TERMINATED

As the bomb neared completion, the scientists began to wonder about the morality of unleashing it on humanity. While many had qualms, Oppenheimer actually supported the use of the bomb in order to demonstrate to the world that the U.S. possessed such a capability. He feared that keeping the weapon a secret would guarantee its widespread use in future wars. Oppenheimer, influenced by Niels Bohr, idealistically envisioned openly sharing nuclear information with the Soviets to avert an arms race. He feared atomic war and nuclear terrorism. Oppenheimer used the fame that came out of the Manhattan Project to press these issues, but President Truman described him as a “cry-baby scientist” after Oppenheimer confessed, “I feel I have blood on my hands.”

Oppenheimer became the director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, which was famous for hosting Albert Einstein, but he still faced the wrath of his enemies. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover urged his agents to dig up anything incriminating, and they returned with a far-fetched report that Oppenheimer “had homosexual tendencies.” The FBI wiretapped his phones. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) member Lewis Strauss rabidly pursued Oppenheimer’s downfall too after Oppenheimer humiliated him during a Senate hearing. And finally there was Teller, “the father of the hydrogen bomb,” whose pet project Oppenheimer vehemently opposed.

Oppenheimer’s final downfall began when President Eisenhower restricted his access to classified information. Strauss orchestrated a three-member AEC panel to determine whether Oppenheimer should be allowed to retain his security clearance. The “Chevalier affair,” the Tatlock tryst, and Oppenheimer’s old Leftist connections resurfaced and torpedoed his chances at swaying the panel. In the end, Strauss had stacked the decks too high against Oppenheimer, and the panel recommended the termination of his security clearance on a two-to-one vote.

Oppenheimer had his silent revenge, though. Strauss’s unconscionable actions against the famed scientist led senators to reject his appointment as commerce secretary. Oppenheimer lived out the rest of his days at Princeton, dying at age 62 when his smoking habit finally caught up with him in the form of cancer. Oppenheimer had been publicly redeemed though. He received the Fermi Prize for public service from President Johnson, and he was portrayed sympathetically in a 1964 play that attracted international acclaim.

In typical spy novel fashion, this tale ends on an upbeat note. Oppenheimer finishes far ahead of petty men like Strauss and Hoover. The biography is long, but it is infinitely more satisfying than a Tom Clancy thriller, thanks to Bird and Sherwin’s meticulous character construction. And, even better, the reader doesn’t have to worry about the authors churning out another equally long sequel—at least not for another quarter-century.