Becoming Death: J. Robert Oppenheimer's Regret | 1945 | Time Travels

New Mexico, 1945

There's a flurry of activity as military officials and scientists get themselves into order to witness something extraordinary

A few put on special welding goggles, even though it's only just after five in the morning

The minutes tick down until all has fallen quiet. Then, 5.29am, there's a blinding flash of light and a thunderous roar

In a patch of sand a few miles downrange, an enormous ball of flame and energy gives birth to a towering mushroom cloud

425 people look on in awe as the first ever nuclear bomb is detonated

and among them is the man whose scientific work had made it happen. He had named the nuclear test Trinity after a line from a 17th century poem

but as the flash subsided and goggles were removed, the man was reminded of another, more ancient poem from the Hindu holy book

As the staff around him laughed, cried, or stood in silent awe

he recited the line in his head, I am mighty time, the great destroyer of worlds

and I have come here to destroy all people. The man's name was J. Robert Oppenheimer

and he and his team had just changed the world forever. Hello, time travellers. I'm your friend Mike Brady, and this is the remarkable story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb

It's hard to imagine where somebody so influential as Oppenheimer could come from

History's full of movers and dreamers, doers and daredevils, and often they have surprising backgrounds or unusual childhoods that drove them into action

But in J.R. Oppenheimer's case, even though his work would eventually go on to change the face of the world and society forever

his background story is surprisingly straightforward. Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on the 22nd of April 1904

to a family of Jewish German immigrants living in New York City

His family were wealthy, thanks to his father's clothing business, and the young Robert grew up in luxury

However, it was a lonely childhood. Robert's mother was protective of the boy

after his younger brother had died as an infant, and he spent most of his time at home with her

Here, he developed a passion for the sciences, becoming an amateur geologist and writing to local collectors

He was occasionally bullied by other children for not pursuing the same sports and games as the others that were his age

but it was clear to his parents that they had an exceptionally bright son, and they encouraged his interests

He managed to skip several grades at school, and even convinced the curator of the Museum of Natural History to tutor him

In high school, he was top of his class in all of his subjects, from Latin and German to physics

And one friend recalled that he took on more classes than everybody else because he was just trying to keep himself occupied

The young Oppenheimer developed a deep love for the desert environment of New Mexico

when he visited a friend's ranch there, and years later he'd purchased the ranch himself

renaming it Pero Caliente, or Hot Dog. In 1922, Oppenheimer attended Harvard

and eventually settled on chemistry as a major after having tried basically everything the university had to offer

There could be no question of his academic brilliance, and after three years he graduated Summa Cum Laude

making the Dean's List and was offered a graduate fellowship. But instead, Oppenheimer chose to travel to England and then Germany

studying advanced physics and earning his doctorate. But at 1927 at just 23 years of age Oppenheimer was back in the US teaching between the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University

Oppenheimer was a tall, thin young man who chain-smoked like a chimney

and, through periods of intense concentration, often forgot to eat for days

His hyperfocus wasn't just born of interest. The young man was often depressed and he was prone to bouts of rage

He once told his brother that he needed physics more than friends. Despite his youth, he was already well known in his field thanks to his European experience

He was also well acquainted with the new theories that were coming from the continent

Among these theories was the idea that a chain reaction could be caused in uranium

that would lead to a massive release of energy, which, if harnessed, would produce the most powerful weapon ever created by humankind

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Allied scientists had deep fears

See, Germany had been at the heart of nuclear physics studies before the war. And if Nazi Germany's scientific community was able to turn the theoretical atom bomb

into the real thing, then the war in Europe would be over and the swastika might fly across the globe

A group of atomic scientists contacted Albert Einstein and expressed their concerns

Einstein, in turn, wrote a letter to American President Roosevelt with the concerns of the scientists

and asking that the United States begin research of its own nuclear weapon

But the response was not impressive. At first, the U.S. government was reluctant to take it seriously

But then, in 1940, something was discovered that changed everything. Now, the theory behind the atom bomb had existed since the early 1930s among nuclear physicists

But it wasn't until 1940 that the atom bomb became not just theoretical, but an actual possibility

See, only uranium-235 was capable of producing the chemical reaction needed for actually producing the atom bomb

But that was a particularly rare form of the element. Then in 1940, two German physicists studying in Britain

discovered a process for producing uranium-235 quickly and in quantities large enough to make building a bomb a viable option

The danger was immediately apparent If the Nazis were able to discover this process as well

they might be able to make a bomb big enough to destroy London or any other European city

Word of the new discovery made its way to America and the United States government was at last spurred into action

They established groups to study the possibility of the atomic bomb in 1940 and two years later, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was brought on board

Now, the young physicist was quickly given control of the new secret weapons development program

codenamed the Manhattan Project. He was given a single objective, build a bomb before the Germans did

and his appetite for scientific advancement was voracious. He took to the task with absolute enthusiasm

Oppenheimer selected Los Alamos, a region of his beloved New Mexico, as the location for the secret laboratory and its support city

The site at Los Alamos quickly bloomed to house over 6,000 people

and Oppenheimer, without ever having held an army rank or managed more than a small team of people

was in charge of all of it. For years, he and the other scientists at Los Alamos

worked around the clock to find a way to build an atom bomb. By the 16th of July 1945, they'd finally succeeded

The Trinity test was conducted in the New Mexico desert and ushered in the nuclear age

Oppenheimer had gazed coolly at the massive explosion and whatever internal conflict he might have been feeling he did his best to hide From the reports of witnesses the only thing he said when he saw the explosion was

I guess it worked. Fears of a Nazi nuclear bomb had been largely unfounded

Hitler had never invested enough resources to get the Nazi nuclear program off the ground in the first place

and his bloodthirsty regime had chased hundreds of highly influential scientists, physicists, and chemists away

purely because of their Jewish heritage. In fact, the two German scientists

who discovered the method for easy production of uranium-235 back in 1940 had actually fled Germany

and even went to work for Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project in America

Now, the scientists at Los Alamos had been eager to beat the Germans to the bomb. But then when the time came to actually use it

on their other enemy, Japan, there was a sudden reluctance. The United States now possess

the most terrifying destructive weapon ever produced. and Oppenheimer and his team had willed it and worked it into existence

Now the blood of tens of thousands or even millions could be on their hands

So the mood was grim. One of Oppenheimer's colleagues remembered in the weeks after the Trinity test

finding him pacing the camp with his pipe, muttering, Those poor, poor people

In August 1945, the atom bomb was deployed operationally, first over Hiroshima and then Nagasaki

killing a combined total of roughly 200,000 people. Oppenheimer was justifiably upset about the second atomic bombing at Nagasaki in particular

He felt that the use of a single bomb would be enough to convince the Japanese to surrender

had they simply been given more time. He travelled to Washington to speak to President Truman and requested the bomb be banned

telling the President that, I feel I have blood on my hands. President Truman was, to put it simply, unimpressed by this display of remorse

He kicked Oppenheimer out and told his secretary, I don't want to see that son of a b**** in this office ever again

And later called him a crybaby scientist. The atom bomb project was now well out of Oppenheimer's care

and his creation had a life of its own. Terrifyingly, it was now in the hands of the greatest military-industrial complex on Earth

Oppenheimer's intense desire to complete the project, followed by an equally intense regret at having done so

reflects the two sides of the man. Before the project was completed, he was the obsessive scientist

who was given the chance to break barriers and invent something never before conceived of

But when it was finished, he was filled with deep regret and the horror that his scientific breakthroughs and achievements had led to the incineration of nearly a quarter of a million people

Immediately after the war, he began advocating for arms control, going so far as to suggest that the Soviets be allowed to collaborate with the Americans on nuclear weapons

that the bombs be banned like poison gas had been after the First World War. He deeply feared the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States

because he more than anybody understood the full destructive potential of the atomic bomb

But when his efforts to share control of nuclear power failed, he became despondent

He also knew that America's sole control of nuclear power wasn't going to last

telling Times Magazine in 1948 that our atomic monopoly is like a cake of ice melting in the sun

and his vision was prophetic. In 1949, the Soviet Union tested a nuclear bomb of their own

and the dynamic of power in the world was forever changed. With the loss of their nuclear monopoly

the US military was no longer satisfied with the state of their nuclear arsenal

They needed bigger and better bombs right away and set about the creation of the hydrogen bomb

Oppenheimer opposed the development of this new bomb as he was already horrified by the destructive potential of regular atomic weapons

A hydrogen bomb was hundreds of times more powerful, and he refused to take part in the development

and encouraged other scientists to boycott the program as well. When he heard that the US Air Force's plan for nuclear war

involved the carpet bombing of Eastern Europe, he called the plan genocidal

He was particularly concerned about the threat of nuclear terrorism once saying that in the modern world a single man

was capable of destroying New York with a briefcase Around the same time Oppenheimer was labelled as a security risk

by the Eisenhower government as a result of his opposition to nuclear war

and with some previous left-wing activism during the Great Depression This was an era of great mistrust and scapegoating

Oppenheimer had his security clearance revoked and he was removed from his authoritative positions

This only further cemented his opposition to nuclear weapons. He was particularly critical of the American war planners for their willingness to kill billions of people as part of a standard plan of attack

He asked, What are we to make of a civilization which has always regarded ethics as an essential part of human life

but which has not been able to talk about the prospect of killing almost everybody except in prudential and game-theoretical terms

Seeing the persecution Oppenheimer was facing, Albert Einstein suggested that he simply move to another country

A scientist as accomplished as Oppenheimer would have no trouble getting a job anywhere in the world

and he would not have to face the anti-communist witch hunts that had taken over the United States

But Oppenheimer refused for a simple reason. He was an American patriot

Damn it, he said. I happen to love this country. He was eventually politically rehabilitated in the 1960s

and was invited to the White House by President Kennedy, but he never stopped advocating for the destruction of nuclear weapons

and arguing against the insanity of nuclear war. If there is another world war

this civilization may go under. We need to ask ourselves whether we're doing all we can to avert that

We need, I think, to learn to understand the realities of life abroad

not so much in terms of slogans as in terms of the lives of men

In our response to these realities, there is hope for peace. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize, but never won for classic Oppenheimer reasons

He simply had too many interests to take any single field to the point that he would actually win a Nobel Prize in it

On the 18th of February 1967, Oppenheimer died after having fallen into a coma several days before

His funeral was attended by hundreds of scientists and public figures, including American President Lyndon B. Johnson and dozens of his former colleagues and staff

And even today, Oppenheimer's legacy continues to be felt. The threat of nuclear war might have fallen out of the public consciousness

but it's not vanished. Russia and the United States maintain nuclear arsenals of thousands of weapons each

while smaller stockpiles are held by India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, France, China, and North Korea

Luckily, there hasn't been a nuclear attack since the bombings of Japan in 1945

But so long as the weapon exists, there will always be the temptation to use them

We can only hope that Oppenheimer's prophecies are never realised

Thank you