Robert Oppenheimer made America a superpower. Not Edison, or Ford, or Carnegie. Not Washington or Lincoln or Donald Trump. Oppenheimer. The success of the Manhattan Project has been universally credited to his leadership. The terrible weapon it created prevented an invasion of Japan that would have resulted in perhaps half a million American combat casualties. Not to mention countless Japanese deaths. Debates about use of the atomic bomb always seem to miss that last point. After Pearl Harbor, the Americans weren't going to stop. Ever. As R.F. Laird has deftly observed, the defining characteristic of the American psyche is revenge. And whether you're killed by an atom bomb or at the end of a Garand seems to me to be a quibble over words.
Postwar, threat of the American Bomb was the only thing that kept Stalin's tanks from rolling to the English Channel. Eventually an uneasy nuclear stand-off emerged, due largely to Klaus Fuchs' treachery. But America was never "behind." Militarily. Politically. Economically. The trump card Oppenheimer provided was the engine of America's transformation, from provincial wannabe isolated by two oceans to a world power that dictates terms. True, many American politicians have abused that power. But for all of the countries that have got a turn in the big chair, America has behaved better than most.
For his troubles, the U.S. government stripped Oppenheimer of his security clearance and hounded him from public life in a kangaroo court. This because Oppenheimer had the audacity to propose maybe blowing up the world wasn't such a great idea. A pacifist yin to balance the yang bloodlust coursing through SAC. A few years later he was dead. Throat cancer may have killed the man, but his country killed Oppie's spirit.
Postwar, threat of the American Bomb was the only thing that kept Stalin's tanks from rolling to the English Channel. Eventually an uneasy nuclear stand-off emerged, due largely to Klaus Fuchs' treachery. But America was never "behind." Militarily. Politically. Economically. The trump card Oppenheimer provided was the engine of America's transformation, from provincial wannabe isolated by two oceans to a world power that dictates terms. True, many American politicians have abused that power. But for all of the countries that have got a turn in the big chair, America has behaved better than most.
For his troubles, the U.S. government stripped Oppenheimer of his security clearance and hounded him from public life in a kangaroo court. This because Oppenheimer had the audacity to propose maybe blowing up the world wasn't such a great idea. A pacifist yin to balance the yang bloodlust coursing through SAC. A few years later he was dead. Throat cancer may have killed the man, but his country killed Oppie's spirit.
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