Oppenheimer – The Hagiography of a Scientist

The newly released film, “Oppenheimer“, directed by Christopher Nolan, seeks to examine the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and indeed re-write the history of this pivotal figure in the rapid development of the first atomic weapons.  My expectation was that Oppenheimer would dramatize the events surrounding the Manhattan Project and the detonation of the first atomic weapons –  a milestone event in modern history which has changed global political dynamics like few other events have.

J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Guest Lodge, Oak Ridge, in 1946

What we have in this film however is little of the history of the Manhattan Project but instead endless congressional hearings where the Republicans are portrayed as heartless antagonists irrationally pursuing brave and heroic scientists.

Oppenheimer failed to mention that:

  • The Manhattan project was infiltrated by Russian intelligence, particulalry the NKVD
  • The Russians did receive nuclear technology materials from within the Manhattan Project which allowed them to rapidly develop atomic weapons
  • The Congressional hearings were held because of this and were entirely justified.

Alger Hiss – Convicted Communist Spy

There is no mention of Alger Hiss, an American government official and close confident of President Roosevelt who spied for Russia in the 1930s and was investigated  in the 1940s for spying, but because of the USA Statute of Limitations he could only be convicted of perjury for lying to the court about his active espionage role.

Klaus Fuchs – Convicted Communist Spy

Klaus Fuchs, a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly after World War II.

The film fails to mention Klaus Fuchs, a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly after World War II. While at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fuchs was responsible for many significant theoretical calculations relating to the first nuclear weapons and, later, early models of the hydrogen bomb. After his conviction in 1950, he served nine years in prison in the United Kingdom, then migrated to East Germany where he resumed his career as a physicist.  In January 1950, Fuchs confessed that he had passed information to the Soviets over a seven-year period beginning in 1942 while he was working on the Manhattan Project.  A British court sentenced him to fourteen years’ imprisonment and he was subsequently stripped of his British citizenship. He was released in 1959, after serving nine years, and migrated to the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany), where he was elected to the Academy of Sciences and became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) central committee. He was later appointed deputy director of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf, where he served until he retired in 1979.  Fuchs passed his secret documents to Harry Gold who passed them on to the Rosenbergs.

Harry Gold  – Convicted Communist Spy

There was no mention of Harry Gold (born Henrich Golodnitsky, December 11, 1910 – August 28, 1972) who was a Swiss-born American laboratory chemist who was convicted as a courier for the Soviet Union passing atomic secrets from Klaus Fuchs, an agent of the Soviet Union, during World War II. Gold served as a government witness and testified in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted and executed in 1953 for their roles. Gold served 15 years in prison.

Gold after his arrest by the FBI

David Greenglass – Convicted Communist Spy

No mention was made of David Greenglass, another Russian spy at Los Alamos. He was a machinist and atomic spy for the Soviet Union who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was briefly stationed at the Clinton Engineer Works uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then worked at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico from August 1944 until February 1946.

Mr. Greenglass, left, with a United States marshal in 1950.Credit…Associated Press

He provided testimony that helped convict his sister and brother-in-law Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed for their spying activity. Greenglass served nine and a half years in prison. However Greenglass’s wife typed up the secret material for transmittal to the Rosenbergs however Greenglass stated in court that it was not his wife but Ethel Rosenberg. Likely Ethel Rosenberg played only a minor role – but it was this testimony that led to her execution.

Julius and Ethel; Greenberg – Convicted and Executed Communist Spies

These Russian spies and devoted Communists passed their information to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg amongst others, who were an American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to be executed during peacetime.

The Rosenbergs. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to be executed during peacetime.

Robert Oppenheimer associated with numerous members of the Communist party:

  • His girlfriend Jean Tatlock  was an American psychiatrist and physician. She was a very active member and recruiter of the Communist Party of America and was a reporter and writer for the party’s publication, Western Worker.  She drowned herself in a bathtub.
  • Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer was a German American biologist, botanist, and a member of the Communist Party of America. Her brother was also a member of the Communist Party of America.
  • Robert Oppenheimer’s brother Frank Friedman Oppenheimer  was an American particle physicist, cattle rancher, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  He was refused a security clearance to work on the Manhattan Project because of his ties to the Communist Party of America.  After the war, Oppenheimer’s membership and active participation in the Communist Party placed him under scrutiny, and he resigned from his physics position at the University of Minnesota.
  • There was an interconnected cabal of Communist Party of America spies within the Manhattan Project and close to Robert Oppenheimer.
  • Robert Oppenheimer was closely associated with numerous other member of the Communist Party of America, held Communist events at his home and on campus and sent funds to the Communist Party to support the Communist insurgency in Spain between 1936 and 1939.
  • Statements by retired members of the Russian secret services that Russia did not benefit from the Manhattan Project Communist Party of America spy ring are not believable and entirely self-serving.

In Conclusion

Given the state of infiltration of American institutions and in particular the Manhattan Project in the 1940’s by members of the Communist Party of America and active engagement by the Russian secret services especially the NKVD, it is entirely reasonable that at a time of great international tension that members and associates of the Communist Party of America would be placed under suspicion. 

Government photograph of J. Robert Oppenheimer (in light colored hat with foot on tower rubble), General Leslie Groves (in military dress to Oppenheimer’s left), and others at the ground zero site of the Trinity test after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (some time after the actual test). September 1945. (Wikimedia Commons)

Based on the above it is highly likely that Robert Oppenheimer had at the very least, strong Communist sympathies and the withdrawal of his security clearance entirely justified.  Under similar circumstances today, it is unlikely that J Robert Oppenheimer would receive a security clearance beyond, “Interim Security Clearance”. 

Robert Oppenheimer was a security risk in 1942 and would be justifiably seen as a security risk today.

Further, in hindsight, it is now likely that very few of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project would have received top level security clearances today – many of them were far to close to friends and family with extreme leftists leanings or were members of the Communist Party of America. It should also be born in mind that these are merely the Russian spies of which we have become aware, in all probability there were many more than managed to escape detection.

As for the film, I was disappointed.  It provided no new material and no new insights and is a little more than a hagiography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, while omitting critical elements that would allow the viewer to address the underlying questions as to whether Robert Oppenheimer was a Communist and whether he was fairly treated.

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