. Oppenheimer to get nervous. 777 00:41:46,297 --> 00:41:48,508 There's a famous picture from that evening 778 00:41:48,550 --> 00:41:52,554 where Oppenheimer himself crawls up the tower to the top 779 00:41:52,595 --> 00:41:55,682 where the bomb has been hoisted. 780 00:41:55,724 --> 00:41:58,268 He's checking all the final plugs 781 00:41:58,309 --> 00:42:02,272 to make sure that everything is in order. 782 00:42:02,313 --> 00:42:03,815 He's clearly worried, 783 00:42:03,857 --> 00:42:07,610 trying to check every last little detail. 784 00:42:07,652 --> 00:42:09,029 WELLERSTEIN: Oppenheimer doesn't know 785 00:42:09,070 --> 00:42:10,572 if this thing is gonna work at all. 786 00:42:10,613 --> 00:42:11,906 EISENBACH: In fact, he had a bet 787 00:42:11,948 --> 00:42:13,241 with another one of the scientists 788 00:42:13,283 --> 00:42:15,368 that it wouldn't work-- ten dollars. 789 00:42:16,161 --> 00:42:17,579 OPPENHEIMER: There were a hundred things 790 00:42:17,620 --> 00:42:20,206 that could be done wrong, 791 00:42:20,248 --> 00:42:24,461 any one of which could make the test a failure. 792 00:42:24,502 --> 00:42:26,880 NYE: Everybody had doubts. 793 00:42:26,921 --> 00:42:29,049 Was it even possible? 794 00:42:29,090 --> 00:42:31,926 And then this question, 'cause nobody was really sure: 795 00:42:31,968 --> 00:42:35,055 What if we set the whole atmosphere on fire? 796 00:42:36,806 --> 00:42:39,225 SNOWDEN: What if we set off this bomb 797 00:42:39,267 --> 00:42:41,770 and it literally sets the air on fire 798 00:42:41,811 --> 00:42:43,772 and engulfs us all? 799 00:42:45,315 --> 00:42:48,651 KAKU: The atmosphere is made out of oxygen, after all. 800 00:42:48,693 --> 00:42:51,071 Can the oxygen of the atmosphere 801 00:42:51,112 --> 00:42:54,074 be set in flames by an atomic bomb? 802 00:42:54,115 --> 00:42:56,701 No one knew the answer to these questions. 803 00:43:02,540 --> 00:43:07,128 RHODES: It's before dawn on July 16, 1945. 804 00:43:07,170 --> 00:43:08,505 It was dark. 805 00:43:08,546 --> 00:43:11,925 The bomb was in the tower a hundred feet up, 806 00:43:11,966 --> 00:43:14,010 and they were ready to go. 807 00:43:14,052 --> 00:43:18,807 Oppenheimer was in one of the bunkers that had been built. 808 00:43:22,811 --> 00:43:24,646 CARR: Oppenheimer braced himself, 809 00:43:24,688 --> 00:43:27,607 according to some accounts uttering the words, 810 00:43:27,649 --> 00:43:31,152 "Lord, these affairs are hard on the heart." 811 00:43:32,070 --> 00:43:34,030 (civil defense siren blaring) 812 00:43:34,072 --> 00:43:35,949 MAN (over speaker): T-minus ten, 813 00:43:35,990 --> 00:43:38,910 nine, eight... 814 00:43:38,952 --> 00:43:41,204 RHODES: Oppenheimer was saying to himself, 815 00:43:41,246 --> 00:43:43,373 -"I must remain conscious." -(ticking) 816 00:43:43,415 --> 00:43:44,874 MAN: ...seven... 817 00:43:44,916 --> 00:43:46,126 "I must remain conscious." 818 00:43:46,167 --> 00:43:48,128 MAN: ...six... 819 00:43:48,169 --> 00:43:50,422 CARR: Seconds are hours. 820 00:43:50,463 --> 00:43:54,217 MAN: ...five, four, 821 00:43:54,259 --> 00:43:57,679 three, two... 822 00:43:57,721 --> 00:43:59,973 RHODES: And all of a sudden... 823 00:44:00,015 --> 00:44:02,267 (explosion booming) 824 00:44:07,188 --> 00:44:09,357 ...the whole place lit up. 825 00:44:19,534 --> 00:44:21,327 One of the scientists told me 826 00:44:21,369 --> 00:44:25,123 it felt as if someone had opened an oven door. 827 00:44:26,207 --> 00:44:28,126 Suddenly, there was this huge heat, 828 00:44:28,168 --> 00:44:29,961 which was radiant heat, 829 00:44:30,003 --> 00:44:32,339 so it came at the speed of light as well, 830 00:44:32,380 --> 00:44:35,383 and then this rolling thunder of sound, 831 00:44:35,425 --> 00:44:39,512 and the first mushroom cloud started going up. 832 00:44:39,554 --> 00:44:43,808 It was orange and purple and blue and yellow, 833 00:44:43,850 --> 00:44:47,687 and it roiled, and it grew as it rose. 834 00:44:47,729 --> 00:44:51,691 And a new thing, he said, had been created on the Earth, 835 00:44:51,733 --> 00:44:54,027 a new challenge for humanity. 836 00:44:58,073 --> 00:45:00,283 NYE: People had seen explosions 837 00:45:00,325 --> 00:45:04,162 and tested bombs for decades, but to see the size of it, 838 00:45:04,204 --> 00:45:08,249 just... it was just astonishing. 839 00:45:09,084 --> 00:45:10,919 NOLAN: There's never been a moment like that 840 00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:13,713 in the history of the world. 841 00:45:13,755 --> 00:45:16,925 The view of the world, the view of what matter is, 842 00:45:16,966 --> 00:45:21,471 what we are made of indeed, palpably changes. 843 00:45:21,513 --> 00:45:26,559 It's an unleashing of a, of a force never before imagined 844 00:45:26,601 --> 00:45:30,855 and could never be ignored from this point on. 845 00:45:36,444 --> 00:45:40,156 OPPENHEIMER: We knew the world would not be the same. 846 00:45:42,450 --> 00:45:45,286 A few people laughed. 847 00:45:46,705 --> 00:45:48,915 A few people cried. 848 00:45:48,957 --> 00:45:50,709 Most people were silent. 849 00:45:50,750 --> 00:45:52,127 (sniffles) 850 00:45:53,628 --> 00:45:57,799 I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, 851 00:45:57,841 --> 00:45:59,551 the Bhagavad Gita. 852 00:46:02,429 --> 00:46:04,180 Vishnu... 853 00:46:05,390 --> 00:46:10,061 ...is trying to persuade the prince that 854 00:46:10,103 --> 00:46:12,564 he should do his duty, 855 00:46:12,605 --> 00:46:14,941 and to impress him, 856 00:46:14,983 --> 00:46:20,363 takes on his multiarmed form and says, 857 00:46:20,405 --> 00:46:24,993 "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." 858 00:46:26,828 --> 00:46:30,665 I suppose we all thought that, one way or another. 859 00:46:30,707 --> 00:46:32,959 * * 860 00:46:42,886 --> 00:46:46,806 CARR: After the test was over, Oppenheimer had this strut. 861 00:46:46,848 --> 00:46:48,975 It was likeHigh Noon. 862 00:46:49,017 --> 00:46:51,144 He had done it. 863 00:46:52,479 --> 00:46:55,857 Oppenheimer was very proud of this accomplishment. 864 00:46:57,192 --> 00:46:58,526 It was a world-changing moment, 865 00:46:58,568 --> 00:47:02,155 and a lot of the scientists realized that. 866 00:47:05,700 --> 00:47:07,369 Now came the business of 867 00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,038 what the government would do with their creation. 868 00:47:12,540 --> 00:47:14,167 CONANT: Groves hurried back 869 00:47:14,209 --> 00:47:16,294 to his Washington office and cabled the news 870 00:47:16,336 --> 00:47:19,506 that the bomb experiment had been a success 871 00:47:19,547 --> 00:47:23,468 and even more powerful than they had anticipated. 872 00:47:24,678 --> 00:47:28,181 This information is transmitted to Truman, who... 873 00:47:28,223 --> 00:47:30,392 entire attitude changes at Potsdam. 874 00:47:30,433 --> 00:47:33,144 He suddenly feels like he has a win in-in sight. 875 00:47:33,186 --> 00:47:35,855 He suddenly starts bossing around Stalin. 876 00:47:35,897 --> 00:47:39,234 He decides the Japanese get no concessions whatsoever. 877 00:47:40,402 --> 00:47:42,529 Truman had known that this existed 878 00:47:42,570 --> 00:47:45,699 since he became president, but to know it actually works 879 00:47:45,740 --> 00:47:47,826 and it's even more powerful than we thought, 880 00:47:47,867 --> 00:47:51,413 that's a really different position for him to be in. 881 00:47:51,454 --> 00:47:55,458 Our demand has been, and it remains, 882 00:47:55,500 --> 00:47:59,045 -unconditional surrender! -(applause) 883 00:47:59,087 --> 00:48:02,090 (filmstrip slowing to a stop) 884 00:48:02,132 --> 00:48:03,633 NYE: My mom and dad 885 00:48:03,675 --> 00:48:05,885 were both veterans of World War II, and my mom, 886 00:48:05,927 --> 00:48:09,055 she said, "You know, after... 887 00:48:09,097 --> 00:48:11,808 "after four years of this thing, 888 00:48:11,850 --> 00:48:15,228 "there was nobody really... there was nobody going, 889 00:48:15,270 --> 00:48:18,440 'Was it ethical to use a-a nuclear weapon?'" 890 00:48:19,816 --> 00:48:22,736 Right? Just get it over with. 891 00:48:22,777 --> 00:48:24,821 This is horrible. Like, this-- 892 00:48:24,863 --> 00:48:28,241 Whatever you can do to shorten this thing. 893 00:48:28,283 --> 00:48:31,327 Everybody was terrified and exhausted, 894 00:48:31,369 --> 00:48:35,832 and everybody knew somebody who knew somebody 895 00:48:35,874 --> 00:48:38,668 who was not living anymore because of this. 896 00:48:40,587 --> 00:48:43,131 ELSE: With the bomb ready to go, 897 00:48:43,173 --> 00:48:45,592 I mean, the choices are appalling. 898 00:48:45,633 --> 00:48:47,927 You know, they know perfectly well that if they use 899 00:48:47,969 --> 00:48:51,431 these weapons on Japanese men, women and children in cities, 900 00:48:51,473 --> 00:48:54,267 there are gonna be a couple hundred thousand people who die. 901 00:48:54,309 --> 00:48:59,606 But if they don't stop the war with the bomb, 902 00:48:59,647 --> 00:49:01,775 there may be millions more that die. 903 00:49:01,816 --> 00:49:05,320 So those seem to be the two choices, 904 00:49:05,362 --> 00:49:07,739 but there was a third choice, 905 00:49:07,781 --> 00:49:10,909 and the third choice was to do a demonstration. 906 00:49:10,950 --> 00:49:15,413 Maybe drop this bomb in Tokyo Bay, kill very few people, 907 00:49:15,455 --> 00:49:17,207 make a hell of a demonstration, 908 00:49:17,248 --> 00:49:20,251 and maybe the Japanese will surrender 909 00:49:20,293 --> 00:49:25,423 just based on having seen the ferocious power of this thing. 910 00:49:25,465 --> 00:49:27,801 Oppenheimer rejected, uh, that course, 911 00:49:27,842 --> 00:49:31,554 as did the planners in Washington. 912 00:49:33,098 --> 00:49:35,350 (playful chatter) 913 00:49:35,392 --> 00:49:37,727 OPPENHEIMER: We did think about whether, uh, 914 00:49:37,769 --> 00:49:40,522 its destructiveness, uh, 915 00:49:40,563 --> 00:49:42,315 its danger, uh, 916 00:49:42,357 --> 00:49:46,528 could be vividly demonstrated 917 00:49:46,569 --> 00:49:50,323 over a barren and uninhabited target, 918 00:49:50,365 --> 00:49:53,326 and we were very doubtful of that. 919 00:49:55,912 --> 00:49:59,833 Very few people would have had a more thorough understanding 920 00:49:59,874 --> 00:50:04,212 than J. Robert Oppenheimer of what was about to unfold 921 00:50:04,254 --> 00:50:06,297 when these weapons were used in combat. 922 00:50:06,339 --> 00:50:09,426 Oppenheimer contemplated, knowing that 923 00:50:09,467 --> 00:50:12,137 this destruction would be unworldly. 924 00:50:13,346 --> 00:50:16,474 (wind whistling softly) 925 00:50:18,393 --> 00:50:22,522 BIRD: His secretary, Anne Wilson, told me this story 926 00:50:22,564 --> 00:50:24,858 that I'm still struck by. 927 00:50:24,899 --> 00:50:26,985 After the Trinity test, 928 00:50:27,027 --> 00:50:31,156 she's walking to work one day with Robert. 929 00:50:31,197 --> 00:50:35,452 He's a few steps ahead of her, and he's suddenly muttering, 930 00:50:35,493 --> 00:50:39,414 "Those poor little people, those poor little people." 931 00:50:40,915 --> 00:50:43,585 She stops him and says, "Robert, what are you muttering about?" 932 00:50:43,626 --> 00:50:49,466 And he looked at her and-and explained that, 933 00:50:49,507 --> 00:50:51,468 you know, the bomb was going to be used 934 00:50:51,509 --> 00:50:53,970 on a Japanese city or two, 935 00:50:54,012 --> 00:50:57,432 and the victims were going to be 936 00:50:57,474 --> 00:51:01,394 civilians, a whole city. 937 00:51:01,436 --> 00:51:06,399 This was obviously on his mind, painfully on his mind. 938 00:51:06,441 --> 00:51:11,905 And yet we know, that same week, he was meeting with the generals 939 00:51:11,946 --> 00:51:14,240 who were in charge of the bombing mission, 940 00:51:14,282 --> 00:51:16,534 and he was instructing them 941 00:51:16,576 --> 00:51:19,079 exactly how the bomb should be dropped 942 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:22,582 and at what altitude it should be detonated 943 00:51:22,624 --> 00:51:26,252 for the maximum destructive power. 944 00:51:26,294 --> 00:51:29,255 WELLERSTEIN: It's hard to reconcile the sensitive, 945 00:51:29,297 --> 00:51:34,803 morally upright, humanistic professor 946 00:51:34,844 --> 00:51:39,516 with the guy who recommends that the bomb is dropped on cities 947 00:51:39,557 --> 00:51:42,143 and is calculating the ideal height 948 00:51:42,185 --> 00:51:43,603 for destroying houses, right? 949 00:51:43,645 --> 00:51:45,814 How do you reconcile those two things? 950 00:51:45,855 --> 00:51:50,860 Part of it is, I think, Oppenheimer hoping that 951 00:51:50,902 --> 00:51:55,615 this will not be the first use of nuclear weapons, 952 00:51:55,657 --> 00:51:58,201 that it will be the last use of nuclear weapons. 953 00:51:58,243 --> 00:51:59,911 And if that's the case, 954 00:51:59,953 --> 00:52:02,997 then in order to ensure that they're the last use, 955 00:52:03,039 --> 00:52:07,502 you want it to be as bad and ugly and horrible as possible. 956 00:52:16,845 --> 00:52:20,015 RHODES: By August of 1945, 957 00:52:20,056 --> 00:52:23,143 every Japanese city of more than 50,000 people 958 00:52:23,184 --> 00:52:28,106 had basically been burned out, except for three or four cities 959 00:52:28,148 --> 00:52:31,860 that had been deliberately set aside for atomic bombing. 960 00:52:31,901 --> 00:52:34,904 Set aside because they had physical characteristics 961 00:52:34,946 --> 00:52:39,868 that would allow us to see how the bombs worked. 962 00:52:46,124 --> 00:52:49,336 Hiroshima was a flat city. 963 00:52:49,377 --> 00:52:53,882 And with the city set aside, it was possible to see 964 00:52:53,923 --> 00:52:58,178 the effects of the bomb all the way out to the edges. 965 00:52:58,219 --> 00:53:01,431 That's why Hiroshima was chosen. 966 00:53:09,564 --> 00:53:12,317 HIDEKO TAMURA: When I was a little kid, 967 00:53:12,359 --> 00:53:14,444 there were seven rivers running through, 968 00:53:14,486 --> 00:53:18,156 beautiful riverbanks. 969 00:53:18,198 --> 00:53:20,033 Water was clear. 970 00:53:20,075 --> 00:53:26,539 I was running through magical gardens, flowers, 971 00:53:26,581 --> 00:53:29,959 looking for beautiful, beautiful insects 972 00:53:30,001 --> 00:53:32,796 of all different kinds. 973 00:53:32,837 --> 00:53:34,673 Birds chirping. 974 00:53:34,714 --> 00:53:36,633 They don't understand about war. 975 00:53:36,675 --> 00:53:40,720 It was all over, sound of happiness. 976 00:53:45,642 --> 00:53:49,104 But the sound of the explosion came 977 00:53:49,145 --> 00:53:51,773 like a rage over the Earth. 978 00:53:53,483 --> 00:53:55,735 (explosion rumbling) 979 00:54:15,714 --> 00:54:17,340 TRUMAN: A short time ago, 980 00:54:17,382 --> 00:54:22,971 an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. 981 00:54:23,013 --> 00:54:28,893 That bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. 982 00:54:31,563 --> 00:54:34,274 It is an atomic bomb. 983 00:54:34,315 --> 00:54:37,986 It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. 984 00:54:45,994 --> 00:54:49,039 We have spent more than two billion dollars 985 00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:52,917 on the greatest scientific gamble in history, 986 00:54:52,959 --> 00:54:54,336 and we have won. 987 00:55:00,508 --> 00:55:02,761 (explosion rumbling) 988 00:55:06,848 --> 00:55:08,516 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Japan could read its doom. 989 00:55:08,558 --> 00:55:11,144 This was more than a routine bombing. 990 00:55:11,186 --> 00:55:14,147 It was the funeral pyre of an aggressor nation. 991 00:55:14,189 --> 00:55:16,441 * * 992 00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:44,761 TAMURA: I remember every second. 993 00:55:47,347 --> 00:55:49,557 I've never been so helpless. 994 00:55:54,854 --> 00:55:56,856 I was under the debris 995 00:55:56,898 --> 00:56:01,695 and somehow had to crawl to the light and come out. 996 00:56:06,908 --> 00:56:09,619 I had to go looking for my mother. 997 00:56:22,090 --> 00:56:26,553 Seeing these miserable dying people, 998 00:56:26,594 --> 00:56:29,889 you didn't want her to be one of them. 999 00:56:31,933 --> 00:56:34,644 Didn't hear one single thing about 1000 00:56:34,686 --> 00:56:40,525 cousin, my mother or my best friend. 1001 00:56:47,657 --> 00:56:51,244 I would have really loved to have died with them, 1002 00:56:51,286 --> 00:56:55,415 because life after that was so very challenging 1003 00:56:55,457 --> 00:56:56,958 and so very difficult, 1004 00:56:57,000 --> 00:57:00,170 physically and especially mentally. 1005 00:57:10,221 --> 00:57:14,559 REID: A few years after the end of the war, 1006 00:57:14,601 --> 00:57:19,064 I saw the raw footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1007 00:57:24,861 --> 00:57:26,321 And there's no sound. 1008 00:57:26,363 --> 00:57:30,158 It's just footage of people with their skin 1009 00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:33,703 and flower reverse patterns of the kimonos 1010 00:57:33,745 --> 00:57:35,705 burned into their skin 1011 00:57:35,747 --> 00:57:39,250 and bodies floating in the river. 1012 00:57:39,292 --> 00:57:41,878 It was so shocking. 1013 00:57:44,172 --> 00:57:47,634 And I thought, "They're all my friends' fathers. 1014 00:57:47,676 --> 00:57:51,137 Did they know what they were doing?" 1015 00:57:51,179 --> 00:57:53,848 None of it seemed to make any sense to me 1016 00:57:53,890 --> 00:57:55,642 that this was so horrible. 1017 00:57:55,684 --> 00:57:57,936 (Geiger counter clicking rapidly) 1018 00:58:00,647 --> 00:58:02,816 CARR: As reports of that devastation 1019 00:58:02,857 --> 00:58:04,901 started to come back to Los Alamos, 1020 00:58:04,943 --> 00:58:08,780 obviously this weighed on the scientists. 1021 00:58:10,365 --> 00:58:12,784 Yes, it had been a horrible war, 1022 00:58:12,826 --> 00:58:14,828 but still, tens of thousands of people 1023 00:58:14,869 --> 00:58:17,038 were killed in these attacks. 1024 00:58:17,831 --> 00:58:19,833 Cities were destroyed. 1025 00:58:24,212 --> 00:58:29,384 And that was difficult on a lot of the scientists. 1026 00:58:29,426 --> 00:58:32,303 And I certainly think that it was difficult on Oppenheimer 1027 00:58:32,345 --> 00:58:34,889 for the rest of his life. 1028 00:58:36,516 --> 00:58:40,937 Hiroshima was far more costly 1029 00:58:40,979 --> 00:58:44,941 in life and suffering and inhumane 1030 00:58:44,983 --> 00:58:47,068 than it needed to have been. 1031 00:58:48,695 --> 00:58:51,656 This is easy to say after the fact. 1032 00:58:51,698 --> 00:58:53,908 -(birds chirping) -(clock ticking) 1033 00:58:58,121 --> 00:59:01,499 NOLAN: Oppenheimer never apologized in any way for 1034 00:59:01,541 --> 00:59:03,043 Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1035 00:59:03,084 --> 00:59:06,379 He was very, very careful and complicated 1036 00:59:06,421 --> 00:59:08,381 in all statements he made about 1037 00:59:08,423 --> 00:59:12,719 the moral implications of the bomb and his involvement in it. 1038 00:59:12,761 --> 00:59:15,722 And yet, post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1039 00:59:15,764 --> 00:59:18,058 all of his actions are the actions of 1040 00:59:18,099 --> 00:59:21,519 somebody who is plagued with guilt. 1041 00:59:21,561 --> 00:59:22,896 (radio static crackles) 1042 00:59:22,937 --> 00:59:25,398 DOUGLAS MacARTHUR: We are gathered here, 1043 00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:29,986 representatives of the major warring powers, 1044 00:59:30,028 --> 00:59:32,906 to conclude a solemn agreement 1045 00:59:32,947 --> 00:59:36,242 whereby peace may be restored. 1046 00:59:36,284 --> 00:59:38,828 (crowd cheering) 1047 00:59:40,288 --> 00:59:42,665 TRUMAN: I have received this afternoon 1048 00:59:42,707 --> 00:59:45,335 a message from the Japanese government. 1049 00:59:46,753 --> 00:59:49,214 I deem this reply a full acceptance 1050 00:59:49,255 --> 00:59:52,467 of the unconditional surrender of Japan. 1051 00:59:53,426 --> 00:59:56,221 ELSE: And of course, a great many people felt 1052 00:59:56,262 --> 00:59:59,391 that the atomic bomb had ended World War II. 1053 01:00:00,684 --> 01:00:02,644 Perhaps it had. 1054 01:00:04,521 --> 01:00:07,941 And Robert Oppenheimer was the guy who made it happen. 1055 01:00:08,900 --> 01:00:11,444 ROY GLAUBER: He was in demand everywhere. 1056 01:00:11,486 --> 01:00:14,030 He was the cover story forTime magazine, 1057 01:00:14,072 --> 01:00:15,949 once forLife magazine. 1058 01:00:15,990 --> 01:00:17,992 There scarcely was a magazine cover 1059 01:00:18,034 --> 01:00:19,953 that he wasn't on. 1060 01:00:19,994 --> 01:00:22,914 HERKEN: The inaugural issue ofPhysics Today simply showed 1061 01:00:22,956 --> 01:00:26,376 a porkpie hat on a cyclotron control. 1062 01:00:26,418 --> 01:00:29,462 And everybody knew the porkpie hat was Oppenheimer. 1063 01:00:29,504 --> 01:00:31,673 (lively chatter) 1064 01:00:31,715 --> 01:00:33,425 CONANT: He becomes a rock star. 1065 01:00:33,466 --> 01:00:36,886 He is the oracle of American science. 1066 01:00:36,928 --> 01:00:40,557 And he liked that. 1067 01:00:41,766 --> 01:00:46,146 He probably felt that he'd finally come through it all 1068 01:00:46,187 --> 01:00:50,442 and he was no longer the outsider. 1069 01:00:52,068 --> 01:00:55,071 Now he was not only at the center of things 1070 01:00:55,113 --> 01:00:57,323 but that he stood at the very top. 1071 01:00:57,365 --> 01:00:59,367 (applause) 1072 01:01:00,702 --> 01:01:06,332 And that, I think, was intoxicating for him. 1073 01:01:09,210 --> 01:01:13,089 But at the same time, he felt a real responsibility 1074 01:01:13,131 --> 01:01:15,717 for having ushered this weapon into the world. 1075 01:01:19,137 --> 01:01:21,097 MAN: Go ahead, please. 1076 01:01:22,849 --> 01:01:26,186 Automatic control has got it. 1077 01:01:26,227 --> 01:01:29,189 This time, Rab, the stakes are kind of high. 1078 01:01:29,230 --> 01:01:31,983 ISIDOR ISAAC RABI: It's going to work all right, Robert. 1079 01:01:32,025 --> 01:01:33,818 ELSE: I think he felt, 1080 01:01:33,860 --> 01:01:36,321 as the father of the atomic bomb, it was his duty 1081 01:01:36,363 --> 01:01:39,199 to keep the reins on the atomic bomb. 1082 01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:40,658 MAN: Go ahead, please. 1083 01:01:40,700 --> 01:01:42,577 Well, we'll know in 40 seconds. 1084 01:01:42,619 --> 01:01:44,621 MAN: Stay where you are. 1085 01:01:44,662 --> 01:01:46,122 Cut. 1086 01:01:47,248 --> 01:01:50,418 BIRD: Within three months of Hiroshima, 1087 01:01:50,460 --> 01:01:52,087 he was giving speeches, 1088 01:01:52,128 --> 01:01:56,716 talking about how this weapon was a weapon for aggressors, 1089 01:01:56,758 --> 01:02:00,220 that it is a weapon of terror. 1090 01:02:00,261 --> 01:02:03,765 You know, this is the father of the atomic bomb speaking. 1091 01:02:06,935 --> 01:02:09,771 OPPENHEIMER: If there is another world war... 1092 01:02:11,856 --> 01:02:13,858 ...this civilization 1093 01:02:13,900 --> 01:02:16,194 may go under. 1094 01:02:21,783 --> 01:02:26,037 We need to ask ourselves 1095 01:02:26,079 --> 01:02:30,333 whether we're doing all we can to avert that. 1096 01:02:31,292 --> 01:02:32,836 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: I might like to read 1097 01:02:32,877 --> 01:02:35,296 what my grandfather said about it. 1098 01:02:35,338 --> 01:02:37,924 This is a speech where he said, 1099 01:02:37,966 --> 01:02:39,634 "But when you come right down to it, 1100 01:02:39,676 --> 01:02:41,011 "the reason that we did this job 1101 01:02:41,052 --> 01:02:43,471 "is because it was an organic necessity. 1102 01:02:44,431 --> 01:02:48,059 "If you are a scientist, you cannot stop such a thing. 1103 01:02:48,101 --> 01:02:49,686 "If you are a scientist, you believe 1104 01:02:49,728 --> 01:02:51,396 "that it's good to find out how the world works, 1105 01:02:51,438 --> 01:02:53,982 "that it's good to find out what realities are, 1106 01:02:54,024 --> 01:02:57,235 "that it's good to turn over to mankind 1107 01:02:57,277 --> 01:02:59,612 "the greatest possible power to control the world 1108 01:02:59,654 --> 01:03:04,117 and deal with it according to its lights and values." 1109 01:03:04,159 --> 01:03:07,370 He didn't regret his role and work during the war, 1110 01:03:07,412 --> 01:03:12,125 but he soon after turns so strongly towards managing 1111 01:03:12,167 --> 01:03:15,003 the outcome of the science they created. 1112 01:03:17,297 --> 01:03:19,132 BIRD: He decides he doesn't want 1113 01:03:19,174 --> 01:03:21,551 to work any longer on building more bombs. 1114 01:03:21,593 --> 01:03:24,679 He resigns from Los Alamos, and he accepts a position 1115 01:03:24,721 --> 01:03:28,808 as director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, 1116 01:03:28,850 --> 01:03:32,729 where he becomes Einstein's boss, so to speak. 1117 01:03:32,771 --> 01:03:35,690 He's probably the most famous scientist in America, 1118 01:03:35,732 --> 01:03:39,819 and he's trying to use that celebrity status 1119 01:03:39,861 --> 01:03:42,197 to have influence. 1120 01:03:43,406 --> 01:03:47,952 He gets an appointment with Harry Truman in the Oval Office. 1121 01:03:47,994 --> 01:03:50,038 Oppenheimer's agenda is to persuade 1122 01:03:50,080 --> 01:03:55,210 Harry Truman of the importance of controlling this technology. 1123 01:03:56,419 --> 01:03:59,631 And he starts to make this pitch. 1124 01:03:59,673 --> 01:04:02,842 And Truman interrupts him with a question, saying, 1125 01:04:02,884 --> 01:04:05,679 "Well, Dr. Oppenheimer, when do you think the Russians 1126 01:04:05,720 --> 01:04:08,723 are going to get this weapon of mass destruction?" 1127 01:04:09,724 --> 01:04:14,020 And Oppenheimer is sort of taken aback by the question 1128 01:04:14,062 --> 01:04:20,026 and says, "Well, I'm not sure but sometime in the future." 1129 01:04:20,068 --> 01:04:24,614 And Truman interrupts again and says, "Well, I know. Never." 1130 01:04:27,242 --> 01:04:29,452 At that point, Oppie understands 1131 01:04:29,494 --> 01:04:31,955 that Harry Truman doesn't understand anything 1132 01:04:31,996 --> 01:04:35,583 about the physics of this weapon. 1133 01:04:35,625 --> 01:04:41,297 And Oppenheimer, at that point, says exactly the wrong thing. 1134 01:04:41,339 --> 01:04:44,384 RHODES: He really offended President Truman 1135 01:04:44,426 --> 01:04:48,555 by saying, "Mr. President, I have blood on my hands." 1136 01:04:48,596 --> 01:04:50,598 (explosion rumbling) 1137 01:04:51,683 --> 01:04:53,476 BIRD: This is exactly the wrong thing 1138 01:04:53,518 --> 01:04:55,478 to say to the guy who made the decision 1139 01:04:55,520 --> 01:05:00,859 to drop two such bombs on two Japanese cities. 1140 01:05:00,900 --> 01:05:03,445 He was trying to impress Truman. 1141 01:05:03,486 --> 01:05:06,114 He thought it was something that Truman would like to hear, 1142 01:05:06,156 --> 01:05:08,408 and he got that wrong a lot. 1143 01:05:08,450 --> 01:05:10,744 I mean, Oppenheimer was very charming to a lot of people, 1144 01:05:10,785 --> 01:05:12,787 but he was often not charming 1145 01:05:12,829 --> 01:05:16,082 to leaders and people who had power over him. 1146 01:05:16,124 --> 01:05:17,751 WELLERSTEIN: Truman didn't believe 1147 01:05:17,792 --> 01:05:20,837 that anybody's responsibility was greater than his. 1148 01:05:20,879 --> 01:05:24,215 Truman was just, "Get that guy out of my office. 1149 01:05:24,257 --> 01:05:26,301 I was the one who made the decision." 1150 01:05:27,594 --> 01:05:29,804 BIRD: He ends the meeting very abruptly 1151 01:05:29,846 --> 01:05:31,556 and later tells his aides that, 1152 01:05:31,598 --> 01:05:35,477 "I don't want to see that crybaby scientist ever again." 1153 01:05:37,771 --> 01:05:42,442 I think the only hope for our future safety 1154 01:05:42,484 --> 01:05:44,527 must lie in a collaboration, 1155 01:05:44,569 --> 01:05:47,238 based on confidence and good faith, 1156 01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:48,907 with the other peoples of the world. 1157 01:05:48,948 --> 01:05:52,952 SNOWDEN: Oppenheimer, very early after the bombings, 1158 01:05:52,994 --> 01:05:55,080 was a part of the team to recommend 1159 01:05:55,121 --> 01:05:56,581 international disarmament. 1160 01:05:57,665 --> 01:06:00,210 But the genie was out of the bottle. 1161 01:06:00,251 --> 01:06:02,045 Right? Those who possess this 1162 01:06:02,087 --> 01:06:04,297 will be able to shape the world order. 1163 01:06:04,339 --> 01:06:08,218 And very quickly, the Soviet Union took note. 1164 01:06:08,259 --> 01:06:10,470 (explosion rumbling) 1165 01:06:11,388 --> 01:06:15,225 NORRIS: The Soviets tested a bomb in 1949 1166 01:06:15,266 --> 01:06:17,686 to the shock of almost everyone. 1167 01:06:19,187 --> 01:06:20,897 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: President Truman's dramatic announcement 1168 01:06:20,939 --> 01:06:24,734 that Russia has created an atomic explosion 1169 01:06:24,776 --> 01:06:26,653 sends reporters racing for Flushing Meadow, 1170 01:06:26,695 --> 01:06:29,948 where Russia's Vyshinsky arrives to address the United Nations... 1171 01:06:29,989 --> 01:06:32,992 This puts the U.S. in a really complicated position, 1172 01:06:33,034 --> 01:06:37,789 because it's no longer the only country with nuclear weapons. 1173 01:06:39,708 --> 01:06:41,543 Suddenly, you have the possibility 1174 01:06:41,584 --> 01:06:45,171 that if war with nuclear weapons broke out between two states 1175 01:06:45,213 --> 01:06:47,924 that had a fair number of them, 1176 01:06:47,966 --> 01:06:51,011 they could, in a matter of hours, destroy themselves. 1177 01:06:51,052 --> 01:06:52,679 (civil defense siren blaring) 1178 01:06:52,721 --> 01:06:54,139 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: We must all get ready now, 1179 01:06:54,180 --> 01:06:56,349 so we know how to save ourselves 1180 01:06:56,391 --> 01:06:59,102 if the atomic bomb ever explodes near us. 1181 01:07:00,520 --> 01:07:02,397 And one of the possible options 1182 01:07:02,439 --> 01:07:05,567 scientists and policy people lobbied for 1183 01:07:05,608 --> 01:07:09,654 was to build the hydrogen bomb as the sort of next step. 1184 01:07:09,696 --> 01:07:11,740 (explosion rumbling) 1185 01:07:12,782 --> 01:07:14,701 SNOWDEN: The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs 1186 01:07:14,743 --> 01:07:18,747 were on the order of 15 kilotons of TNT, 1187 01:07:18,788 --> 01:07:21,249 which is no small number in and of itself. 1188 01:07:23,335 --> 01:07:26,713 When you start talking about hydrogen bombs, 1189 01:07:26,755 --> 01:07:29,382 now we're talking about megatons. 1190 01:07:29,424 --> 01:07:33,511 We're talking about a million tons of TNT. 1191 01:07:34,554 --> 01:07:36,514 They're categorically different. 1192 01:07:36,556 --> 01:07:38,767 A thousand times stronger than anything you'd see 1193 01:07:38,808 --> 01:07:41,519 in a Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb. 1194 01:07:42,604 --> 01:07:45,398 ELSE: With one very large hydrogen bomb, 1195 01:07:45,440 --> 01:07:46,900 you can kill about as many people 1196 01:07:46,941 --> 01:07:49,736 as all of the people killed in World War II. 1197 01:07:50,737 --> 01:07:54,532 And Oppenheimer could not see any use for that. 1198 01:07:54,574 --> 01:07:57,869 He called it a genocidal weapon. 1199 01:07:59,954 --> 01:08:03,917 EDWARD TELLER: At the end of the war, most people wanted to stop. 1200 01:08:03,958 --> 01:08:06,378 I did not. 1201 01:08:06,419 --> 01:08:08,213 Among the people who knew 1202 01:08:08,254 --> 01:08:11,091 a great deal about the hydrogen bomb, 1203 01:08:11,132 --> 01:08:13,802 I was the only advocate of it. 1204 01:08:15,095 --> 01:08:18,014 RHODES: Edward Teller was a Hungarian Jew 1205 01:08:18,056 --> 01:08:22,977 who escaped from Hungary and came to the United States. 1206 01:08:23,019 --> 01:08:26,773 During World War II, Teller worked at Los Alamos, 1207 01:08:26,815 --> 01:08:30,443 but he became obsessed with the idea of the hydrogen bomb, 1208 01:08:30,485 --> 01:08:33,863 even before they had the atomic bomb. 1209 01:08:33,905 --> 01:08:36,282 HERKEN: Teller did very much consider the atomic bomb 1210 01:08:36,324 --> 01:08:38,702 to be Oppenheimer's creation, 1211 01:08:38,743 --> 01:08:41,246 and he wanted something that was bigger and better. 1212 01:08:42,497 --> 01:08:45,542 CONANT: And Oppenheimer said to Teller, 1213 01:08:45,583 --> 01:08:49,838 "Go back to doing physics, but don't build this. 1214 01:08:49,879 --> 01:08:51,798 There's no need for it." 1215 01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:54,718 RHODES: Oppenheimer was in charge of a committee 1216 01:08:54,759 --> 01:08:57,804 that had been put together in Washington to decide: 1217 01:08:57,846 --> 01:08:59,014 What should we do? 1218 01:08:59,055 --> 01:09:02,851 Should we build a hydrogen bomb? 1219 01:09:02,892 --> 01:09:04,352 That is a question 1220 01:09:04,394 --> 01:09:07,605 in everybody's mind, Dr. Oppenheimer. 1221 01:09:07,647 --> 01:09:13,194 Are we creating something we may not be able to control? 1222 01:09:13,236 --> 01:09:16,322 The decision to try to make 1223 01:09:16,364 --> 01:09:19,492 or not to make the hydrogen bomb 1224 01:09:19,534 --> 01:09:21,995 touch the very basis of our morality. 1225 01:09:22,037 --> 01:09:24,873 And the committee decision was basically, 1226 01:09:24,914 --> 01:09:27,125 no, we shouldn't build the hydrogen bomb. 1227 01:09:27,167 --> 01:09:30,837 If we are guided by fear alone, 1228 01:09:30,879 --> 01:09:34,507 we'll fail in this time of crisis. 1229 01:09:34,549 --> 01:09:39,804 The answer to fear sometimes lies in courage. 1230 01:09:40,889 --> 01:09:43,058 WELLERSTEIN: Oppenheimer's opposition of the H-bomb 1231 01:09:43,099 --> 01:09:46,644 was taken very hard by people who were in favor for it. 1232 01:09:48,605 --> 01:09:51,232 RHODES: The Air Force wanted more and more bombs 1233 01:09:51,274 --> 01:09:53,485 and bigger and bigger bombs. 1234 01:09:53,526 --> 01:09:55,695 The bigger the bomb, in terms of its yield, 1235 01:09:55,737 --> 01:09:58,406 the more damage one plane could do. 1236 01:09:59,199 --> 01:10:01,076 HERKEN: The Strategic Air Command was focused upon 1237 01:10:01,117 --> 01:10:03,244 blowing up the Soviet Union. 1238 01:10:04,079 --> 01:10:07,374 Oppenheimer said a smarter move would be to put resources 1239 01:10:07,415 --> 01:10:09,751 into intercepting Soviet bombers. 1240 01:10:10,835 --> 01:10:13,046 RHODES: He was going just the opposite direction 1241 01:10:13,088 --> 01:10:14,714 from what the Air Force wanted. 1242 01:10:14,756 --> 01:10:17,592 They wanted him out. They wanted to get rid of him. 1243 01:10:20,428 --> 01:10:24,599 BIRD: By 1953, Oppenheimer has made sufficient enemies 1244 01:10:24,641 --> 01:10:27,852 in the Washington bureaucracy. 1245 01:10:27,894 --> 01:10:30,230 And then along comes Lewis Strauss... 1246 01:10:30,271 --> 01:10:32,982 (applause) 1247 01:10:33,024 --> 01:10:36,069 ...the new chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. 1248 01:10:36,111 --> 01:10:38,947 STRAUSS: I have just returned from the Pacific Proving Ground, 1249 01:10:38,988 --> 01:10:42,784 where I have witnessed a test of thermonuclear weapons. 1250 01:10:42,826 --> 01:10:45,495 BIRD: And Strauss knows Oppenheimer 1251 01:10:45,537 --> 01:10:48,081 and has grown to intensely dislike him. 1252 01:10:48,123 --> 01:10:51,501 RHODES: Oppenheimer had been snappish with him once, 1253 01:10:51,543 --> 01:10:54,379 and it had deeply offended him. 1254 01:10:54,421 --> 01:10:58,717 So Strauss begins to plot 1255 01:10:58,758 --> 01:11:02,053 a means to defrock Oppenheimer. 1256 01:11:03,263 --> 01:11:05,265 SHERWIN: And how does he do it? 1257 01:11:05,306 --> 01:11:11,104 Lewis Strauss focuses on Oppenheimer's association 1258 01:11:11,146 --> 01:11:13,732 with left-wing friends 1259 01:11:13,773 --> 01:11:17,402 during the 1930s in Berkeley. 1260 01:11:17,444 --> 01:11:19,404 MAN (over TV): "Communism." 1261 01:11:19,446 --> 01:11:21,114 Who are the apostles of a system 1262 01:11:21,156 --> 01:11:24,701 that attempts to destroy the American way of life? 1263 01:11:25,827 --> 01:11:30,165 During the Second World War, the Soviet Union was our ally. 1264 01:11:30,206 --> 01:11:33,043 And that sense of being a communist 1265 01:11:33,084 --> 01:11:36,254 or associating with communists was not something 1266 01:11:36,296 --> 01:11:39,299 that was considered that bad. 1267 01:11:39,341 --> 01:11:42,635 It wasn't until the Cold War 1268 01:11:42,677 --> 01:11:45,889 that all of a sudden, in retrospect, 1269 01:11:45,930 --> 01:11:50,310 anyone with any kind of legacy of a communist past 1270 01:11:50,352 --> 01:11:52,604 is now a security threat. 1271 01:11:52,645 --> 01:11:55,565 If there were no communists in our government, 1272 01:11:55,607 --> 01:11:59,652 why did we delay, for 18 months, 1273 01:11:59,694 --> 01:12:02,197 delay our research on the hydrogen bomb? 1274 01:12:02,989 --> 01:12:05,700 RHODES: It was from attitudes like that 1275 01:12:05,742 --> 01:12:08,620 that finally led to the government deciding 1276 01:12:08,661 --> 01:12:11,873 they had to pull Oppenheimer's security clearance. 1277 01:12:13,833 --> 01:12:15,377 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: He would have to give up 1278 01:12:15,418 --> 01:12:20,131 his security clearance in 30 days or ask for a hearing. 1279 01:12:23,176 --> 01:12:25,679 He felt he couldn't give up his security clearance. 1280 01:12:25,720 --> 01:12:27,013 He couldn't agree with them 1281 01:12:27,055 --> 01:12:29,015 that he wasn't fit to serve his government. 1282 01:12:30,350 --> 01:12:32,602 ELSE: He should have told them to get lost. 1283 01:12:33,395 --> 01:12:36,690 He should have said, "I am the atomic bomb. 1284 01:12:37,482 --> 01:12:39,901 "I won World War II. 1285 01:12:39,943 --> 01:12:41,319 Fuck off." 1286 01:12:42,237 --> 01:12:45,031 For whatever reason, he didn't tell them to get lost. 1287 01:12:45,073 --> 01:12:46,658 He decided to fight it. 1288 01:12:48,201 --> 01:12:50,578 BIRD: And before he goes down to Washington, 1289 01:12:50,620 --> 01:12:52,372 he meets with Einstein 1290 01:12:52,414 --> 01:12:56,751 to tell him he's gonna be absent for a few weeks, 1291 01:12:56,793 --> 01:13:01,131 and Einstein's reaction is quite startling. 1292 01:13:02,757 --> 01:13:07,971 Albert says, "But, Robert, you are Mr. Atomic. 1293 01:13:08,013 --> 01:13:09,931 "You don't need them. They need you. 1294 01:13:09,973 --> 01:13:12,934 Just walk away. Why should you go through this?" 1295 01:13:13,893 --> 01:13:18,606 And Oppenheimer shakes his head and apparently says to Albert, 1296 01:13:18,648 --> 01:13:21,526 "Well, you don't understand." 1297 01:13:21,568 --> 01:13:23,820 And he walks away, 1298 01:13:23,862 --> 01:13:26,448 and Einstein turns to his secretary and says, 1299 01:13:26,489 --> 01:13:29,492 "There goes a nar." 1300 01:13:29,534 --> 01:13:31,828 The Yiddish for a fool. 1301 01:13:33,621 --> 01:13:36,791 (fanfare plays) 1302 01:13:36,833 --> 01:13:38,501 TV ANNOUNCER: World attention was focused this week 1303 01:13:38,543 --> 01:13:41,254 on the Atomic Energy Commission building in Washington, 1304 01:13:41,296 --> 01:13:43,798 where a three-man board began special hearings 1305 01:13:43,840 --> 01:13:46,968 on the security file of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1306 01:13:47,010 --> 01:13:50,096 the nuclear scientist who developed the first A-bomb. 1307 01:13:50,972 --> 01:13:55,185 The security hearing starts, and it quickly becomes clear 1308 01:13:55,226 --> 01:13:57,145 that this is not just a security hearing. 1309 01:13:57,187 --> 01:13:58,480 This is a trial. 1310 01:13:58,521 --> 01:14:00,273 TV ANNOUNCER: There's a new charge 1311 01:14:00,315 --> 01:14:02,942 that the scientist opposed the development of the H-bomb. 1312 01:14:02,984 --> 01:14:06,071 WELLERSTEIN: The deck is stacked against him, and it's ugly. 1313 01:14:06,112 --> 01:14:08,073 They're wiretapping his conversations 1314 01:14:08,114 --> 01:14:10,867 with his lawyer illegally and giving it to the prosecution 1315 01:14:10,909 --> 01:14:13,370 so that they know exactly what's gonna happen. 1316 01:14:13,411 --> 01:14:16,122 They are able to look at classified FBI files. 1317 01:14:16,164 --> 01:14:17,999 He is not because he doesn't have a clearance, 1318 01:14:18,041 --> 01:14:21,211 and he can't look at his own FBI file as a result. 1319 01:14:22,504 --> 01:14:27,300 RHODES: Oppenheimer's involvement with Jean Tatlock, 1320 01:14:27,342 --> 01:14:30,387 the question of whether his brother had been a communist 1321 01:14:30,428 --> 01:14:32,889 and still was, 1322 01:14:32,931 --> 01:14:36,643 those were the things they pulled out of the files. 1323 01:14:39,312 --> 01:14:41,773 CONANT: One of the most damning pieces of evidence 1324 01:14:41,815 --> 01:14:44,359 that was brought out was 1325 01:14:44,401 --> 01:14:47,737 the fact that, during the war, there had been a conversation 1326 01:14:47,779 --> 01:14:50,824 at his home in Berkeley with Haakon Chevalier, 1327 01:14:50,865 --> 01:14:53,952 his old friend, who had mentioned to him 1328 01:14:53,993 --> 01:14:56,287 that there was a way perhaps that he could 1329 01:14:56,329 --> 01:14:59,624 leak information about the atomic project he was working on 1330 01:14:59,666 --> 01:15:01,209 to Soviet officials. 1331 01:15:01,251 --> 01:15:03,920 Now, Oppenheimer had dismissed it at the time, 1332 01:15:03,962 --> 01:15:07,173 but he had not reported the incident. 1333 01:15:07,215 --> 01:15:10,051 He knew he was already on thin ice with security people, 1334 01:15:10,093 --> 01:15:13,263 that he was suspected because of his communist ties. 1335 01:15:13,304 --> 01:15:18,018 So he was trying to keep himself out of hot water. 1336 01:15:18,059 --> 01:15:20,979 The problem was that, in subsequent conversations 1337 01:15:21,021 --> 01:15:26,860 with Los Alamos security people, he had told very evasive, vague 1338 01:15:26,901 --> 01:15:30,697 accounts of this conversation, one after another. 1339 01:15:31,906 --> 01:15:34,075 And when they confronted Oppenheimer 1340 01:15:34,117 --> 01:15:37,370 with these evasive versions, they asked him, 1341 01:15:37,412 --> 01:15:38,872 "Why did you do this? 1342 01:15:38,913 --> 01:15:41,916 Why wouldn't you have been forthright?" 1343 01:15:41,958 --> 01:15:44,252 He said, "I was an idiot." 1344 01:15:44,294 --> 01:15:48,757 And in a sense, he sealed his own fate then. 1345 01:15:51,217 --> 01:15:53,762 RHODES: He fell apart. 1346 01:15:53,803 --> 01:15:57,265 He tried to testify, but he really fell apart. 1347 01:15:59,017 --> 01:16:02,812 BIRD: He's having almost another nervous breakdown, 1348 01:16:02,854 --> 01:16:05,357 like what he went through as a young man. 1349 01:16:05,398 --> 01:16:10,737 He's oddly stoic, like he was in the icehouse 1350 01:16:10,779 --> 01:16:13,615 when he was a young boy being tormented 1351 01:16:13,656 --> 01:16:16,159 by his fellow summer campers. 1352 01:16:18,536 --> 01:16:22,957 He's resigned and not really defending himself. 1353 01:16:24,334 --> 01:16:28,672 One person who sort of put the nails in his coffin, of course, 1354 01:16:28,713 --> 01:16:30,840 was Edward Teller. 1355 01:16:33,176 --> 01:16:35,512 HERKEN: Teller testified against Oppenheimer. 1356 01:16:35,553 --> 01:16:38,807 He said that he thought he would feel better 1357 01:16:38,848 --> 01:16:40,392 if the security of the country 1358 01:16:40,433 --> 01:16:44,104 were in other hands than Oppenheimer's. 1359 01:16:44,145 --> 01:16:48,358 And one of the scientists who was close to Oppenheimer said 1360 01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:51,695 it was a matter of not only stabbing Oppenheimer in the back 1361 01:16:51,736 --> 01:16:53,822 but twisting the blade. 1362 01:16:55,573 --> 01:16:56,991 RHODES: As he was leaving, 1363 01:16:57,033 --> 01:16:58,743 he went up to shake Oppenheimer's hand 1364 01:16:58,785 --> 01:17:01,162 and said, "I'm sorry." 1365 01:17:02,497 --> 01:17:06,793 And Oppenheimer looked him in the eye and said, 1366 01:17:06,835 --> 01:17:09,546 "Edward, after what you just said, 1367 01:17:09,587 --> 01:17:12,340 I don't know what that means." 1368 01:17:13,675 --> 01:17:17,220 NOLAN: He was obviously a very, very brilliant man, 1369 01:17:17,262 --> 01:17:20,849 but I think he may have underestimated 1370 01:17:20,890 --> 01:17:24,561 the power of the establishment, the machine, 1371 01:17:24,602 --> 01:17:26,646 and the inability of one individual 1372 01:17:26,688 --> 01:17:29,065 to stand against that. 1373 01:17:29,858 --> 01:17:33,194 BIRD: The result was to be expected. 1374 01:17:33,945 --> 01:17:35,989 (fanfare plays) 1375 01:17:36,031 --> 01:17:38,033 TV ANNOUNCER: Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1376 01:17:38,074 --> 01:17:40,160 the famous scientist whose suspension this week 1377 01:17:40,201 --> 01:17:43,705 by the Atomic Energy Commission surprised the nation. 1378 01:17:43,747 --> 01:17:48,043 They voted to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance. 1379 01:17:51,338 --> 01:17:55,258 This was front-page news in the newspapers across the country. 1380 01:17:56,885 --> 01:17:59,137 That he had recommended communists 1381 01:17:59,179 --> 01:18:01,181 who are working the A-bomb, H-bomb plans. 1382 01:18:01,222 --> 01:18:04,184 His wife, uh, admittedly was, uh, 1383 01:18:04,225 --> 01:18:07,020 an official of the Communist Party, 1384 01:18:07,062 --> 01:18:09,230 uh, brother a very active communist. 1385 01:18:10,523 --> 01:18:14,110 BIRD: He became a political pariah. 1386 01:18:14,152 --> 01:18:15,862 KAKU: And that sent a chill 1387 01:18:15,904 --> 01:18:19,240 through the scientific community. 1388 01:18:19,282 --> 01:18:22,285 If they could take down the most famous atomic scientist 1389 01:18:22,327 --> 01:18:26,206 on the planet Earth, then we're all vulnerable. 1390 01:18:27,749 --> 01:18:31,044 BIRD: It sent a really nefarious message 1391 01:18:31,086 --> 01:18:32,962 to all working scientists 1392 01:18:33,004 --> 01:18:38,385 to beware of weighing in on political issues. 1393 01:18:40,553 --> 01:18:44,766 And this is a terrible thing because we need their expertise. 1394 01:18:44,808 --> 01:18:48,520 And yet the Oppenheimer trial 1395 01:18:48,561 --> 01:18:51,064 made that difficult. 1396 01:18:57,320 --> 01:18:58,905 RHODES: After the security trial, 1397 01:18:58,947 --> 01:19:01,866 Oppenheimer was never the same guy again. 1398 01:19:02,992 --> 01:19:06,121 He was kind of a hollow man after that. 1399 01:19:07,288 --> 01:19:09,165 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: What we say inside the family is 1400 01:19:09,207 --> 01:19:11,459 it hurt his feelings. 1401 01:19:15,171 --> 01:19:18,925 He didn't like it, but he didn't talk about it. 1402 01:19:18,967 --> 01:19:21,553 He never made one statement about it publicly. 1403 01:19:24,139 --> 01:19:26,641 He never asked for an apology, 1404 01:19:26,683 --> 01:19:29,811 and he retreated back into where he came from. 1405 01:19:31,146 --> 01:19:33,606 BIRD: He still kept his job at Princeton, 1406 01:19:33,648 --> 01:19:37,360 but he wasn't doing any more physics. 1407 01:19:37,402 --> 01:19:39,738 These were kind of sad years. 1408 01:19:39,779 --> 01:19:42,198 MURROW: And Professor Einstein is still here, too, isn't he? 1409 01:19:42,240 --> 01:19:46,828 Oh, yeah. Indeed he is. Uh, indeed he is. Uh... 1410 01:19:46,870 --> 01:19:49,330 Does he ever call you up on the telephone? 1411 01:19:49,372 --> 01:19:50,248 Hmm, sometimes. 1412 01:19:50,290 --> 01:19:52,292 I think he... he calls me, 1413 01:19:52,334 --> 01:19:54,210 uh, when he reads in the newspapers 1414 01:19:54,252 --> 01:19:56,087 something about me that he doesn't like, 1415 01:19:56,129 --> 01:19:58,131 and he calls me up and-and says, 1416 01:19:58,173 --> 01:20:00,175 "That's all right. That's just right." 1417 01:20:00,216 --> 01:20:04,095 SHERWIN: He had lost his fighting spirit. 1418 01:20:04,137 --> 01:20:08,475 He would have nothing to do with commenting 1419 01:20:08,516 --> 01:20:13,480 on any of the issues of the day related to nuclear weapons. 1420 01:20:13,521 --> 01:20:16,441 MAN: Dr. Oppenheimer, could you tell us what your thoughts are 1421 01:20:16,483 --> 01:20:20,028 about what our atomic policy should be? 1422 01:20:20,070 --> 01:20:22,322 No, I-I can't do that. 1423 01:20:22,364 --> 01:20:26,534 I'm not... not close enough to the facts, 1424 01:20:26,576 --> 01:20:28,161 and I'm not close enough 1425 01:20:28,203 --> 01:20:32,874 to the thoughts of those who are worrying about it. 1426 01:20:34,459 --> 01:20:37,712 RHODES: Hans Bethe told me once that, 1427 01:20:37,754 --> 01:20:40,173 "Oppenheimer was smarter than any of the rest of us." 1428 01:20:40,215 --> 01:20:43,468 He didn't win a Nobel Prize. 1429 01:20:43,510 --> 01:20:46,304 How could this man, who evidently outshone 1430 01:20:46,346 --> 01:20:48,890 some of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, 1431 01:20:48,932 --> 01:20:54,020 not have been more successful in his line of work-- physics-- 1432 01:20:54,062 --> 01:20:55,814 than he was? 1433 01:20:55,855 --> 01:20:57,565 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: You can't talk about Oppenheimer 1434 01:20:57,607 --> 01:21:00,360 when you're not talking about his science. 1435 01:21:00,402 --> 01:21:02,028 That was the part of his life. 1436 01:21:02,070 --> 01:21:03,738 When he talks about what he loves, 1437 01:21:03,780 --> 01:21:07,200 it was that human thing of passing knowledge around. 1438 01:21:07,242 --> 01:21:09,202 This is negative particles, 1439 01:21:09,244 --> 01:21:13,123 neutral, doubly charged, positive and positive... 1440 01:21:13,164 --> 01:21:15,125 CHARLES OPPENHEIMER: His work on black holes 1441 01:21:15,166 --> 01:21:17,293 should have earned him a Nobel Prize. 1442 01:21:19,629 --> 01:21:24,551 SHERWIN: In 1939, Oppenheimer wrote the first paper 1443 01:21:24,592 --> 01:21:30,390 identifying the idea of collapsing stars, a black hole. 1444 01:21:30,432 --> 01:21:34,352 So, black holes was his original idea. 1445 01:21:34,394 --> 01:21:36,604 I mean, that's quite amazing. 1446 01:21:38,064 --> 01:21:39,399 And if a real black hole 1447 01:21:39,441 --> 01:21:42,027 had been identified before he died... 1448 01:21:43,153 --> 01:21:46,990 ...he probably would have won a Nobel Prize for that work. 1449 01:21:49,242 --> 01:21:51,745 BIRD: In 1966, 1450 01:21:51,786 --> 01:21:55,290 he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. 1451 01:21:55,331 --> 01:21:58,460 All that smoking over the years had gotten to him. 1452 01:21:58,501 --> 01:22:01,004 (clock ticking) 1453 01:22:01,046 --> 01:22:04,716 And he died in early '67. 1454 01:22:07,427 --> 01:22:09,387 Oppenheimer's life story, 1455 01:22:09,429 --> 01:22:11,639 it's the story of the 20th century. 1456 01:22:11,681 --> 01:22:15,477 It's the story of our nuclear age 1457 01:22:15,518 --> 01:22:17,979 that we're still living with, 1458 01:22:18,021 --> 01:22:20,648 and that's a story that is unfinished. 1459 01:22:20,690 --> 01:22:22,108 Will always be unfinished. 1460 01:22:22,150 --> 01:22:24,361 (explosion rumbling) 1461 01:22:26,571 --> 01:22:28,198 ELSE: We have his bomb. 1462 01:22:28,239 --> 01:22:30,492 His bomb is with us. 1463 01:22:30,533 --> 01:22:33,328 And we can debate his membership in the Communist Party 1464 01:22:33,370 --> 01:22:35,455 or we can debate the ethics 1465 01:22:35,497 --> 01:22:38,583 of bombing civilians at Hiroshima until we drop, 1466 01:22:38,625 --> 01:22:41,044 but the fact is that we have nuclear weapons. 1467 01:22:43,254 --> 01:22:45,090 That's the legacy. 1468 01:22:45,131 --> 01:22:50,053 And controlling those weapons, it's a never-ending struggle. 1469 01:22:51,012 --> 01:22:53,223 (explosion rumbling) 1470 01:22:57,852 --> 01:23:01,564 It was so horrible with a baby bomb. 1471 01:23:01,606 --> 01:23:05,485 Now they have so much more lethal nuclear weapon. 1472 01:23:07,612 --> 01:23:09,364 OPPENHEIMER: There is much talk about 1473 01:23:09,406 --> 01:23:11,491 getting rid of atomic weapons. 1474 01:23:12,283 --> 01:23:16,204 I have a deep sympathy with that. 1475 01:23:17,330 --> 01:23:23,420 TAMURA: Please, let's try to find common ground. 1476 01:23:26,089 --> 01:23:31,302 I'm sure if Oppie was alive today, he would agree with me. 1477 01:23:32,053 --> 01:23:33,763 MAN: ...two, one. 1478 01:23:33,805 --> 01:23:37,475 OPPENHEIMER: But we mustn't fool ourselves. 1479 01:23:37,517 --> 01:23:39,644 The world is not going to be the same 1480 01:23:39,686 --> 01:23:43,189 no matter what we do with atomic bombs, 1481 01:23:43,231 --> 01:23:48,611 because the knowledge of how to make them cannot be exorcized. 1482 01:23:49,404 --> 01:23:51,614 -(insects chirring) -(wind whistling softly) 1483 01:23:53,742 --> 01:23:56,578 JUDY WOODRUFF: Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer 1484 01:23:56,619 --> 01:24:01,374 is perhaps best known as the father of the atomic bomb. 1485 01:24:01,416 --> 01:24:03,043 As time has passed, 1486 01:24:03,084 --> 01:24:07,130 there are some new assessments of his role in history. 1487 01:24:08,131 --> 01:24:10,300 In late 2022, the Department of Energy 1488 01:24:10,342 --> 01:24:16,389 decided to vacate the decision to have the security hearings. 1489 01:24:17,849 --> 01:24:20,060 The national tragedy is that this hearing, 1490 01:24:20,101 --> 01:24:24,189 this McCarthy-era witch hunt, materialized in the first place. 1491 01:24:24,981 --> 01:24:27,067 That type of thing is not supposed to happen 1492 01:24:27,108 --> 01:24:28,902 in a country like this. 1493 01:24:28,943 --> 01:24:33,490 This is such an important and long overdue step. 1494 01:24:34,741 --> 01:24:36,993 But at the same time, it's kind of sad, 1495 01:24:37,035 --> 01:24:39,662 because this is something that J. Robert Oppenheimer 1496 01:24:39,704 --> 01:24:42,332 will not get to experience personally. 1497 01:24:44,417 --> 01:24:46,961 OPPENHEIMER: Science has profoundly altered 1498 01:24:47,003 --> 01:24:50,090 the conditions of man's life, 1499 01:24:50,131 --> 01:24:54,427 both materially and in ways of the spirit as well. 1500 01:24:57,222 --> 01:24:59,140 NYE: I think we're still talking about Oppenheimer 1501 01:24:59,182 --> 01:25:01,768 because he was so influential. 1502 01:25:01,810 --> 01:25:05,146 We have this respect and fear of science. 1503 01:25:06,815 --> 01:25:10,402 And Oppenheimer represented both sides of that, for sure. 1504 01:25:11,653 --> 01:25:15,156 NOLAN: Unquestionably, he changed the world. 1505 01:25:15,198 --> 01:25:16,366 And he changed the world forever. 1506 01:25:16,408 --> 01:25:17,951 There's no going back. 1507 01:25:18,743 --> 01:25:22,205 But we know that as long as men are free to ask what they will, 1508 01:25:22,247 --> 01:25:26,376 free to say what they think, free to think what they must, 1509 01:25:26,418 --> 01:25:28,962 science will never regress, 1510 01:25:29,004 --> 01:25:32,590 and freedom itself will never be wholly lost. 1511 01:25:36,386 --> 01:25:38,638 * * 1512 01:25:40,056 --> 01:25:41,641 (slides clicking) 1513 01:25:52,235 --> 01:25:54,487 (explosion rumbling) 1514 01:26:07,959 --> 01:26:10,920 * * 1515 01:26:10,962 --> 01:26:13,214 (explosion booming) 1516 01:26:39,991 --> 01:26:41,701 * * 1517 01:26:41,743 --> 01:26:43,328 (lighter clicks) 1518 01:27:02,180 --> 01:27:04,432 (explosion rumbling) 1519 01:27:14,025 --> 01:27:14,150 (music fades) 120254

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