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October 13, 2006


Oppenheimer's flaws fascinate author

By Chris Poynter
cpoynter@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



J. Robert Oppenheimer was at his office at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory
when the news broke over the loudspeaker in 1945: Hiroshima had been
bombed.

The laboratory -- where the atomic bomb had been secretly created under
Oppenheimer's leadership -- erupted into cheers.



Oppenheimer, however, soon realized the horror of the weapon he had
created
-- and "the father of the atomic bomb," as he became known, spent the
rest of
his life trying to contain nuclear weapons.

"American Prometheus" -- a book that profiles Oppenheimer's triumphant
but
tragic life -- won the Pulitzer Prize in Biography this year, and one
of its
authors, Martin J. Sherwin, will speak in Louisville next week, brought
to town
by the Filson Historical Society.

Sherwin, a history and English professor at Tufts University, co-wrote
"American Prometheus" with Kai Bird, an author and contributing editor
to The Nation
magazine.

Sherwin began researching the book about 1979, but it took him 25 years
to
complete because of teaching commitments and other interests.

He pored over Oppenheimer's personal papers, searched through his
Federal
Bureau of Investigation files and interviewed family, friends and
people who
worked with him at Los Alamos and elsewhere.

Oppenheimer was a genius, Sherwin said, though at one point, after
graduating
from college, he contemplated suicide.

"He felt he was totally useless and should end it all because he
couldn't
stand the embarrassment of failure," Sherwin said. "But … he
discovered a way not
to be a failure. He discovered quantum physics, and he was a genius at
it."

Though Oppenheimer was director of Los Alamos in New Mexico and was a
celebrated hero after World War II, he had a terrible personal life. He
was an absent
father, Sherwin said, rarely spending time with his children because
work and
research took precedence. (Oppenheimer died in 1967. His daughter
committed
suicide in the 1970s; his son is still living.)

Sherwin said he admired Oppenheimer for realizing the danger of nuclear
weapons and working to control them.

He spoke out against nuclear proliferation, "but doing that in the
context of
American politics and the emerging Cold War was very difficult,"
Sherwin
said.

Sherwin said he did not admire Oppenheimer for falling for McCarthyism
in the
1950s and turning against some of his former students who were
leftists.

Oppenheimer "was kind of like iron. Once it starts cracking, it falls
apart,
as opposed to steel, which has the ability to twist and turn," Sherwin
said.

Oppenheimer was accused at a government hearing of being a national
security
risk and was stripped of his federal security clearance.

Mark Wetherington, executive director of the Filson Historical Society,
said
Sherwin's appearance is part of the Gertrude Polk Brown lecture series.
The
series has brought numerous authors to town, including many Pulitzer
Prize
winners.

Sherwin said he believes the world is worse because of nuclear weapons,
but,
he said, Oppenheimer's work and life are relevant today.

"The country and leadership of the country have learned very little,"
Sherwin
said. "We still think having nuclear weapons helps our security. I
don't
think they help our security at all."

Reporter Chris Poynter can be reached at (502) 582-4475.