J. Robert Oppenheimer
Genius, Tragedy, Ethics, and the Decision to Drop the Bomb
Robert Oppenheimer never really thought about the ethics of the atomic bomb until the successful test of a plutonium device at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. Then, one of the most highly-educated men of the twentieth century felt an inrush of ethical anguish. Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life trying to come to terms with what he, what America, what humankind, had done. "I am become death," he quoted, "shatterer of worlds." Because of his ethical sensitivities, the hardened geopoliticians of the Cold War did what they could to destroy Oppenheimer, principally because he expressed his misgivings about the United States' creation of the vastly more destructive hydrogen fusion device.
We will discuss the best biography of Oppenheimer, the gated world of Los Alamos, the physics and the engineering of the atomic bomb, and the race to build a bomb small enough to be delivered by a B-29 bomber. We will examine the Trial and Fall of Oppenheimer (May 1954), and his partial-rehabilitation in 1963. On the last day of the retreat, we will explore Harry S. Truman's decision to use the bomb to hasten the end of the World War II in the Pacific.
This may sound like a macabre topic for a retreat in one of the most beautiful places in North America, but the story is utterly fascinating, engrossing, and—given nuclear proliferation in North Korea and (perhaps) Iran—unfortunately relevant.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds by Peter Goodchild
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer: and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race by Priscilla McMillan
A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Mark Wolverton
The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 1945 by Dennis Wainstock
We are also likely to watch Dr. Strangelove together, and clips of other atomic-related films.