Oppenheimer during the War

Again, what it says on the tin.

The road to creating a successful atomic bomb was a long and grueling one. When it was discovered that Germany was researching atomic energy, the US government put together a dream team of scientists. Research truly began in 1940, when the project was funded with 6,000 dollars. Even before the project began research, Oppenheimer, in 1939, was selected to lead the team. The team eventually moved out to the lab in Los Alamos where most of the research and experimentation took place. Co-workers and colleagues of Oppenheimer said later that if it weren’t for him, the atomic bomb would never have become a reality. He will always be remembered as the “father of the atomic bomb.” But Oppenheimer signed up the race to develop the bomb before Nazi Germany, not the massacre of thousands of innocent Japanese people. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer took a very controversial stance. That of peace. He became a self-proclaimed pacifist in stark opposition of the development of the Hydrogen Bomb. This was his downfall. At this time, America had just entered the Red Scare, fear of communism and left-wingism was abundant, and Julius Oppenheimer felt the brunt of it. The beginning of Oppenheimers demise was name Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss (straws.) Strauss had always been a huge proponent of the H Bomb, and had always had it out for Oppenheimer. This was his chance. After years of spying, he had a way to dethrone Oppenheimer and make way for the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction. Because Oppenheimer didn’t want to slaughter thousands more innocent people, he was labeled a communist. In 1953, he was asked to resign from his position as adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission. His refusal made him subject to a hearing that wasn’t entirely legal. “Charges” against him were issues that had been resolved in past years. Since it wasn’t a court of law, very shaky or insubstantial evidence was allowed. In the end, Oppenheimer lost his security clearance. But he lost much more than that. He lost his dignity and any respect of credibility he had in the scientific community. Oppenheimer was brilliant, a genius, and his talents were wasted because he wanted peace. Friends and coworkers urged him to take up one of the many offers to work for universities and institutions outside the country, but he refused. Because even after what was done to him, he said with tears in his eyes, “Damn it, I happen to love this country.”