J. Robert Oppenheimer, part one: Before the Manhattan Project
—Chrissie
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Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer is best known as the father of the atomic bomb, a distinction with which he was not terribly comfortable. He had been raised in the Ethical Cultural Society, a type of secular Judaism that emphasized rationalism, humanism, civic responsibility, and social justice, ideals which meshed beautifully with his intention to embark on a life of scientific enquiry, even if they aren’t the thing for which he is ultimately known.
Robert was born on 22 April 1904 in New York City. He always insisted that the “J” did not stand for anything, but his birth certificate says “Julius Robert Oppenheimer,” meaning his father named him after himself, but then never used the name, so he was always “Robert.” His father, Julius, was a very successful textile company executive; his mother, Ella, was a painter and art instructor at Barnard College. Their marriage is described by contemporaries as a loving partnership, and unusual situation in the era, likely a product of both their personalities and Ella’s independence prior to their marriage. They both came from families of German Jews: Julius emigrated to join his uncle’s textile company in 1888, Ella was born in the US, her parents had emigrated in the 1840s. Despite their background, the family was not religious. Robert (and later, his brother Frank) attended the Ethical Cultural Society School, a private school which reinforced the secular humanism of his parents.
He fell in love with the sciences early, starting with a box of minerals given to him by his grandfather which led him to examine the rock structures around his home in Manhattan. This led to a correspondence with local geologists, one of whom nominated him for membership in the New York Mineralogical Club. The Club offered him membership with an invitation to speak at one of their meetings. None of them were aware their new colleague was only twelve years old. He wanted to refuse the invitation and explain why, but his father, who both thought the whole situation funny and also saw it as an opportunity for his son, insisted he attend as requested. Though the crowd laughed when he was introduced, they applauded his remarks and Robert made professional connections that served him in later years.
He graduated in 1921 and planned to enter Harvard that fall. This was delayed by a case of dysentery contracted while he was studying rock formations in Germany during a family trip. From this he developed a case of colitis, with which he had to deal the rest of his life. After a long convalescence at home, he accompanied some friends on a trip to New Mexico. It was on this trip that he was first introduced to Los Alamos, and he absolutely loved the area. After he finished his schooling, he bought a large piece of land in the area, which was a refuge for the rest of his life.
He finished his undergraduate work in three years, then began graduate work in physics at Cambridge. He focused on the theoretical, rather than the practical, aspects of the science, and worked with some of the best theoreticians of the era. He did his graduate work amidst the community that created quantum physics. His doctoral supervisor was Max Born and he worked alongside Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, and others. Having finished his Ph. D. in 1927, he split his time between a position at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and another at University of California Berkley. While he taught he also researched quantum physics as it related to astronomy, general relativity, and, of course, nuclear physics. Using information about the photoreflective effect of hydrogen, he correctly asserted the Sun was comprised of hydrogen, not helium as was widely believed at the time. He worked with Hartland Synder to produce a paper that predicted the existence of black holes. Some of his doctoral students went on to make major contributions in the field, and included one Nobel Prize winner, Willis Lamb. He also coauthored many papers with students establishing theories and processes that are still in use today.
He claimed to have no interest in politics or current events until the mid-1930s. This interest seems to have been prompted by events in Germany: in 1934 and 1935, he donated about ten percent of his income to organizations helping scientists to escape Nazi Germany. Consistent with his upbringing in Ethical Culture ideology, he supported leftist and progressive causes: he started a faculty union at UC Berkley with a colleague from the literature department, Haakon Chevalier, and supported other local unions, was a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and organized fundraisers to support the republican side of the Spanish Civil War against Francisco Franco’s fascists. Though he made a point of never official joining the American Communist Party (CPUSA), he held a subscription to the People’s World, a communist paper, and was a member of a Berkley-area discussion group that was essentially a gathering of communists, though it was never referred to as such. He was surrounded by active members of the communist party, including his brother, Frank, and Frank’s wife, Jackie, an on-again-off-again lover Jean Tatlock, and many of his students. His wife, Kitty, had also been a member of the CPUSA but was no longer by the time they married in 1940.
Robert met Katherine (Kitty) Puening in August of 1939 while she was pursuing graduate work in physics at UCLA. They began their affair not long after, despite the fact she was married. When she found herself pregnant in September 1940, she arranged a quick divorce by moving to Nevada for six weeks (Nevada was the only state at the time in which one could quickly file for a divorce). They married on 2 November 1940. Their son, Peter, was born on 12 May 1941.
By this time, Oppenheimer had already come to the attention of the FBI as a possible communist sympathizer. In 1940, he was included in the Bureau’s Custodial Detention Index (CDI), a list of people who were potentially agents of enemies of the United States. It was supposed to be focused on those with ties to Axis countries, but was also an enemies list for J. Edgar Hoover, meaning it contained many communists and suspected communists. Later, when asked about his politics of the era, Oppenheimer said he was never a communist, though he had been a “fellow traveler,” one who agreed with a great deal of an ideology, but did not attach themselves to any party or organization.
With American involvement in the war imminent, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the production of an atomic bomb in October 1941. This meant not merely the production of the bomb itself, but also figuring out how to do so. The chairman of the National Defense Committee, James Conant, had been a professor of chemistry at Harvard when Oppenheimer was there and called upon his former student to lead a group working on the calculations for it. When the Manhattan Project was officially created in June 1942, its director, Brigadier General Leslie Groves, chose Oppenheimer to head the secret weapons lab. Despite the questions about his politics and his stature within the community as related to those he would oversee (he did not have a Nobel Prize, some of those whom he would supervise did) his grasp of the practicalities was unparalleled. And so, the two men set out to collect the scientists who would create the Atomic Bomb.