American Prometheus (146 page)

Center, Oppenheimer was chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission’s General Advisory Committee. Here he is on a trip with James B. Conant, Gen. James McCormack, Harley Rowe, John Manley, I. I. Rabi and Roger S. Warner.

Bottom, Oppenheimer (far left) in 1947 receiving an honorary degree from Harvard, with Gen. George C. Marshall, Gen. Omar N. Bradley and other honorees.

Olden Manor, in Princeton, New Jersey, where the Oppenheimers lived after Robert was appointed director of the Institute for Advanced Study in 1947.

Kitty, Toni, and Peter in the greenhouse.

Robert and his children in the yard at Olden Manor.

Robert gave Kitty a greenhouse to grow her orchids. They entertained frequently. “He served the most delicious and the coldest martinis,” Pat Sherr said.

Oppenheimer with mathematician John von Neumann, standing before von Neumann’s early computer.

Oppenheimer discussing physics with students at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. “The Institute was his own little empire,” said Freeman Dyson.

Oppenheimer with (from left) Hans Bethe, Senator Brien McMahon, Eleanor Roosevelt, and David Lilienthal.

Oppenheimer opposed a crash program to build a hydrogen bomb. He explained to a TV audience that a “superbomb was a matter that touch[ed] the very basis of our morality. It is a grave danger for us that these decisions are taken on the basis of facts held secret.”

Oppenheimer at a conference with physicist Greg Breit. “What we don’t know, we explain to each other.”

In December 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower ordered a “blank wall” between Oppenheimer and the government’s nuclear secrets. Robert’s ensuing security hearing was orchestrated by Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss (above, right), who was determined to purge Oppenheimer from government service. Oppenheimer hired lawyer Lloyd Garrison (right) to defend himself.

On April 12, 1954, Oppenheimer’s security hearing opened, chaired by Gordon Gray (top, right). Only one AEC commissioner, Henry DeWolf Smyth (center, right), voted to reject the Gray Board’s decision to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance, AEC commissioner Eugene Zuckert (bottom, right) voted with the majority against Oppenheimer. Roger Robb (bottom, left) served as the Gray Board’s prosecutor. Only one member of the Gray Board, Ward Evans (top, left) voted to uphold Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Evans called the decision a “black mark on the escutcheon of our country.”