Was Robert Oppenheimer a Soviet spy?
No one could ever prove so, yet, because of the allegation, the scientist was stripped of his clearance and the position of adviser to the U.S. government.
A biopic by director Christopher Nolan about Robert Oppenheimer – the chief of the ‘Manhattan Nuclear Project’ – premiered on Friday, July 21, 2023, in numerous countries. The plot includes a highly ambiguous part of the scientist’s biography – his ties with communists. But were there any for real?
Cillian Murphy Is J. Robert Oppenheimer In "OPPENHEIMER" (2023), Written, Produced, And Directed By Christopher Nolan.
‘The father of the atomic bomb’
That’s what Oppenheimer was dubbed, due to his work on the ‘Manhattan Project’. The project itself worked on the creation of the atomic bomb – and succeeded. In 1945, after the ‘Trinity’ test bomb, the U.S. became the first country of the world to possess nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer himself said 20 years later: “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.”
The work on this top-secret project became active in the beginning of 1940s, right on the eve of the U.S. joining the Allies in World War II. The U.S. was scared that Nazis would be the first to develop an atomic bomb – and, with this, the nuclear arms race began. Oppenheimer was invited to be the head of the project, as he was well-known in the scientific community for his studies of subatomic particles.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer of the New Mexico laboratories of the atomic bomb making project, testifies before the Senate Military Affairs Committee in Washington.
The making of the bomb was finished when the Nazis had already been defeated. So, the first and only usage of a nuclear bomb occurred when the U.S. decided to bomb the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing approximately 110,000 people. After this horrific act, Oppenheimer met U.S. President Harry Truman and allegedly said to him: “I have blood on my hands…” Only after the tragedy did the scientist fully understand the dreadful power of his creation.
In October 1945, Oppenheimer resigned. Yet, he was never against nuclear weapons in general and, when an idea of developing even more “sledgehammer” hydrogen bomb was proposed, he did not oppose it. He was simply unenthusiastic about this thought, as, to his judgment, the H-bomb would be too powerful to use on the battlefield and the U.S. should have concentrated on the production of Hiroshima-type bombs.
The first U.S. atom bomb explodes during a test in Alamogordo, N.M., July 16, 1945.
Why was Oppenheimer branded a communist?
As it seems, allegations of spying for the USSR were nothing but attempts to beat Oppenheimer in the administrative struggle about production of H-bombs. Oppenheimer remained very influential in the beginning of 1950’s – he was chairman of the advisory council to the Atomic Energy Commission and director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. And his opposition to the production of H-bombs could really affect future budgeting.
U.S. intelligence services really had some aces up their sleeves. Oppenheimer’s wife, his brother and some friends of the scientist were once members of the communist party and even Oppenheimer himself attended several meetings. Moreover, he openly supported some of the party’s ideas and once was a supporter of the anti-fascist cause in the Spanish civil war – hence, must be supporting the communists. No one ever proved he was recruited by the Soviet intelligence services or passed any kind of information to the communists. Yet, it was enough to be on friendly terms with communists to be accused of disloyalty in the Cold World era.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, his wife Katherine and daughter Toni visit the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, May 28, 1958.
A tribunal held the hearings in 1954 and voted to revoke Oppenheimer’s clearance and he was discharged from the position of adviser to the U.S. government. Later, Oppenheimer was vindicated on two occasions – in 1959 and 1963. In 1959, one of Oppenheimer’s ex-colleagues would testify that the campaign against the scientist was nothing but vengeance and, in 1963, president Lyndon Johnson bestowed upon Oppenheimer the prestigious Fermi Award.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy admitted that Oppenheimer’s tribunal was flawed and biased.
The Enrico Fermi science award, one of science's most coveted honors, was awarded to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in a ceremony at the White House, Dec. 2, 1963.
