How the mind of the “father of the atomic bomb” embodied all the madness of the greatest war humanity has ever known — all the horrors, all the moral dilemmas, and all the regrets
He was rarely seen without a cigarette in his hands. He looked like any long-time nicotine addict, whose lungs would, seemingly without reason, produce the sound of a deep cough. Just like all those hardened and mildly neurotic smokers who would desperately inhale tobacco trying to soothe their nerves, while a cloud of smoke formed around them. But that day was different. The smoke cloud around Robert Oppenheimer’s head was a far too small replica of another, much larger cloud he had made possible — the deadliest one, shaped like a mushroom.
And on that day, Robert Oppenheimer lit one cigarette after another. He was particularly nervous. He was in New Mexico, a place he otherwise loved, and just ten kilometers away from him, in a desert ominously named Jornada del Muerto(Spanish for “Journey of the Dead”), he awaited the sound of an explosion that would signal the successful test of the first atomic bomb — more precisely, a plutonium bomb.
It was July 16, 1945, and the first test of the atomic bomb was taking place in New Mexico — known as the Trinity project. The very same type of bomb, after being successfully tested in that desert, would be dropped on Nagasaki just a month later. And that was no longer a test.
In those thirty days, in the mind of one man — Robert Oppenheimer, the American scientist whose name is inextricably linked to the phrase “father of the atomic bomb” — was contained all the madness of the greatest war the world remembers, all the horrors, all the moral dilemmas, and all the regrets that inevitably accompany war.
That’s also why the movie Oppenheimer drew so much attention. Besides the fact that Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking background is enough of a guarantee for at least a well-made blockbuster — and with the brilliant Cillian Murphy in the lead — one could reasonably expect those wouldn’t be two hours wasted (mistake: the film is three hours long). But the story of Robert Oppenheimer — in today’s hybrid version of the Cold War era, when potential nuclear catastrophes are once again being rattled — raises many doubts and unanswered questions.
Even if he hadn’t been the “father of the atomic bomb,” his life would have been colorful enough for a film — though in that case, the facts might have stayed on the margins. The focus would likely have been on artistic reflections of a uniquely flawed and deeply contradictory individual constantly walking the line of genius. It could have been a new A Beautiful Mind.
The film, currently playing in cinemas and based on the biography American Prometheus, was written by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the book. It was developed over decades, and its creation alone might one day make a good film. Sherwin, a historian, spent years collecting testimonies about Oppenheimer from hundreds of his closest colleagues and friends. When journalist Bird joined him, they shaped the story of a man who may not have been the greatest scientist of the 20th century, but was certainly one of the most influential.
Robert Oppenheimer came from a wealthy Jewish family. He held a privileged position and had the opportunity to be well-educated. Childhood friends say he was always special — talented and inspired, but not full of himself.
However, his adolescence and education were marked by crises, depression, and anxiety — as well as bouts of excessive aggression. He was rarely satisfied with himself, even when achieving scientific success and clearly destined for a prominent career.
One particularly controversial episode was when he allegedly left a poisoned apple on his mentor’s desk — luckily, the mentor didn’t eat it. Biographers mention this in their book, but his grandson, who had been in contact with Nolan during the film’s development, recently denied it as unfounded or at least insufficiently proven gossip.
Regardless, it was clear he was a complex character — as he once said himself: “Physics is more important to me than friends.”
He certainly didn’t lack ambition — which would become crucial when assessing his role once he realized what kind of weapon he had helped create.
So, the story could have been like A Beautiful Mind. But since it was Robert Oppenheimer, a man who — through knowledge and brilliance — created the conditions for a revolutionary shift in global politics, both art and reflection ultimately step aside. What remains is a pure political thriller and psychological drama about a man who changed the world.
Oppenheimer led the team of scientists who, together with the military, worked on the atomic bomb project. A month before the rest of the world, they were among the first to witness the atomic horror that the bomb unleashed. The question is — how aware of that horror were they at the time?
The Trinity project was the culmination of the larger Manhattan Project, a three-year effort by the Allied governments, militaries, and scientists (well — not all Allies, mostly the Western ones led by the U.S.) during World War II to develop an atomic bomb as a solution to end the war — and potentially as a prelude to future ones.
The Manhattan Project lasted from 1942 onward, and Oppenheimer led its scientific branch. Today, we know far more about him than before — especially since the movie about his life began breaking box-office records.
Of course, he wasn’t the only one responsible — but he was certainly the emotional and intellectual anchor of the entire project. Jeremy Bernstein, a scientist who worked with Oppenheimer after WWII, wrote in his biography that he was convinced of one thing: if Oppenheimer hadn’t led the Manhattan Project, the war would have ended… without nuclear weapons.
Looking at his pre-war life, it’s almost bizarre that he was the man who changed the nature of warfare and the global balance of power.
In his formative years, Oppenheimer was completely indifferent to politics. Allegedly — to illustrate just how uninformed he was — he only heard about the 1929 stock market crash six months later during a walk with future Nobel laureate Ernest Lawrence.
He voted for the first time in 1936. Around then, he began to take an interest in global affairs — largely because of one major change: the Nazis came to power in Germany, and he became concerned about the fate of scientists fleeing the country.
Though somewhat a matter of trendiness, he started advocating leftist ideas — essentially social reform movements which, during the Cold War hysteria, would later be labeled in American society as “communist ideas.”
He was close to various left-leaning student organizations, but the only truly “communist” thing he ever did was organizing aid for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.
He often donated money to causes supported by his leftist friends — some of which were linked to the Communist Party— but he himself was never a member.
With that background, he wasn’t exactly the ideal candidate for the Manhattan Project — but his expertise was indispensable. The FBI even opened a file on him in 1941 to investigate his Communist ties. A year later, during his vetting for the Manhattan Project, he allegedly stated he had been a member of every Communist organization on the West Coast.
Years later, he said he didn’t remember saying that, and if he did, it must have been sarcastic.
What is confirmed is that he subscribed to a magazine published by the Communist Party USA — but his actual membership remains a historical mystery without a definitive answer.
According to Sherwin and Bird, when he heard his name was being considered for the atomic bomb project, he supposedly told a friend: “I’m cutting all ties with the Communists.”
Oppenheimer was, in fact, a strong American patriot.
His biographers noted a deep nostalgia for his time studying in Europe, and when the war broke out, he felt a strong desire to help his nation.
Albert Einstein, who knew him well, later defined it:
“The trouble with Oppenheimer is that he loves something that does not love him back – the United States.”
Although many in the military were suspicious of him, General Leslie Groves, who led the military part of the project, believed in him.
As director of “Project Y,” the scientific part of the bomb project, he could hardly expect a stress-free life.
By the time the day came to test the bomb that would later be dropped on Nagasaki, it was clear that he had lost a considerable amount of weight over those three years—reportedly down to 52 kg (115 lbs). And he wasn’t a short man, which made him appear rather strange and exceedingly thin during those atomic days.
When the countdown began in New Mexico, Dr. Oppenheimer was so nervous that, as one officer later recalled, he could barely breathe.
Then the countdown reached zero. A flash brighter than the sun erupted, a shockwave was felt up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) away, and a mushroom cloud rose into the sky. Dr. Oppenheimer could finally exhale.
His colleague and friend, physicist Isidor Rabi—who had won the Nobel Prize just a year earlier—watched Robert and was struck by his peculiar gait. “I can’t forget how he got out of the car… that strut. He knew he had succeeded.”
That moment—July 16, 1945—would be remembered in history as the beginning of the atomic age.
It’s said that news of the successful test was immediately relayed to President Truman, who now had a powerful card to play at the Potsdam Conference. It’s also said that Stalin was surprisingly calm and composed when Truman pulled him aside to share the “good news” in private.
Stalin had already been informed about the successful test.
Both men knew what it meant—both of them, at least deep down, understood that this was the beginning of something that would come to be known as the Cold War. Oppenheimer only fully realized this later, though he too, somewhere deep inside, understood what was unfolding.
In an interview in the early 1960s—practically near the end of his life—Oppenheimer added another emotional layer to the strutting behavior his colleagues had noticed:
“We knew the world would not be the same. Some laughed, some cried, most were silent. I remember the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince to do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says: ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
It is not entirely easy to reconstruct the personality of Robert Oppenheimer, especially if one considers the moral background of his work. It is not easy even if one starts from banal things, such as his name.
When people today state his full name, many emphasize Julius Robert Oppenheimer (or J. Robert Oppenheimer for short), as it was written on his birth certificate, but this name Julius (after his father) was later lost, and as for the initial “J”, he himself said that it “does not mean anything”. His brother once explained that the confusion with that part of his name arose from the desire of his parents to find some kind of compromise between the traditional custom of the eldest son being named after his father and the realization that they did not want their son to be “junior”.
When, a month after “Trinity,” he told his colleagues that a uranium bomb had been successfully dropped on Hiroshima, those present could see the joy on his face, the exhilaration as his palms clapped together…
Namely, a plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, and the next step was to create an even more devastating hydrogen bomb.
Here, Oppenheimer drew a line.
He was definitely aware of the consequences of his project, and that some living people would die. But when you put things in the context of the race with Nazi Germany, which could also have come up with such a bomb, a different picture emerges.
His biographers Sherwin and Bird called him an enigma, because he represented “a theoretical physicist with the charismatic qualities of a great leader; a scientist who was also a first-class manipulator and a master of imagination,” as one friend described him.
Interestingly, during the development of the bomb, Oppenheimer told scientists who had a dilemma that they, as scientists, were not responsible for how the bomb was used.
“If there is blood, it will be on the hands of politicians,” he said.
However, when the bomb was dropped, he changed his angle.
Reportedly, during a meeting with President Truman, he said that he felt blood on his hands, and that Truman replied that he did not worry about it and that the blood was on his (Truman’s) hands.
It seemed as if he wanted to get rid of the annoying scientist, but Oppenheimer became a critic of the hydrogen bomb and with his communist background he soon became – and with the beginning of the Cold War in the USA, the mindless spread of fear of the Red Terror began – an unpopular figure for the establishment, to say the least.
Thus, in 1954, he was the subject of an investigation for his connections with the Communist Party of the USA, after which, it is said, he worked in the profession until the end of his life in 1967. An avid smoker, he died of throat cancer. Cigarette smoke probably took his life.
But that big smoke, that destructive mushroom-shaped one, never left him alone again. If the question of his name is so sensitive, how can we reconstruct his emotions at the moment when he became the “father of the atomic bomb”, as the world of that time and today’s history remembered him.
A few days after “Trinity”, according to the testimony of people involved in the project, both scientists and officers, Robert began to fall into depression. Allegedly, one morning he was heard to worry about the Japanese who would be killed by the bomb:
“Those poor little people, those poor little people…”
But a few days later, his enthusiasm took over again.
According to the biography that was the basis for the film, in one meeting with officers, he was more focused on the bomb than on the people. That is, on whether the soldiers would drop it correctly and under the right conditions.
“Of course, they can’t drop it in the rain or in the fog… Don’t let them detonate it too high… Don’t drop it too high or the target won’t be damaged enough…”
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