A great biography is like an exciting novel. Skilled biographers deftly weave a pulsating, dramatic narrative as they probe layers of fact, myth and mystery. That's precisely what Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin have accomplished in their superb study of Robert Oppenheimer four decades after his death. The father of the atomic bomb was one of the most famous, influential and controversial scientists of the 20th century. His life was a Greek tragedy. ''Like that rebellious Greek god Prometheus who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humankind, Oppenheimer gave us atomic fire,'' the authors write. ``But when he tried to take it back, when he warned us that it was too dangerous, the authorities, like Zeus, rose up in anger to punish him.''
It took 25 years to complete this exhaustive work. Along with fresh insider accounts of behind-the-scenes intrigues of the early atomic age in which Oppenheimer was intimately involved, virtually all aspects of his life are minutely dissected. A vivid portrait is painted of a charismatic, immensely human theoretical physicist who was as talented as he was complex; brilliant, yet naive; wise but foolish. To enemies, he was a closet communist. To supporters, he was the most prominent victim of McCarthyite witch-hunts that intimidated Cold War America.
Oppenheimer was a perplexing enigma. During World War II, he aggressively captained the scientific all-star team that built the A-bomb, yet was one of the first to advocate its elimination, warning more than a half-century before 9/11 that terrorists would someday use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. When asked what was needed to detect a smuggled bomb, Oppenheimer quipped, ``A screwdriver to open each and every crate or suitcase.''
In 1946, he boldly proposed banning nuclear weapons, outraging generals and hawkish politicians. He pressured the recalcitrant Atomic Energy Commission to investigate nuclear terrorism. He was also an early proponent of international weapons control, believing that only candor and transparency could prevent a genocidal arms race. After resigning from the program, he told President Truman, ''I feel I have blood on my hands.'' The furious chief executive ordered aides to prohibit that ''crybaby scientist'' from returning to the Oval Office.
Oppenheimer's concerns were ignored, and he was silenced, a task made easier by his flirtation with communism in the 1930s. While many colleagues (including his brother) were Communist Party members, he wasn't, even though he later admitted to being a ''fellow traveler'' before the war. The FBI relentlessly investigated him for years, but failed to uncover conclusive proof of spying or disloyalty.
The most riveting part of American Prometheus is a chilling description of how in 1953 J. Edgar Hoover and AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss conspired to destroy Oppenheimer's career, accusing him of being a dangerous risk. They manipulated flimsy evidence to support trumped-up charges. ''I am very distressed,'' top advisor John J. McCloy told President Eisenhower. ''It's like inquiring into the security risk of Newton or Galileo.'' When the president did nothing, Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked by the AEC, prompting physicist Albert Einstein to mockingly dub it the ``Atomic Extermination Conspiracy.''
The defrocking backfired as protests poured in, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of military commanders and policymakers to build even more lethal weapons. Oppenheimer enjoyed renewed popularity, but never again was involved with significant nuclear projects, spending the rest of life under a cloud of suspicion. He died in 1967 and remains controversial to this day.
There have been numerous books and a popular European play written about Oppenheimer, but they can't touch this extraordinary book's impressive breadth and scope. It is in the same league with William Manchester's epic American Ceasar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964, one of the finest biographies ever penned. American Prometheus is more than just an absorbing recapitulation of a man's trials and tribulations. It is also a disturbing, cautionary tale about how a revengeful federal government can destroy with impunity whomever it chooses, especially if the nation is immersed in fear and hysteria generated by its own leaders. |
