AMERICAN PROMETHEUS

The Triumph and Tragedy of Oppenheimer

By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a titan, who stole fire from Olympus to give it to the humankind. The man and the force behind the construction of atomic bomb in America did very much the same. The atom bomb changed the course of military history during and after the Second World War and, therefore, the title is quite appropriate.  We learn that Oppenheimer excelled in School and “received every new idea as perfectly beautiful”.  He read Plato and Homer in Greek and Cicero, Virgil and Horace in Latin.  He was particularly attracted towards T.R. Eliot, whose poems dealt with themes of sadness and loneliness.  The authors tell us that Oppenheimer was permitted to remain a child and allowed to grow out of his immaturity rather than being wrenched abruptly from it.  Because of his inbuilt introvert nature, evidently Oppenheimer had very few friends at School.  His Jewishness further forbade him from fellow students.

Oppenheimer loved Chemistry very deeply.  As he confided to his friend, “Compared to physics, it starts right at the heart of things and very soon you have the connection between what you see and really very sweeping set of ideas which   could exist in physics bur is very much less likely to be accessible”.  But the early years of 20^th Century were great discovery in physics with Niehl Bohr’s description of the hydrogen atom Heisenberg’s formulation of matrix mechanics and Irwin Schroinger’s thery of wave mechanics.  Combined with the wretched political climate of Weimer Germany, his family was driven  to Physics and USA.

It is often stated that Oppenheimer was moved by Bhagwatgita, specially at the sight of mushrooming cloud at the nuclear test blast site. His favourite portion of Gita called “Satakatrayam” which contains the following:

Vanquish enemies at arms….

Gain mastery of the sciences

And varied arts…

You may do all this, but karma’s force

Alone prevents what is not destined

And compels what is to be.

 

But, Oppenheimer was influenced by the Gita which celebrates a life of action and engages with the world.

Midway through the book, Oppenheimer’s flirtation with communism has been exhaustively dealt with.  He was certainly moved by the leaning of communism towards the under-privileged, but his tribulations were owing to deep suspicions of the American ruling establishment with anyone having the slightest leanings towards communism.

The most attractive part of the book is the time spent by Oppenheimer as Director of the “Weapon Laboratory” which would integrate various parts of the far flung sites of the “Manhattan Project”.  He was all by himself with no special dress code wearing ordinary suit with napkin draped over his arms, much like a waiter.

Even before the advent of atomic age, Oppenheimer along with other scientists such as Niels Bohr felt that international control of atomic energy is possible only in an open world based on values of science.  For them, communitarian culture of scientific inquiry  produced progress, rationality and even peace. Knowledge is itself the basis of civilization and any widening of the borders of our knowledge impose an increasing responsibility on individuals and nations through the possibilities it gives for shaping the conditions of human life.

Unfortunately, such exalted thoughts have been thrown to the winds as nations in post WW-II pursued narrow paths aiming national glory resulting in the dangerous situation we are in today.  Oppenheimer was of the opinion that knowledge of atomic weapons should be shared with other powers such as the Soviet Union, Briton, France and China and suggestions should be invited for improvement in international relations.  In fact, Oppenheimer favored only a technical demonstration of the gadget and outlawing atomic weapons at the outset. But the American establishment did not pay any heed to such ideas.

Like Bertrand Russell, Oppenheimer enunciated establishment of a world body which would harness peaceful uses of atomic energy.  Again,  like Russell, he called for partial renunciation of sovereignty by nations so that such a body could be effective.