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[rain pattering]
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[rhythmic thudding]
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[thudding intensifies]
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- [thudding stops]
- [sighs]
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[chairman] Dr. Oppenheimer.
6
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Dr. Oppenheimer.
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As we begin, I believe you have
a statement to read into the record.
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Yes, Your Honor.
9
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[board member] We're not judges, Doctor.
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No.
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[quietly] Of course.
12
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Members of the security board.
13
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The so-called and derogatory information
in your indictment of me
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cannot be fairly understood,
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except in the context of my life
and my work.
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{\an8}[Senate aide] How long did he testify?
17
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{\an8}Honestly, I forget.
18
00:02:00,246 --> 00:02:02,164
The whole hearing took a month.
19
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An ordeal.
20
00:02:03,541 --> 00:02:06,544
I've only read the transcripts, but...
[clears throat]
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00:02:08,337 --> 00:02:10,089
Who'd want to justify their whole life?
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- You weren't there?
- As chairman, I wasn't allowed to be.
23
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Are they really going to ask about it?
24
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It was years ago.
25
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- Four years ago. [chuckles]
- Five.
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Oppenheimer still divides America.
27
00:02:21,642 --> 00:02:23,936
The committee is gonna want to know
where you stood.
28
00:02:24,687 --> 00:02:28,316
Senator Thurmond asked me to say
not to feel that you're on trial.
29
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Aw. Funny,
I didn't till you just said that.
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Really, Mr. Strauss—
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It's Admiral.
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00:02:34,322 --> 00:02:36,532
Admiral Strauss. This is a formality.
33
00:02:36,615 --> 00:02:38,826
President Eisenhower has asked you
to be in his cabinet.
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00:02:38,909 --> 00:02:40,661
Senate really has no choice
but to confirm you.
35
00:02:40,745 --> 00:02:43,080
And if they bring up Oppenheimer?
36
00:02:43,164 --> 00:02:45,499
When they bring up Oppenheimer,
you answer honestly.
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No senator can deny you did your duty.
38
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It'll be uncomfortable. [chuckles]
39
00:02:50,254 --> 00:02:52,214
Who'd want to justify their whole life?
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[loud chattering]
41
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[shutter clicks]
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[prosecutor]
Why did you leave the United States?
43
00:03:01,807 --> 00:03:05,353
I, uh, wanted to study the new physics.
44
00:03:05,436 --> 00:03:06,896
[chairman] Was there nowhere here?
45
00:03:07,605 --> 00:03:10,733
I thought Berkeley had the leading
theoretical physics department.
46
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Yes. Once I had built it.
47
00:03:13,486 --> 00:03:15,029
But first I had to go to Europe.
48
00:03:15,112 --> 00:03:18,449
I went to Cambridge
to study under Patrick Blackett.
49
00:03:18,532 --> 00:03:20,910
Were you happier there than in America?
50
00:03:21,577 --> 00:03:23,120
- Happier?
- Yes.
51
00:03:27,083 --> 00:03:28,751
No.
52
00:03:28,834 --> 00:03:30,002
No, I, uh...
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I was homesick, um,
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emotionally immature,
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troubled by visions of a hidden universe.
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[energy pulsing]
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Useless in the lab.
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[glass shattering]
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00:04:02,076 --> 00:04:04,036
Christ, Oppenheimer.
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00:04:04,620 --> 00:04:06,163
Have you had any sleep?
61
00:04:07,998 --> 00:04:09,291
Start again.
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00:04:09,917 --> 00:04:11,585
I need to go to the lecture, sir.
63
00:04:12,211 --> 00:04:13,212
Why?
64
00:04:13,796 --> 00:04:15,089
It's Niels Bohr.
65
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I'd completely forgot.
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All right. [clears throat] Let's go.
67
00:04:24,557 --> 00:04:27,351
Oh, no, not you, Oppenheimer.
You finish coating those plates.
68
00:04:27,435 --> 00:04:28,978
[students chattering, laughing]
69
00:05:02,136 --> 00:05:03,929
[cupboard door closes]
70
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[Bohr]
Quantum physics is not a step forward.
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00:05:11,896 --> 00:05:15,691
It is a new way to understand reality.
72
00:05:15,774 --> 00:05:17,568
Einstein's opened the door.
73
00:05:17,651 --> 00:05:21,906
Now we are peering through,
seeing a world inside our world.
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00:05:21,989 --> 00:05:27,244
A world of energy and paradox
that not everyone can accept.
75
00:05:35,711 --> 00:05:37,296
[energy pulsing]
76
00:05:57,942 --> 00:05:59,401
[bell tolling]
77
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[students chattering]
78
00:06:09,954 --> 00:06:12,122
- Yeah— Are you all right?
- [breathing heavily]
79
00:06:13,123 --> 00:06:15,334
Niels, meet J. Robert Oppenheimer.
80
00:06:15,918 --> 00:06:17,503
What's the J stand for?
81
00:06:17,586 --> 00:06:18,921
Nothing, apparently.
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You were at my lecture.
You asked the only good question.
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00:06:21,590 --> 00:06:23,175
[Blackett] No one's denying his insight.
84
00:06:23,259 --> 00:06:25,553
It's his laboratory work
that leaves a little to be desired.
85
00:06:26,637 --> 00:06:27,888
I heard you give the same lectu—
86
00:06:27,972 --> 00:06:30,474
At Harvard, yes,
and you asked the same question.
87
00:06:30,558 --> 00:06:31,642
Why ask again?
88
00:06:31,725 --> 00:06:32,977
Hadn't liked your answer.
89
00:06:34,562 --> 00:06:36,230
Did you like it better yesterday?
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A lot.
91
00:06:37,439 --> 00:06:41,944
You can lift the stone without being ready
for the snake that's revealed.
92
00:06:42,027 --> 00:06:44,154
Now it seems you're ready.
93
00:06:44,238 --> 00:06:45,698
But you don't enjoy the lab?
94
00:06:46,782 --> 00:06:49,493
So get out of Cambridge
with its beakers and potions.
95
00:06:49,577 --> 00:06:52,204
Go somewhere they'll let you think.
96
00:06:53,205 --> 00:06:54,290
[whispers] Where?
97
00:06:55,749 --> 00:06:56,750
Göttingen.
98
00:06:56,834 --> 00:06:58,711
- Born.
- Born.
99
00:06:58,794 --> 00:07:00,504
Get to Germany. Study under Max Born.
100
00:07:00,588 --> 00:07:03,132
Learn the ways of theory.
101
00:07:03,215 --> 00:07:04,258
I'll send word.
102
00:07:05,467 --> 00:07:07,136
- Wormhole.
- [apple clatters]
103
00:07:08,887 --> 00:07:09,930
How's your mathematics?
104
00:07:10,014 --> 00:07:12,016
Not good enough
for the physicist he wants to be.
105
00:07:12,099 --> 00:07:14,351
Algebra's like sheet music.
106
00:07:14,435 --> 00:07:16,604
The important thing isn't
"can you read music?"
107
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It's "can you hear it?"
108
00:07:18,272 --> 00:07:20,608
Can you hear the music, Robert?
109
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Yes, I can.
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[no audible dialogue]
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[rumbling]
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[rhythmic thudding]
113
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The senator from Wyoming.
114
00:09:01,834 --> 00:09:02,918
Admiral Strauss,
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I'm interested in your relationship
with Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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00:09:06,505 --> 00:09:08,215
You met him in 1947?
117
00:09:08,757 --> 00:09:09,758
Correct.
118
00:09:10,509 --> 00:09:13,053
You were commissioner
of the Atomic Energy Commission?
119
00:09:13,137 --> 00:09:18,267
I was, but I actually met Robert
in my capacity as board member
120
00:09:18,350 --> 00:09:20,728
of the Institute for Advanced Study
at Princeton,
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00:09:20,811 --> 00:09:23,772
because after the war
he was world renowned
122
00:09:23,856 --> 00:09:25,065
as the great man of physics,
123
00:09:25,149 --> 00:09:29,319
and I was determined
to get him to run the Institute.
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00:09:39,121 --> 00:09:41,790
Dr. Oppenheimer. An honor.
125
00:09:41,874 --> 00:09:42,958
Mr. Strauss.
126
00:09:43,041 --> 00:09:45,252
It's pronounced "straws."
127
00:09:45,335 --> 00:09:46,795
Oh-ppenheimer, Oppenheimer.
128
00:09:46,879 --> 00:09:48,630
Whatever way you say it,
they know I'm Jewish.
129
00:09:48,714 --> 00:09:49,882
[chuckles]
130
00:09:49,965 --> 00:09:52,885
I'm president of Temple Emanu-El
in Manhattan.
131
00:09:52,968 --> 00:09:55,554
"Straws" is just
the Southern pronunciation.
132
00:09:55,637 --> 00:09:57,723
Anyway, welcome to the Institute.
133
00:09:57,806 --> 00:09:59,391
I think you could be very happy here.
134
00:09:59,475 --> 00:10:01,518
Yes, well, you'll love the commute.
135
00:10:01,602 --> 00:10:04,146
The position comes with that house
for you and your wife,
136
00:10:04,229 --> 00:10:06,106
and your— Is it two children?
137
00:10:06,190 --> 00:10:07,191
Yes, two.
138
00:10:07,775 --> 00:10:10,152
I'm a great admirer of your work.
139
00:10:10,235 --> 00:10:12,529
And you're a physicist by training,
Mr. Strauss?
140
00:10:12,613 --> 00:10:14,698
I'm sorry, common room, four o'clock tea.
141
00:10:14,782 --> 00:10:17,493
No, I'm not trained in physics
or anything else.
142
00:10:17,576 --> 00:10:18,619
I'm a self-made man.
143
00:10:18,702 --> 00:10:21,205
- Ah. I can relate to that.
- Really?
144
00:10:21,288 --> 00:10:23,081
Yes, my father was one.
145
00:10:24,416 --> 00:10:26,960
And this would be your office.
146
00:10:32,549 --> 00:10:33,926
[birds chirping]
147
00:10:36,470 --> 00:10:38,347
I'm told he's there most afternoons.
148
00:10:38,972 --> 00:10:40,557
You know, I've always wondered
149
00:10:40,641 --> 00:10:43,602
why you didn't involve him
in the Manhattan Project.
150
00:10:45,938 --> 00:10:48,106
Greatest scientific mind of our time.
151
00:10:48,190 --> 00:10:49,316
Of his time.
152
00:10:50,234 --> 00:10:52,277
Einstein published
his Theory of Relativity
153
00:10:52,361 --> 00:10:54,988
more than 40 years ago now.
154
00:10:56,114 --> 00:10:58,659
But never embraced
the quantum world it revealed.
155
00:10:58,742 --> 00:11:00,160
"God doesn't play dice."
156
00:11:00,911 --> 00:11:02,287
Precisely.
157
00:11:02,371 --> 00:11:05,082
You never thought of studying
physics formally, Mr. Strauss?
158
00:11:05,165 --> 00:11:07,793
I had offers, but I chose to sell shoes.
159
00:11:07,876 --> 00:11:10,712
Lewis Strauss was once
a lowly shoe salesman.
160
00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:13,841
No, just a shoe salesman.
161
00:11:13,924 --> 00:11:15,175
[chuckles]
162
00:11:17,469 --> 00:11:19,221
I'd love to introduce you.
163
00:11:19,304 --> 00:11:20,430
No need.
164
00:11:21,139 --> 00:11:22,724
I have known him for years.
165
00:11:44,580 --> 00:11:45,497
Albert.
166
00:11:50,210 --> 00:11:51,128
What was that?
167
00:11:52,129 --> 00:11:54,172
What did you say to him?
168
00:11:56,425 --> 00:11:57,676
Oh, he's fine.
169
00:11:59,678 --> 00:12:04,308
Mr. Strauss, there are things in my past
you ought to be aware of.
170
00:12:04,391 --> 00:12:07,686
Well, as chairman of the AEC,
I have access to your security file.
171
00:12:07,769 --> 00:12:08,770
I've read it.
172
00:12:08,854 --> 00:12:10,397
- You're not worried?
- No.
173
00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:12,733
Why would I be worried after everything
you've done for your country?
174
00:12:12,816 --> 00:12:14,776
Well, times change, Mr. Strauss.
175
00:12:14,860 --> 00:12:16,820
Well, the purpose of this institute
176
00:12:16,904 --> 00:12:19,197
is to provide
a haven for independent minds.
177
00:12:20,157 --> 00:12:21,408
That's you.
178
00:12:21,491 --> 00:12:23,285
You are the man for the job.
179
00:12:23,869 --> 00:12:25,871
Well, then I'll consider it.
180
00:12:25,954 --> 00:12:28,040
I'll see you at the AEC meeting tomorrow.
181
00:12:31,335 --> 00:12:32,753
[scoffs]
182
00:12:32,836 --> 00:12:35,422
This is one of the most prestigious
appointments in the country.
183
00:12:35,505 --> 00:12:37,633
Yes, with a great commute.
184
00:12:38,258 --> 00:12:39,760
That's why I'm considering it.
185
00:12:41,219 --> 00:12:44,973
[McGee] So, Dr. Oppenheimer brought
your attention to his past associations
186
00:12:45,057 --> 00:12:46,475
before you appointed him?
187
00:12:46,558 --> 00:12:49,269
- Yes.
- And they didn't concern you?
188
00:12:49,353 --> 00:12:52,940
Just then I was entirely consumed
with what he must have said to Einstein
189
00:12:53,023 --> 00:12:55,692
- to sour him on me.
- [gallery laughing]
190
00:12:58,195 --> 00:12:59,196
But later?
191
00:12:59,279 --> 00:13:01,740
Well, we all know what happened later.
192
00:13:01,823 --> 00:13:03,784
[prosecutor]
Doctor, your time in Europe,
193
00:13:03,867 --> 00:13:06,912
you seemed to meet with a wide range
of other countries' physicists.
194
00:13:06,995 --> 00:13:07,996
Yes, that's right.
195
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:09,373
Any Russians?
196
00:13:11,249 --> 00:13:12,376
None that spring to mind.
197
00:13:12,459 --> 00:13:14,962
If you'll just allow me
to continue with my statement—
198
00:13:15,045 --> 00:13:18,465
Mr. Robb, you'll have ample opportunity
to cross-examine.
199
00:13:21,259 --> 00:13:24,388
After Göttingen,
I moved on to Leiden in Holland,
200
00:13:24,471 --> 00:13:26,390
where I first met Isidor Rabi.
201
00:13:27,057 --> 00:13:28,558
[Rabi clears throat] Excuse me.
202
00:13:33,397 --> 00:13:35,691
A Yank, lecturing on the new physics?
203
00:13:35,774 --> 00:13:36,775
This I have to hear.
204
00:13:36,858 --> 00:13:38,944
I'm an American myself.
205
00:13:39,027 --> 00:13:40,153
How surprising.
206
00:13:41,321 --> 00:13:43,740
Let me know if you need any help
with the English.
207
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,869
[students laughing]
208
00:13:50,831 --> 00:13:53,208
[speaking Dutch]
209
00:13:57,796 --> 00:13:59,172
Wait, what's he saying?
210
00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:11,560
No, thank you.
211
00:14:11,643 --> 00:14:13,478
It's a long way to Zurich.
212
00:14:13,562 --> 00:14:16,106
You get any skinnier, we're gonna
lose you between the seat cushions.
213
00:14:16,940 --> 00:14:17,983
I'm Rabi.
214
00:14:18,066 --> 00:14:19,359
Oppenheimer.
215
00:14:19,443 --> 00:14:21,403
I caught your lecture on molecules.
216
00:14:21,486 --> 00:14:22,696
Caught some of it.
217
00:14:23,488 --> 00:14:25,907
We're a couple of New York Jews.
How do you know Dutch?
218
00:14:25,991 --> 00:14:28,869
Well, I thought I'd better learn it
when I got here this semester.
219
00:14:28,952 --> 00:14:32,164
You learned enough Dutch in six weeks
to give a lecture on quantum mechanics?
220
00:14:32,247 --> 00:14:33,707
Wanted to challenge myself.
221
00:14:33,790 --> 00:14:36,084
Quantum physics wasn't challenging enough.
222
00:14:36,168 --> 00:14:37,753
- Schvitzer.
- Schvitzer?
223
00:14:37,836 --> 00:14:39,337
- Show-off.
- [chuckles]
224
00:14:39,421 --> 00:14:41,631
Dutch in six weeks,
but you never learned Yiddish?
225
00:14:41,715 --> 00:14:43,675
They don't speak it so much
my side of the park.
226
00:14:43,759 --> 00:14:45,177
Screw you.
227
00:14:46,386 --> 00:14:48,764
- You homesick?
- Oh, you know it.
228
00:14:49,765 --> 00:14:52,768
Ever get the feeling our kind
isn't entirely welcome here?
229
00:14:52,851 --> 00:14:53,852
Physicists?
230
00:14:54,478 --> 00:14:55,395
That's funny.
231
00:14:55,479 --> 00:14:57,022
Not in the department.
232
00:14:57,606 --> 00:14:58,774
They're all Jewish too.
233
00:15:00,984 --> 00:15:01,985
Eat.
234
00:15:04,821 --> 00:15:06,823
There's a German you have to seek out.
235
00:15:07,741 --> 00:15:09,451
- Heisenberg.
- Right.
236
00:15:12,412 --> 00:15:14,247
[Heisenberg speaking German]
237
00:15:19,586 --> 00:15:23,590
One might be led to the presumption
that behind the quantum world,
238
00:15:23,673 --> 00:15:27,469
there still hides a real world
in which causality holds,
239
00:15:27,552 --> 00:15:31,890
but such speculations seem to us,
to say it explicitly, fruitless.
240
00:15:31,973 --> 00:15:33,850
Thank you. Have a great day.
241
00:15:38,271 --> 00:15:40,398
- Werner. Wonderful.
- Thank you.
242
00:15:40,482 --> 00:15:42,234
Dr. Oppenheimer.
243
00:15:42,317 --> 00:15:46,029
Oppenheimer, yes.
I liked your paper on molecules.
244
00:15:46,113 --> 00:15:47,531
Probably because you inspired it.
245
00:15:47,614 --> 00:15:50,242
If I inspire anything else, let me know.
We could publish together.
246
00:15:50,325 --> 00:15:51,952
I have to get back to America.
247
00:15:52,035 --> 00:15:53,078
Why?
248
00:15:53,161 --> 00:15:55,956
There's no one there
taking quantum mechanics seriously.
249
00:15:56,039 --> 00:15:57,624
That's exactly why.
250
00:15:57,707 --> 00:16:00,127
He's pining for the canyons of Manhattan.
251
00:16:00,210 --> 00:16:02,504
Canyons of New Mexico.
252
00:16:02,587 --> 00:16:03,630
You're from New Mexico?
253
00:16:03,713 --> 00:16:07,217
No. New York, but my brother and I
have a ranch outside Santa Fe.
254
00:16:08,093 --> 00:16:09,803
That's the America I miss right now.
255
00:16:09,886 --> 00:16:13,140
- Then it's best you get home, cowboys.
- [Oppenheimer, Rabi chuckle]
256
00:16:13,223 --> 00:16:14,224
That's him.
257
00:16:14,307 --> 00:16:17,185
No, me and horses? I don't think so.
258
00:16:18,311 --> 00:16:19,604
Nice to meet you.
259
00:16:21,565 --> 00:16:23,733
Did you ever encounter Heisenberg again?
260
00:16:23,817 --> 00:16:25,861
Not in person, no, but, uh...
261
00:16:27,988 --> 00:16:29,990
you might say our paths crossed.
262
00:16:31,449 --> 00:16:32,951
On returning to America,
263
00:16:33,034 --> 00:16:35,954
I accepted positions at both Caltech
and up at Berkeley.
264
00:16:36,037 --> 00:16:36,079
[people chattering]
265
00:16:36,079 --> 00:16:37,956
[people chattering]
266
00:16:44,754 --> 00:16:46,339
[equipment clattering]
267
00:16:54,472 --> 00:16:55,473
[sighs]
268
00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:02,230
Dr. Lawrence, I presume?
269
00:17:04,524 --> 00:17:06,401
- You must be Oppenheimer.
- Yes.
270
00:17:06,902 --> 00:17:09,154
I hear you want to start
a school of quantum theory.
271
00:17:09,237 --> 00:17:10,989
I am starting it. Next door.
272
00:17:11,072 --> 00:17:12,240
They put you in there?
273
00:17:12,324 --> 00:17:15,577
I asked for it. Wanted to be close
to you experimentalists.
274
00:17:15,660 --> 00:17:17,329
Theory will get you only so far, huh?
275
00:17:17,412 --> 00:17:19,331
We're building a machine
to accelerate electrons.
276
00:17:19,414 --> 00:17:20,415
Magnificent.
277
00:17:20,498 --> 00:17:21,917
Would you like to help?
278
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:23,835
Build it? Oh, no. [chuckles]
279
00:17:23,919 --> 00:17:24,920
No, no.
280
00:17:25,003 --> 00:17:27,672
But I am working on theories
I'd like to test with it.
281
00:17:27,756 --> 00:17:29,049
When do you start teaching?
282
00:17:29,132 --> 00:17:30,425
I've got my first in an hour.
283
00:17:30,508 --> 00:17:32,469
- Seminar?
- Pupil.
284
00:17:33,136 --> 00:17:35,347
One student? That's it?
285
00:17:35,972 --> 00:17:38,558
I'm teaching something
no one here has dreamt of.
286
00:17:38,642 --> 00:17:40,560
But once people start hearing
what you can do with it—
287
00:17:40,644 --> 00:17:42,103
There's no going back.
288
00:17:42,187 --> 00:17:43,563
[door opens]
289
00:17:44,564 --> 00:17:47,108
- Oh. I must have missed the-
- Mr. Lomanitz?
290
00:17:47,192 --> 00:17:48,193
Nah—
291
00:17:49,653 --> 00:17:50,654
Yeah.
292
00:17:50,737 --> 00:17:51,738
Yes, this is it.
293
00:17:51,821 --> 00:17:53,657
Please. Take a seat.
294
00:17:54,908 --> 00:17:55,909
[clears throat]
295
00:17:58,954 --> 00:18:00,580
What do you know
about quantum mechanics?
296
00:18:01,665 --> 00:18:03,583
I have a grasp on the basics.
297
00:18:03,667 --> 00:18:05,043
Then you're doing it wrong.
298
00:18:05,961 --> 00:18:08,171
Is light made up of particles or waves?
299
00:18:08,255 --> 00:18:10,840
Quantum mechanics says it's both.
How could it be both?
300
00:18:10,924 --> 00:18:12,384
- It can't.
- It can't.
301
00:18:13,093 --> 00:18:14,094
But it is.
302
00:18:14,177 --> 00:18:17,514
It's paradoxical, and yet, it works.
303
00:18:24,771 --> 00:18:25,855
Now...
304
00:18:28,275 --> 00:18:29,734
Thank you.
305
00:18:29,818 --> 00:18:31,486
Mr. Lomanitz.
306
00:18:31,569 --> 00:18:32,570
You're gonna be okay.
307
00:18:32,654 --> 00:18:34,197
Mr. Snyder.
308
00:18:34,281 --> 00:18:36,324
Now let's consider a star.
309
00:18:36,408 --> 00:18:37,951
A star.
310
00:18:38,034 --> 00:18:39,953
A vast furnace burning in outer space,
311
00:18:40,036 --> 00:18:42,580
fire pushing outwards
against its own gravity.
312
00:18:42,664 --> 00:18:43,832
Balanced.
313
00:18:45,125 --> 00:18:46,501
But if that furnace cools
314
00:18:47,794 --> 00:18:50,588
and gravity starts winning, it contracts.
315
00:18:50,672 --> 00:18:51,756
Density increases.
316
00:18:52,340 --> 00:18:54,467
Correct. Increasing gravity.
317
00:18:54,551 --> 00:18:56,303
- Increasing density.
- And?
318
00:18:56,386 --> 00:18:59,431
It's a vicious cycle until...
What's the limit here?
319
00:19:00,181 --> 00:19:03,226
[chuckles] I don't know.
See where the math takes us.
320
00:19:03,310 --> 00:19:04,811
I guarantee it's somewhere
no one's been before.
321
00:19:04,894 --> 00:19:06,396
Me?
322
00:19:07,063 --> 00:19:08,940
Yes, you. Your math is better than mine.
323
00:19:09,024 --> 00:19:10,859
[students laughing]
324
00:19:10,942 --> 00:19:12,652
[Bartlett] Dr. Oppenheimer's file
325
00:19:12,736 --> 00:19:15,405
contained details
of his activities in Berkeley.
326
00:19:15,488 --> 00:19:19,159
Why would they have started a file
on Dr. Oppenheimer before the war?
327
00:19:19,909 --> 00:19:22,287
Well, you'd have to ask Mr. Hoover.
328
00:19:22,370 --> 00:19:24,164
I'm asking you, Admiral Strauss.
329
00:19:24,789 --> 00:19:26,958
Uh, my assumption is
330
00:19:27,042 --> 00:19:32,714
that it was connected to his,
uh, left-wing political activities.
331
00:19:32,797 --> 00:19:34,424
[door opens]
332
00:19:34,507 --> 00:19:37,761
You shouldn't let them bring up politics
in the classroom, Oppie.
333
00:19:37,844 --> 00:19:38,845
I wrote that.
334
00:19:39,429 --> 00:19:42,057
Lawrence,
you embrace the revolution in physics.
335
00:19:42,140 --> 00:19:44,100
Can't you see it everywhere else?
336
00:19:44,184 --> 00:19:46,269
Picasso, Stravinsky, Freud, Marx.
337
00:19:46,353 --> 00:19:49,064
Well, this is America, Oppie.
We had our revolution.
338
00:19:50,273 --> 00:19:53,109
Seriously, keep it out of the lab.
339
00:19:53,193 --> 00:19:57,655
Well, out of the lab, my landlady
is having a discussion group tonight.
340
00:19:57,739 --> 00:19:58,740
Interested?
341
00:19:58,823 --> 00:20:00,909
I have sampled
the Berkeley political scene.
342
00:20:00,992 --> 00:20:05,372
It's all just philosophy postgrads
and communists talking integration.
343
00:20:05,455 --> 00:20:07,040
You don't care about integration?
344
00:20:07,123 --> 00:20:08,875
I want to vote for it, not talk about it.
345
00:20:08,958 --> 00:20:10,210
Especially on a Friday.
346
00:20:10,293 --> 00:20:11,336
Come on. Let's eat.
347
00:20:11,419 --> 00:20:12,921
I'm meeting my brother there.
348
00:20:13,546 --> 00:20:17,384
[Bartlett] And how would these activities
have come to the attention of the FBI?
349
00:20:17,467 --> 00:20:19,469
Well, if I remember correctly,
350
00:20:19,552 --> 00:20:23,640
the FBI was taking license plates
outside suspected communist gatherings,
351
00:20:23,723 --> 00:20:25,392
and his name popped up.
352
00:20:33,900 --> 00:20:35,402
- Jesus Christ.
- Sorry.
353
00:20:35,485 --> 00:20:37,070
- Frank.
- Robert.
354
00:20:38,154 --> 00:20:39,697
Uh, you remember Jackie.
355
00:20:39,781 --> 00:20:40,782
Evening.
356
00:20:41,658 --> 00:20:42,700
Let's go.
357
00:20:44,035 --> 00:20:45,870
[people chattering]
358
00:20:46,996 --> 00:20:48,123
[student] Robert.
359
00:20:48,206 --> 00:20:50,500
I want you to meet Chevalier.
360
00:20:50,583 --> 00:20:53,628
Dr. Haakon Chevalier,
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
361
00:20:53,711 --> 00:20:54,712
- Pleasure.
- Pleasure.
362
00:20:54,796 --> 00:20:56,756
- This is my little brother, Frank.
- Hello.
363
00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:58,383
- And this is-
- Still Jackie.
364
00:20:58,466 --> 00:20:59,509
Hello, Still Jackie.
365
00:20:59,592 --> 00:21:01,553
Chevalier, you're in languages?
366
00:21:01,636 --> 00:21:03,304
And your reputation precedes you.
367
00:21:03,388 --> 00:21:04,389
What have you heard?
368
00:21:04,472 --> 00:21:06,683
That you're teaching
a radical new approach to physics
369
00:21:06,766 --> 00:21:10,061
I have no chance of understanding,
but I hadn't heard you're a Party member.
370
00:21:10,145 --> 00:21:11,688
- I'm not.
- Not yet.
371
00:21:11,771 --> 00:21:14,149
Frank and I are thinking of joining.
Just the other day, I was—
372
00:21:14,232 --> 00:21:15,567
I support a range of causes.
373
00:21:15,650 --> 00:21:16,734
The Spanish Civil War?
374
00:21:16,818 --> 00:21:20,155
A democratic republic being overthrown
by fascist thugs, who wouldn't?
375
00:21:20,238 --> 00:21:23,992
Our government. They think that socialism
is a bigger threat than fascism.
376
00:21:24,075 --> 00:21:26,786
Not for long. Look at what the Nazis
are doing to the Jews.
377
00:21:26,870 --> 00:21:29,414
I send funds to colleagues in Germany
to emigrate.
378
00:21:29,497 --> 00:21:31,124
I have to do something.
379
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,878
My own work is so abstract.
380
00:21:34,961 --> 00:21:38,465
- What are you working on?
- What happens to stars when they die.
381
00:21:38,548 --> 00:21:39,591
Do stars die?
382
00:21:40,925 --> 00:21:44,429
Well, if they do,
they cool, then collapse.
383
00:21:44,512 --> 00:21:49,142
In fact, the bigger the star,
the more violent its demise.
384
00:21:49,684 --> 00:21:53,104
Their gravity gets so concentrated,
it swallows everything.
385
00:21:53,771 --> 00:21:55,273
Everything, even light.
386
00:21:55,356 --> 00:21:56,608
Can that really happen?
387
00:21:56,691 --> 00:21:58,318
The math says it can.
388
00:21:58,401 --> 00:22:01,488
If we can get published, then perhaps
one day an astronomer finds one.
389
00:22:01,571 --> 00:22:05,366
But right now, all I have is theory,
which can't impact people's lives.
390
00:22:05,450 --> 00:22:07,494
Well, if you're going
to send money to Spain,
391
00:22:07,577 --> 00:22:08,995
do it through the Communist Party.
392
00:22:09,078 --> 00:22:11,039
They can get it to the front lines.
393
00:22:11,122 --> 00:22:12,415
Mary sent me with these.
394
00:22:13,374 --> 00:22:14,375
I'm Jean.
395
00:22:15,293 --> 00:22:16,294
Robert.
396
00:22:16,377 --> 00:22:17,420
Haakon Chevalier.
397
00:22:17,504 --> 00:22:19,422
The union meeting at Serber's last month.
398
00:22:19,506 --> 00:22:20,798
Right, right, yes.
399
00:22:20,882 --> 00:22:22,217
Oh, thank you.
400
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:24,552
[Chevalier]
Robert here says he's not a communist.
401
00:22:24,636 --> 00:22:26,763
Well, then he doesn't
know enough about it.
402
00:22:26,846 --> 00:22:29,516
I've read Das Kapital, all three volumes.
403
00:22:29,599 --> 00:22:30,600
Does that count?
404
00:22:30,683 --> 00:22:32,894
It would make you better read
than most party members.
405
00:22:32,977 --> 00:22:36,523
It's turgid stuff. There's some thinking,
"Ownership is theft."
406
00:22:36,606 --> 00:22:37,649
"Property."
407
00:22:37,732 --> 00:22:39,067
"Property"?
408
00:22:39,150 --> 00:22:40,401
"Property," not "ownership."
409
00:22:40,485 --> 00:22:42,278
I'm sorry,
I read it in the original German.
410
00:22:42,362 --> 00:22:43,738
[chuckles]
411
00:22:43,821 --> 00:22:45,365
- [Chevalier] Well...
- [glasses clink]
412
00:22:45,949 --> 00:22:47,116
It's not about the book.
413
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:48,826
It's about the ideas.
414
00:22:48,910 --> 00:22:50,453
And you sound uncommitted.
415
00:22:50,537 --> 00:22:53,831
I'm committed to thinking freely
about how to improve our world.
416
00:22:54,541 --> 00:22:56,626
Why limit yourself to one dogma?
417
00:22:56,709 --> 00:22:59,587
You're a physicist.
You pick and choose rules?
418
00:22:59,671 --> 00:23:03,800
Or do you use the discipline
to channel your energies into progress?
419
00:23:03,883 --> 00:23:05,760
I like a little wiggle room.
420
00:23:06,803 --> 00:23:08,763
Do you always toe the party line?
421
00:23:10,473 --> 00:23:12,183
I like my wiggle room too.
422
00:23:15,270 --> 00:23:17,355
[panting]
423
00:23:22,944 --> 00:23:23,945
- What?
- [laughs]
424
00:23:24,821 --> 00:23:25,822
Wait, wait, wait.
425
00:23:30,034 --> 00:23:32,579
- Unexpected.
- What?
426
00:23:32,662 --> 00:23:34,080
For a physicist.
427
00:23:34,163 --> 00:23:36,624
You only have a shelf full of Freud?
428
00:23:36,708 --> 00:23:39,127
Well, actually, my background's more—
429
00:23:39,210 --> 00:23:40,378
Jungian?
430
00:23:42,380 --> 00:23:43,756
You know analysis?
431
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,135
When I was a postgrad at Cambridge,
I had a little trouble.
432
00:23:48,303 --> 00:23:49,304
I'll bite.
433
00:23:49,387 --> 00:23:50,930
I tried to poison my tutor.
434
00:23:51,014 --> 00:23:52,015
Did you hate him?
435
00:23:52,098 --> 00:23:53,516
I liked him very much.
436
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,393
You just needed to get laid.
437
00:23:55,476 --> 00:23:56,936
Took my analyst two years,
438
00:23:57,020 --> 00:23:59,147
and I don't think they ever put it
that succinctly.
439
00:23:59,230 --> 00:24:03,067
You have everyone convinced you're
more complicated than you actually are.
440
00:24:03,151 --> 00:24:04,986
We're all simple souls, I guess.
441
00:24:05,069 --> 00:24:06,279
I'm not.
442
00:24:09,157 --> 00:24:10,158
What's this?
443
00:24:10,241 --> 00:24:11,826
Sanskrit.
444
00:24:11,909 --> 00:24:13,077
You can read this?
445
00:24:13,161 --> 00:24:14,746
I'm learning.
446
00:24:19,751 --> 00:24:20,752
Read this.
447
00:24:22,503 --> 00:24:26,257
Well, in this part,
Vishnu reveals his multi-armed self—
448
00:24:26,341 --> 00:24:27,425
No.
449
00:24:28,593 --> 00:24:30,178
Read the words.
450
00:24:33,848 --> 00:24:36,059
"And now I am become Death."
451
00:24:40,188 --> 00:24:42,190
[thunder rumbling]
452
00:24:42,273 --> 00:24:43,816
"The destroyer of worlds."
453
00:24:46,486 --> 00:24:48,112
[wind whistling]
454
00:25:14,430 --> 00:25:15,640
[Oppenheimer] This'll do.
455
00:25:17,725 --> 00:25:19,519
[wind howling]
456
00:25:22,313 --> 00:25:23,606
It'll break before dawn.
457
00:25:24,107 --> 00:25:27,485
Air cools overnight.
Just before dawn, it breaks.
458
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,072
Come on. Come on.
459
00:25:35,868 --> 00:25:38,037
- [chuckles]
- [Lawrence sighs]
460
00:25:38,121 --> 00:25:40,164
[grunts] So...
461
00:25:40,248 --> 00:25:41,624
I'm getting married.
462
00:25:41,708 --> 00:25:43,918
- Frank. Congratulations.
- Thank you.
463
00:25:44,001 --> 00:25:45,002
To Jackie?
464
00:25:45,086 --> 00:25:47,547
- Yeah, to Jackie.
- [Oppenheimer clears throat]
465
00:25:47,630 --> 00:25:48,715
The waitress.
466
00:25:48,798 --> 00:25:50,633
Oppie, you're right. It's lettin' up.
467
00:25:50,717 --> 00:25:52,552
I'm gonna go see if there's any stars.
468
00:25:52,635 --> 00:25:56,889
All your talk about the common man,
but Jackie's not good enough for you, hmm?
469
00:25:57,807 --> 00:26:00,184
We join the Party,
and you can't hide your disapproval, why?
470
00:26:00,268 --> 00:26:02,228
Is that because that's supposed to be
your thing?
471
00:26:02,311 --> 00:26:03,646
I haven't joined the Party, Frank.
472
00:26:03,730 --> 00:26:06,399
And I don't think she should have
convinced you to either.
473
00:26:06,482 --> 00:26:08,025
Half of the faculty is communist.
474
00:26:08,109 --> 00:26:09,110
Not that half.
475
00:26:10,611 --> 00:26:13,322
I'm your brother, Frank,
and I want you to be cautious.
476
00:26:13,406 --> 00:26:14,574
And I want to wring your neck.
477
00:26:17,076 --> 00:26:20,163
I won't live my life
afraid to make a mistake.
478
00:26:22,290 --> 00:26:25,418
You're happy, I'm happy.
479
00:26:25,501 --> 00:26:28,254
So then I'm happy you're happy
that I'm happy.
480
00:26:33,301 --> 00:26:36,596
I feel like I could see one of those
dark stars that you're working on.
481
00:26:36,679 --> 00:26:39,557
You can't. That's the whole point.
482
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:41,726
Their gravity swallows light.
483
00:26:42,643 --> 00:26:44,854
It's like a kind of hole in space.
484
00:26:45,855 --> 00:26:47,064
Is Frank okay?
485
00:26:47,148 --> 00:26:49,817
Yes. He just has a shitty brother.
486
00:26:50,777 --> 00:26:52,153
It is special here.
487
00:26:54,781 --> 00:26:55,990
When I was a kid,
488
00:26:57,283 --> 00:26:58,826
I thought if I could find a way
489
00:27:00,411 --> 00:27:04,582
to combine physics and New Mexico,
490
00:27:04,665 --> 00:27:06,334
my life would be perfect.
491
00:27:06,417 --> 00:27:07,543
[chuckles]
492
00:27:08,294 --> 00:27:10,338
- Little remote for that.
- Yes.
493
00:27:10,838 --> 00:27:12,173
Let's get some sleep.
494
00:27:13,549 --> 00:27:17,178
That mesa we saw today,
one of my favorite places in the world.
495
00:27:18,137 --> 00:27:19,222
Tomorrow we'll climb it.
496
00:27:19,764 --> 00:27:21,098
[Lawrence] What's it called?
497
00:27:22,141 --> 00:27:23,351
[Oppenheimer] Los Alamos.
498
00:27:27,438 --> 00:27:29,232
I didn't expect to see you today.
499
00:27:30,691 --> 00:27:32,360
Do I have to make an appointment?
500
00:27:33,152 --> 00:27:34,237
[store bell jingles]
501
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:36,906
- Hey! Hey, get back here!
- Alvarez?
502
00:27:43,371 --> 00:27:45,456
[Alvarez] Oppie! Oppie!
503
00:27:46,207 --> 00:27:47,708
[Oppenheimer] What? What is it?
504
00:27:48,209 --> 00:27:49,919
They've done it. They've done it.
505
00:27:50,002 --> 00:27:52,922
Hahn and Strassmann in Germany.
They split the uranium nucleus.
506
00:27:54,257 --> 00:27:55,633
[Lawrence] How?
507
00:27:56,884 --> 00:27:58,719
Bombarded it with neutrons.
508
00:27:58,803 --> 00:28:01,472
It's a nuclear fission.
They did it, they split the atom.
509
00:28:01,556 --> 00:28:02,765
It's not possible.
510
00:28:09,355 --> 00:28:10,898
I'm gonna try to reproduce it.
511
00:28:17,697 --> 00:28:19,615
See? Can't be done.
512
00:28:20,867 --> 00:28:22,076
[Lawrence] Very elegant.
513
00:28:22,827 --> 00:28:24,120
Quite clear.
514
00:28:24,203 --> 00:28:26,289
- There's just one problem.
- Where?
515
00:28:26,956 --> 00:28:28,040
Next door.
516
00:28:28,708 --> 00:28:29,709
Alvarez did it.
517
00:28:30,710 --> 00:28:31,919
But then look,
518
00:28:32,962 --> 00:28:35,506
these fission pulses, they're massive.
519
00:28:36,173 --> 00:28:39,594
I've seen 30 of these
in the past ten minutes.
520
00:28:40,177 --> 00:28:42,179
Theory will take you only so far.
521
00:28:43,973 --> 00:28:45,308
During the process,
522
00:28:46,475 --> 00:28:50,897
extra neutrons boil off, which could
be used to split other uranium atoms.
523
00:28:50,980 --> 00:28:54,066
Chain reaction.
You're thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?
524
00:28:54,150 --> 00:28:57,945
You, me, and every other physicist
around the world who's seen the news.
525
00:28:59,405 --> 00:29:00,781
What? What are we all thinking?
526
00:29:01,824 --> 00:29:04,452
A bomb, Alvarez.
527
00:29:05,703 --> 00:29:06,913
A bomb.
528
00:29:08,414 --> 00:29:10,416
I told you, Robert,
no more fucking flowers.
529
00:29:12,376 --> 00:29:15,463
- I don't understand what you want from me.
- I don't want anything from you.
530
00:29:17,048 --> 00:29:20,635
- Well, you say that and then you call.
- Well, don't answer.
531
00:29:21,886 --> 00:29:23,012
I'll always answer.
532
00:29:28,643 --> 00:29:31,437
Fine. Just no more flowers.
533
00:29:33,272 --> 00:29:34,565
You're not coming?
534
00:29:36,484 --> 00:29:38,611
[Chevalier] You have to know
when you're beaten, Robert.
535
00:29:41,072 --> 00:29:42,448
It's not that simple, Hoke.
536
00:29:42,531 --> 00:29:44,951
- Chevalier, good to see you.
- [students] F-A-E-C-T! F-A-E-C-T!
537
00:29:45,034 --> 00:29:48,287
Barbara, good to see you,
and the illustrious Dr. Oppenheimer.
538
00:29:48,788 --> 00:29:50,456
- I'm Eltenton.
- Pleasure.
539
00:29:50,539 --> 00:29:51,624
Please, please.
540
00:29:51,707 --> 00:29:55,461
Might you say a word
about organized labor on campuses, yes?
541
00:29:55,544 --> 00:29:56,963
Coming through! Coming through.
542
00:29:57,046 --> 00:29:58,339
I work at Shell.
543
00:29:58,422 --> 00:30:00,716
We've signed up chemists,
we signed up engineers,
544
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:02,468
so why not scientists in academia?
545
00:30:02,551 --> 00:30:07,598
[students chanting]
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
546
00:30:07,682 --> 00:30:09,433
[cheering, applauding]
547
00:30:16,524 --> 00:30:18,275
Teachers are unionized.
548
00:30:18,776 --> 00:30:21,404
- Why not professors?
- Don't you have somewhere to be?
549
00:30:21,487 --> 00:30:24,281
Lawrence, academics have rights too.
550
00:30:24,365 --> 00:30:26,242
Look, it's not that.
I've got a group coming.
551
00:30:26,325 --> 00:30:28,160
Oh. I'll sit in.
552
00:30:28,244 --> 00:30:29,286
Not this one.
553
00:30:31,789 --> 00:30:32,790
[door opens]
554
00:30:35,835 --> 00:30:38,879
Richard. Dr. Bush.
What brings you two up north?
555
00:30:48,639 --> 00:30:51,559
Richard, you tell Ruth
I'll be down to Pasadena Thursday.
556
00:30:57,398 --> 00:30:58,774
[sighs]
557
00:31:01,610 --> 00:31:03,779
Your paper on black holes is in!
558
00:31:05,448 --> 00:31:07,283
Where's Hartland?
559
00:31:07,366 --> 00:31:09,452
Get Hartland. Get Hartland.
560
00:31:09,535 --> 00:31:13,164
September 1st, 1939.
The world's gonna remember this day.
561
00:31:13,247 --> 00:31:14,582
[chuckles]
562
00:31:14,665 --> 00:31:16,667
Oh, Hartland. Our paper, it's in print.
563
00:31:16,751 --> 00:31:18,627
We've been upstaged.
564
00:31:21,922 --> 00:31:23,674
[Oppenheimer]
During the Battle of Britain,
565
00:31:23,758 --> 00:31:26,677
I found myself
increasingly out of sympathy
566
00:31:26,761 --> 00:31:30,890
with the policy of neutrality
that communists advocated.
567
00:31:30,973 --> 00:31:34,060
But after Hitler invaded Russia
and we became allies,
568
00:31:34,143 --> 00:31:36,479
these communist sympathies,
did they return?
569
00:31:36,562 --> 00:31:37,480
No.
570
00:31:38,355 --> 00:31:42,526
I need to make clear
that my changing views on Russia
571
00:31:42,610 --> 00:31:45,988
did not mean a sharp break
from those who held different views.
572
00:31:46,072 --> 00:31:48,365
For a year or two,
and during a previous marriage,
573
00:31:48,449 --> 00:31:51,660
my wife Kitty had been
a Communist Party member.
574
00:31:52,661 --> 00:31:54,413
[guests chattering, laughing]
575
00:31:55,706 --> 00:31:57,833
This way.
This is where I keep the good stuff.
576
00:31:57,917 --> 00:31:59,710
I thought this was the Tolmans' house.
577
00:31:59,794 --> 00:32:01,712
I live with them while I'm at Caltech.
578
00:32:01,796 --> 00:32:04,715
- Do you two need anything?
- [Oppenheimer] We're good, Ruthie.
579
00:32:05,966 --> 00:32:08,677
So, you're a biologist.
580
00:32:09,261 --> 00:32:12,515
Well, somehow
I have graduated to housewife.
581
00:32:12,598 --> 00:32:16,143
Can you explain quantum mechanics to me?
Seems baffling.
582
00:32:16,227 --> 00:32:17,728
Yes, it is.
583
00:32:19,146 --> 00:32:22,566
Well, this glass, this drink,
584
00:32:23,692 --> 00:32:27,363
this countertop, uh, our bodies,
585
00:32:28,906 --> 00:32:30,074
all of it.
586
00:32:31,367 --> 00:32:33,410
It's mostly empty space.
587
00:32:33,494 --> 00:32:36,539
Groupings of tiny energy waves
bound together.
588
00:32:36,622 --> 00:32:37,623
By what?
589
00:32:37,706 --> 00:32:41,460
Forces of attraction strong enough
to convince us
590
00:32:41,544 --> 00:32:45,965
that matter is solid,
stop my body passing through yours.
591
00:32:52,138 --> 00:32:53,639
[chattering]
592
00:32:58,727 --> 00:33:00,271
You're married to Dr. Harrison.
593
00:33:00,855 --> 00:33:01,814
Not very.
594
00:33:04,066 --> 00:33:07,736
There is someone that I feel—
595
00:33:07,820 --> 00:33:09,155
Does she feel the same way?
596
00:33:09,238 --> 00:33:10,614
Sometimes.
597
00:33:11,574 --> 00:33:12,908
Not enough.
598
00:33:14,243 --> 00:33:17,079
You know, I'm going to New Mexico.
599
00:33:17,163 --> 00:33:19,999
To my ranch, with friends.
You should come.
600
00:33:21,333 --> 00:33:23,252
I meant with your husband.
601
00:33:23,335 --> 00:33:24,378
Yes, you did.
602
00:33:24,461 --> 00:33:26,881
'Cause you know
it won't make a bit of difference.
603
00:33:31,260 --> 00:33:33,053
[Oppenheimer]
Why did you marry him?
604
00:33:33,137 --> 00:33:36,307
I was lost and he was kind.
605
00:33:38,642 --> 00:33:39,643
Lost?
606
00:33:40,311 --> 00:33:42,062
Well, my previous husband had died
607
00:33:42,146 --> 00:33:45,316
and at 28
I wasn't really ready to be a widow.
608
00:33:45,399 --> 00:33:46,817
Who was your first husband?
609
00:33:46,901 --> 00:33:50,112
Nobody. But my second husband
was Joe Dallet.
610
00:33:50,196 --> 00:33:52,615
He was, um, from money, like me,
611
00:33:52,698 --> 00:33:56,202
but he was a union organizer
in Youngstown, Ohio.
612
00:33:56,285 --> 00:33:57,411
Fell hard.
613
00:33:57,494 --> 00:33:58,871
[chuckles] How hard?
614
00:33:58,954 --> 00:34:01,624
Hard enough to spend the next four years
living off beans and pancakes,
615
00:34:01,707 --> 00:34:04,668
handing out the Daily Worker
at factory gates.
616
00:34:05,252 --> 00:34:07,546
By 36, I just told Joe
I couldn't take it anymore.
617
00:34:07,630 --> 00:34:10,132
Quit the Party.
A year later, I wanted him back.
618
00:34:10,216 --> 00:34:12,801
Him, not the Daily Worker.
619
00:34:12,885 --> 00:34:14,970
He said,
"Swell, I'll meet you on my way to Spain."
620
00:34:15,054 --> 00:34:16,430
He went to fight for the Loyalists?
621
00:34:16,513 --> 00:34:19,558
And then he went to the brigades
and I waited, and...
622
00:34:21,227 --> 00:34:24,647
Joe got himself killed first time
he popped his head outta the trench.
623
00:34:25,439 --> 00:34:27,816
Ideology got Joe killed. For nothing.
624
00:34:27,900 --> 00:34:29,693
Spanish Republic isn't nothing.
625
00:34:29,777 --> 00:34:32,780
My husband offered both our futures
to stop one fascist bullet
626
00:34:32,863 --> 00:34:35,032
from embedding itself in a mudbank.
627
00:34:36,075 --> 00:34:38,327
That's the definition of nothing.
628
00:34:38,410 --> 00:34:40,287
- Seems a little reductive.
- Pragmatic.
629
00:34:42,331 --> 00:34:43,624
Now here I am.
630
00:34:46,252 --> 00:34:47,836
Wherever the hell this is.
631
00:34:55,010 --> 00:34:57,554
I didn't want you to hear it
from anyone else.
632
00:35:00,516 --> 00:35:02,476
Least you didn't bring me flowers.
633
00:35:02,559 --> 00:35:03,727
[sniffles]
634
00:35:04,937 --> 00:35:06,272
[chuckles]
635
00:35:10,067 --> 00:35:12,319
We both know I'm not what you want, Jean.
636
00:35:13,654 --> 00:35:15,531
Yeah, but it's a door closing.
637
00:35:16,448 --> 00:35:17,449
No.
638
00:35:19,326 --> 00:35:21,370
Not as far as I'm concerned, no.
639
00:35:23,038 --> 00:35:25,332
You knocked her up. Fast work.
640
00:35:25,416 --> 00:35:28,085
- Can't keep a good man down.
- [chuckles]
641
00:35:28,168 --> 00:35:29,378
I meant her.
642
00:35:30,170 --> 00:35:33,382
She knew what she wanted.
What about the husband?
643
00:35:33,465 --> 00:35:34,883
We talked.
644
00:35:34,967 --> 00:35:36,218
They're getting a divorce
645
00:35:36,302 --> 00:35:40,472
so we can get married
before she starts showing.
646
00:35:40,556 --> 00:35:42,057
How civilized.
647
00:35:44,018 --> 00:35:46,603
You idiot. This is your community.
648
00:35:47,646 --> 00:35:50,274
You think the rules don't apply
to the golden boy?
649
00:35:51,066 --> 00:35:52,735
Brilliance makes up for a lot.
650
00:35:53,444 --> 00:35:57,072
Don't alienate the only people
in the world that understand what you do.
651
00:35:58,699 --> 00:36:00,326
One day you might need them.
652
00:36:00,409 --> 00:36:01,535
[students chanting] F-A-E-C-T! F-A-E-C-T!
653
00:36:01,535 --> 00:36:02,953
[students chanting] F-A-E-C-T! F-A-E-C-T!
654
00:36:03,037 --> 00:36:05,039
[Oppenheimer]
The Federation of Architects, Engineers,
655
00:36:05,122 --> 00:36:07,249
Chemists and Technicians.
656
00:36:14,131 --> 00:36:17,509
- Lomanitz, what do you get paid a month?
- That's not the point, Lawrence.
657
00:36:17,593 --> 00:36:22,431
What do any of you have in common
with farm laborers and dock workers?
658
00:36:22,514 --> 00:36:23,724
[Lomanitz] Plenty.
659
00:36:24,892 --> 00:36:26,935
Everybody out. Now!
660
00:36:31,523 --> 00:36:32,858
Not you.
661
00:36:32,941 --> 00:36:34,735
[footsteps departing]
662
00:36:36,487 --> 00:36:37,821
[door closes]
663
00:36:38,697 --> 00:36:39,698
What are you doing?
664
00:36:40,574 --> 00:36:43,410
- It's a trade union.
- Filled with communists.
665
00:36:43,494 --> 00:36:45,329
So? I haven't joined the Party.
666
00:36:45,412 --> 00:36:48,916
They won't let me bring you
onto the project because of this shit.
667
00:36:48,999 --> 00:36:51,293
They won't even let me tell you
what the project is.
668
00:36:51,377 --> 00:36:54,254
- Oh, I know what the project is.
- Oh, really?
669
00:36:54,338 --> 00:36:56,965
We've all heard about
Einstein and Szilard's letter to Roosevelt
670
00:36:57,049 --> 00:36:58,675
warning him the Germans could make a bomb,
671
00:36:58,759 --> 00:37:02,054
and I know what it means
for the Nazis to have a bomb.
672
00:37:02,137 --> 00:37:03,514
And I don't?
673
00:37:03,597 --> 00:37:06,642
It's not your people
they're herding into camps.
674
00:37:06,725 --> 00:37:07,851
It's mine.
675
00:37:08,602 --> 00:37:10,938
You think that I tell them
about your politics.
676
00:37:12,981 --> 00:37:14,733
The next time you're coming home
from a meeting,
677
00:37:14,817 --> 00:37:16,819
why don't you take a look
in the rearview mirror?
678
00:37:16,902 --> 00:37:21,782
Listen to the sounds on your phone line
and stop being so goddamn naive.
679
00:37:23,242 --> 00:37:24,576
Why would they care what I do?
680
00:37:24,660 --> 00:37:28,831
Because you're not just self-important,
you're actually important.
681
00:37:32,292 --> 00:37:33,293
Okay.
682
00:37:34,336 --> 00:37:37,464
- I get it.
- If you could just be a little more—
683
00:37:37,548 --> 00:37:38,715
Pragmatic.
684
00:37:38,799 --> 00:37:40,759
I'll talk to Lomanitz,
I'll talk to the others.
685
00:37:40,843 --> 00:37:43,429
You don't have to worry.
It's done, Lawrence.
686
00:37:48,851 --> 00:37:50,185
Then welcome to the war.
687
00:37:50,936 --> 00:37:53,230
I filled out
my first security questionnaire
688
00:37:53,313 --> 00:37:56,525
and was informed that my involvement
with left-wing groups
689
00:37:56,608 --> 00:38:00,529
would not prove a bar
to my working on the atomic program.
690
00:38:00,612 --> 00:38:03,198
[Pastore]
Why were his communist associations
691
00:38:03,282 --> 00:38:06,118
not seen as a security risk
during the war?
692
00:38:06,201 --> 00:38:09,288
Senator, I can't possibly answer
for security clearance
693
00:38:09,371 --> 00:38:11,373
granted years before I ever met the man.
694
00:38:11,457 --> 00:38:13,417
Fine. What about after?
695
00:38:13,500 --> 00:38:14,501
After the war,
696
00:38:14,585 --> 00:38:19,214
Dr. Oppenheimer was the most respected
scientific voice in the world.
697
00:38:19,298 --> 00:38:21,341
That's why I asked him
to run the Institute.
698
00:38:21,425 --> 00:38:24,303
That's why he advised
the Atomic Energy Commission.
699
00:38:24,386 --> 00:38:25,512
Simple as that.
700
00:38:26,096 --> 00:38:27,639
What are they accusing me of?
701
00:38:28,265 --> 00:38:31,768
I think they just wanna know what happened
between 1947 and 1954
702
00:38:31,852 --> 00:38:34,563
to change your mind
on Oppenheimer's security clearance.
703
00:38:34,646 --> 00:38:35,647
I didn't.
704
00:38:35,731 --> 00:38:37,441
I was chair of the AEC,
705
00:38:37,524 --> 00:38:40,903
but it wasn't me
that brought the charges against Robert.
706
00:38:40,986 --> 00:38:42,279
Who did?
707
00:38:42,362 --> 00:38:44,239
Some former staff member
of the Joint Congressional Committee.
708
00:38:44,323 --> 00:38:47,367
He was a rabid anti-communist
named Borden.
709
00:38:47,451 --> 00:38:49,661
He wrote to the FBI
demanding they take action.
710
00:38:49,745 --> 00:38:52,247
The FBI? Why not go to the AEC direct?
711
00:38:52,331 --> 00:38:54,833
Why get caught holding the knife yourself?
712
00:38:54,917 --> 00:38:56,710
What did Borden have against Oppenheimer?
713
00:38:56,793 --> 00:38:58,462
This was the McCarthy Era.
714
00:38:59,338 --> 00:39:02,674
People hounded out of jobs
for any hint of red.
715
00:39:02,758 --> 00:39:05,761
And then,
reading Oppenheimer's security file,
716
00:39:05,844 --> 00:39:08,847
his communist brother,
sister-in-law, fiancée,
717
00:39:08,931 --> 00:39:10,265
best friend, wife.
718
00:39:10,349 --> 00:39:12,768
That's before we even get
to the Chevalier incident.
719
00:39:12,851 --> 00:39:16,188
But how would Borden have access
to Oppenheimer's security file?
720
00:39:16,271 --> 00:39:18,190
Because somebody gave it to him.
721
00:39:19,191 --> 00:39:21,735
Somebody who wanted Robert silenced.
722
00:39:21,818 --> 00:39:23,820
- Who?
- [Strauss] Who knows?
723
00:39:23,904 --> 00:39:27,824
Robert didn't take care not to upset
the power brokers in Washington.
724
00:39:28,534 --> 00:39:31,286
His opinions on the atom became definitive
725
00:39:31,370 --> 00:39:33,872
and he wasn't always patient
with us mere mortals.
726
00:39:37,668 --> 00:39:39,836
I came in for plenty of harsh treatment.
727
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,298
There was an AEC vote
728
00:39:43,382 --> 00:39:45,801
on the export of isotopes to Norway,
729
00:39:45,884 --> 00:39:48,554
and they drafted in Robert
to make me look like a fool.
730
00:39:48,637 --> 00:39:51,557
[congressman] But, Dr. Oppenheimer,
we've already heard from Admiral Strauss
731
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,893
that these isotopes
could be useful to our enemies
732
00:39:54,977 --> 00:39:56,395
in the production of atomic weapons.
733
00:39:56,478 --> 00:39:59,648
Congressmen, you could use
a shovel in making atomic weapons.
734
00:39:59,731 --> 00:40:00,732
In fact, you do.
735
00:40:00,816 --> 00:40:03,860
You could use a bottle of beer
in making atomic weapons.
736
00:40:03,944 --> 00:40:05,320
In fact, you do.
737
00:40:05,404 --> 00:40:08,740
I say isotopes are less useful
than electronic components,
738
00:40:08,824 --> 00:40:11,994
- but more useful than a sandwich.
- [gallery laughs]
739
00:40:14,621 --> 00:40:16,123
[Strauss]
Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.
740
00:40:17,249 --> 00:40:19,793
How could this man
who saw so much be so blind?
741
00:40:20,961 --> 00:40:23,338
- [crickets chirping]
- [baby crying]
742
00:40:29,595 --> 00:40:30,596
Kitty?
743
00:40:32,598 --> 00:40:34,433
[baby continues crying]
744
00:40:35,767 --> 00:40:36,768
Kitty?
745
00:40:38,312 --> 00:40:40,606
Kitty, the project—
746
00:40:41,940 --> 00:40:44,651
I'm in. I'm in.
747
00:40:44,735 --> 00:40:46,028
Let's celebrate.
748
00:40:52,117 --> 00:40:53,535
Shouldn't you go to him?
749
00:40:58,373 --> 00:41:01,543
I have been going to him all fucking day.
750
00:41:07,132 --> 00:41:08,925
[baby continues crying]
751
00:41:13,513 --> 00:41:14,931
[engine turns off]
752
00:41:15,015 --> 00:41:16,308
Okay.
753
00:41:17,392 --> 00:41:19,478
- [baby continues crying]
- [knocks on door]
754
00:41:23,732 --> 00:41:24,733
Here.
755
00:41:25,359 --> 00:41:26,443
Come here, darling.
756
00:41:27,319 --> 00:41:28,862
I don't know how to say this.
757
00:41:29,655 --> 00:41:31,573
I-I'm ashamed to ask.
758
00:41:32,157 --> 00:41:33,158
[Chevalier] Anything.
759
00:41:34,117 --> 00:41:36,036
- Take Peter.
- Sure.
760
00:41:36,119 --> 00:41:37,954
No, for a while, Hoke.
761
00:41:38,914 --> 00:41:39,915
A while.
762
00:41:41,875 --> 00:41:44,086
Does Kitty know you're here?
763
00:41:44,169 --> 00:41:45,379
Yes, of course she knows.
764
00:41:46,213 --> 00:41:47,673
Of course she knows.
765
00:41:48,507 --> 00:41:51,093
We're awful people. Selfish, awful people.
766
00:41:53,387 --> 00:41:54,388
Forget I asked.
767
00:41:54,471 --> 00:41:56,390
Selfish, awful people,
768
00:41:56,473 --> 00:41:58,809
they don't know they're selfish and awful.
769
00:41:59,726 --> 00:42:01,103
Sit, sit, sit.
770
00:42:02,562 --> 00:42:06,483
Robert, you see beyond the world
we live in.
771
00:42:08,235 --> 00:42:10,237
There is a price to be paid for that.
772
00:42:10,946 --> 00:42:12,280
Of course we'll help you.
773
00:42:23,458 --> 00:42:25,252
[Kitty] Everything's changing, Robert.
774
00:42:25,836 --> 00:42:27,462
Having a child
was always going to change—
775
00:42:27,546 --> 00:42:31,091
No, the world, it's pivoting
in some new direction.
776
00:42:32,092 --> 00:42:33,301
It's reforming.
777
00:42:35,846 --> 00:42:37,013
This is your moment.
778
00:42:38,682 --> 00:42:40,267
We're putting together a group
to study feasibili—
779
00:42:40,350 --> 00:42:43,103
"We" shouldn't be doing anything.
You should.
780
00:42:44,020 --> 00:42:45,605
Lawrence won't get this done.
781
00:42:46,273 --> 00:42:48,483
Or Tolman, or Rabi. You will.
782
00:42:51,653 --> 00:42:53,655
[chattering]
783
00:42:57,701 --> 00:42:59,327
[Oppenheimer] Who are the uniforms?
784
00:43:00,162 --> 00:43:01,580
I thought you might know.
785
00:43:03,039 --> 00:43:04,791
- [door opens]
- [colonel] Dr. Oppenheimer.
786
00:43:06,293 --> 00:43:07,502
I'm Colonel Groves.
787
00:43:07,586 --> 00:43:09,713
This is Lieutenant Colonel Nichols.
788
00:43:09,796 --> 00:43:11,047
Have that dry cleaned.
789
00:43:16,511 --> 00:43:19,139
Well, if that's how
you treat Lieutenant Colonel,
790
00:43:19,222 --> 00:43:22,768
I'd hate to see how you treat
a humble physicist.
791
00:43:22,851 --> 00:43:24,644
If I ever meet one, I'll let you know.
792
00:43:24,728 --> 00:43:26,146
[chuckles] Ouch.
793
00:43:26,229 --> 00:43:29,775
Theaters of combat all over the world
but I have to stay in Washington.
794
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:32,611
- Why?
- I built the Pentagon.
795
00:43:32,694 --> 00:43:37,115
The brass likes it so much they made me
take over the Manhattan Engineer District.
796
00:43:37,699 --> 00:43:38,617
Which is?
797
00:43:39,618 --> 00:43:40,744
Don't be a smart ass.
798
00:43:40,827 --> 00:43:41,995
You know damn well what it is.
799
00:43:42,078 --> 00:43:44,539
You and half of every physics department
across the country.
800
00:43:44,623 --> 00:43:46,500
That's problem number one.
801
00:43:46,583 --> 00:43:49,628
I thought problem number one
would be securing enough uranium ore.
802
00:43:49,711 --> 00:43:53,256
- 1,200 tons bought the day I took charge.
- Processing?
803
00:43:53,340 --> 00:43:55,675
Just broke ground at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
804
00:43:56,843 --> 00:43:58,470
Now I'm looking for a project director.
805
00:43:59,471 --> 00:44:00,639
And my name came up?
806
00:44:00,722 --> 00:44:01,807
Nope.
807
00:44:02,808 --> 00:44:05,185
Even though you brought quantum physics
to America.
808
00:44:05,268 --> 00:44:06,478
Which made me curious.
809
00:44:07,062 --> 00:44:08,271
What've you found out?
810
00:44:09,481 --> 00:44:13,235
You're a dilettante, a womanizer,
a suspected communist—
811
00:44:13,318 --> 00:44:14,611
I'm a New Deal Democrat.
812
00:44:14,694 --> 00:44:16,363
I said "suspected."
813
00:44:16,446 --> 00:44:20,492
Unstable, theatrical,
egotistical, neurotic—
814
00:44:20,575 --> 00:44:23,411
Nothing good, no?
Not even, "He's brilliant, but—"
815
00:44:23,495 --> 00:44:26,873
Well, brilliance is taken for granted
in your circle, so no.
816
00:44:26,957 --> 00:44:30,627
No, the only person who had anything good
to say was Richard Tolman.
817
00:44:30,710 --> 00:44:32,629
Tolman thinks you have integrity,
818
00:44:32,712 --> 00:44:37,133
but he also strikes me as a guy
who knows more about science than people.
819
00:44:37,717 --> 00:44:38,969
Yet here you are.
820
00:44:39,594 --> 00:44:41,137
You don't take much on trust.
821
00:44:41,221 --> 00:44:42,889
I don't take anything on trust.
822
00:44:46,893 --> 00:44:48,436
Why don't you have a Nobel prize?
823
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:50,897
- Why aren't you a general?
- They're making me one for this.
824
00:44:50,981 --> 00:44:53,942
- Perhaps I'll have the same luck.
- A Nobel prize for making a bomb?
825
00:44:54,025 --> 00:44:55,902
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
826
00:44:58,780 --> 00:44:59,990
So how would you proceed?
827
00:45:01,908 --> 00:45:06,621
You're talking about turning theory
into a practical weapons system
828
00:45:06,705 --> 00:45:07,998
faster than the Nazis.
829
00:45:08,081 --> 00:45:09,583
Who have a 12-month head start.
830
00:45:09,666 --> 00:45:11,751
- Eighteen.
- How could you possibly know that?
831
00:45:11,835 --> 00:45:14,296
Our fast neutron research took six months.
832
00:45:14,379 --> 00:45:17,257
The man they've undoubtedly put in charge
will have made that leap instantly.
833
00:45:17,340 --> 00:45:19,718
- Who do you think they put in charge?
- Werner Heisenberg.
834
00:45:19,801 --> 00:45:24,055
He has the most intuitive understanding
of atomic structure I have ever seen.
835
00:45:24,139 --> 00:45:25,640
- You know his work?
- I know him.
836
00:45:25,724 --> 00:45:28,393
Just like I know Walther Bothe,
Von Weizsäcker, Diebner.
837
00:45:28,476 --> 00:45:30,228
In a straight race, the Germans win.
838
00:45:30,312 --> 00:45:31,396
We've got one hope.
839
00:45:31,479 --> 00:45:32,689
Which is?
840
00:45:33,732 --> 00:45:35,066
Anti-Semitism.
841
00:45:36,526 --> 00:45:37,527
What?
842
00:45:37,611 --> 00:45:40,363
Hitler called quantum physics
"Jewish science."
843
00:45:40,447 --> 00:45:41,781
Said it right to Einstein's face.
844
00:45:41,865 --> 00:45:45,660
Our one hope is that Hitler
is so, so blinded by hate
845
00:45:45,744 --> 00:45:47,412
that he's denied Heisenberg
proper resources,
846
00:45:47,495 --> 00:45:49,331
because it'll take vast resources.
847
00:45:49,414 --> 00:45:50,957
Our nation's best scientists,
working together.
848
00:45:51,041 --> 00:45:52,208
Right now, they're scattered.
849
00:45:52,292 --> 00:45:54,085
Which gives us compartmentalization.
850
00:45:54,169 --> 00:45:57,088
All minds have to see the whole task
to contribute efficiently.
851
00:45:57,172 --> 00:45:59,341
Poor security may cost us the race.
852
00:45:59,424 --> 00:46:00,717
Inefficiency will.
853
00:46:01,509 --> 00:46:03,219
The Germans know more than us anyway.
854
00:46:03,303 --> 00:46:04,763
The Russians don't.
855
00:46:06,348 --> 00:46:09,392
Remind me, who are we at war with?
856
00:46:09,476 --> 00:46:12,729
Somebody with your past
doesn't wanna be seen downplaying
857
00:46:12,812 --> 00:46:16,191
the importance of security
from our communist allies.
858
00:46:17,108 --> 00:46:19,027
Point taken. But, no.
859
00:46:19,611 --> 00:46:21,196
You don't get to say "no" to me.
860
00:46:21,279 --> 00:46:23,448
It's my job to say
"no" to you when you're wrong.
861
00:46:24,032 --> 00:46:25,492
So you have the job now?
862
00:46:25,575 --> 00:46:27,577
Uh, I'm considering it.
863
00:46:30,372 --> 00:46:32,874
I'm starting to see
where you got your reputation.
864
00:46:34,084 --> 00:46:35,627
My favorite response?
865
00:46:36,378 --> 00:46:38,713
"Oppenheimer couldn't run
a hamburger stand."
866
00:46:39,297 --> 00:46:41,591
[chuckles] I couldn't.
867
00:46:43,718 --> 00:46:45,637
But I can run the Manhattan Project.
868
00:46:47,180 --> 00:46:49,015
There's a way to balance these things.
869
00:46:49,683 --> 00:46:53,103
Keep the Rad Lab here at Berkeley
under Lawrence.
870
00:46:53,186 --> 00:46:55,271
Met Lab in Chicago under Szilard.
871
00:46:55,355 --> 00:46:57,732
Large scale refining,
where did you say? Tennessee.
872
00:46:57,816 --> 00:46:59,401
- And Hanford.
- And Hanford.
873
00:46:59,484 --> 00:47:02,904
All America's industrial might
and scientific innovation,
874
00:47:02,988 --> 00:47:05,073
connected by rail.
875
00:47:05,156 --> 00:47:06,658
Focused on one goal.
876
00:47:06,741 --> 00:47:08,243
One point in space and time.
877
00:47:08,326 --> 00:47:09,452
And it comes together here.
878
00:47:09,536 --> 00:47:10,954
A secret laboratory.
879
00:47:11,037 --> 00:47:13,206
In the middle of nowhere,
secure, self-sufficient,
880
00:47:13,289 --> 00:47:14,874
equipment, housing, the works.
881
00:47:14,958 --> 00:47:16,543
Keep everyone there until it's done.
882
00:47:17,293 --> 00:47:19,963
- I'll need the schools, stores, a church.
- Why?
883
00:47:20,046 --> 00:47:23,174
If we don't let scientists bring
their families, we'll never get the best.
884
00:47:23,258 --> 00:47:26,011
You want security,
build a town, build it fast.
885
00:47:26,094 --> 00:47:27,470
Where?
886
00:47:31,266 --> 00:47:32,767
Welcome to Los Alamos.
887
00:47:32,851 --> 00:47:35,520
Now, there's a boys' school
we'll have to commandeer
888
00:47:35,603 --> 00:47:37,313
and the local Indians
come up here for burial rites.
889
00:47:37,397 --> 00:47:39,190
But, apart from that, nothing.
890
00:47:39,274 --> 00:47:40,692
Forty miles. Any direction.
891
00:47:40,775 --> 00:47:42,652
Enough to find the perfect spot.
892
00:47:42,736 --> 00:47:44,863
- What for?
- Success.
893
00:47:50,535 --> 00:47:52,287
Build him a town. Fast.
894
00:47:54,414 --> 00:47:56,207
Let's go recruit some scientists.
895
00:47:56,791 --> 00:47:59,919
- Why would I leave my family?
- I told you, you can bring your family.
896
00:48:00,003 --> 00:48:01,379
I'm not a soldier, Oppie.
897
00:48:01,463 --> 00:48:03,590
A soldier? He's a general.
898
00:48:03,673 --> 00:48:05,341
I've got all the soldier I need.
899
00:48:05,425 --> 00:48:07,385
What can I tell them?
900
00:48:07,469 --> 00:48:09,387
Heisenberg, Diebner, Bothe, Bohr.
901
00:48:09,471 --> 00:48:10,847
What do these men have in common?
902
00:48:10,930 --> 00:48:12,640
The greatest minds on atomic theory.
903
00:48:12,724 --> 00:48:14,225
- Yes, and?
- Uh...
904
00:48:14,809 --> 00:48:16,061
As much as you like...
905
00:48:17,479 --> 00:48:19,189
until you feel my boot on your balls.
906
00:48:20,231 --> 00:48:21,441
You know isotopes
907
00:48:21,524 --> 00:48:23,860
and you know explosives,
better than anyone in the world.
908
00:48:23,943 --> 00:48:25,528
But you can't tell us what you're doing.
909
00:48:29,407 --> 00:48:31,743
- I don't know.
- The Nazis have them.
910
00:48:31,826 --> 00:48:33,953
- Niels Bohr's in Copenhagen.
- Under Nazi occupation.
911
00:48:34,037 --> 00:48:35,872
Did they stop printing newspapers
in Princeton?
912
00:48:35,955 --> 00:48:39,709
Why would we go to the middle of nowhere
for who knows how long?
913
00:48:39,793 --> 00:48:41,544
A year or two. Or three.
914
00:48:42,921 --> 00:48:45,882
General, could you give us a moment?
915
00:48:47,383 --> 00:48:50,011
It's about unleashing the strong force
916
00:48:51,554 --> 00:48:53,014
before the Nazis do.
917
00:48:53,848 --> 00:48:54,974
Oh, my God.
918
00:48:55,058 --> 00:48:57,352
- Niels won't work for the Nazis.
- No, never.
919
00:48:57,435 --> 00:48:59,687
But while they have him, we don't.
920
00:48:59,771 --> 00:49:00,939
That's why I need you.
921
00:49:01,022 --> 00:49:02,941
Why would you think I'd do that?
922
00:49:03,024 --> 00:49:04,943
Why? Why?
923
00:49:05,026 --> 00:49:07,153
How about because this is
the most important fucking thing
924
00:49:07,237 --> 00:49:09,280
to ever happen in the history
of the world.
925
00:49:09,364 --> 00:49:11,825
How about that? Fuck.
926
00:49:17,122 --> 00:49:19,290
They are not gonna let me
onto this project.
927
00:49:20,041 --> 00:49:23,795
And failing a security check is not gonna
be good for a career, even after the war.
928
00:49:23,878 --> 00:49:25,505
So you're a fellow traveler.
929
00:49:25,588 --> 00:49:28,133
So what? This is a national emergency.
930
00:49:28,216 --> 00:49:31,261
I've got some skeletons,
they put me in charge.
931
00:49:31,344 --> 00:49:32,345
They need us.
932
00:49:32,428 --> 00:49:33,888
Until they don't.
933
00:49:38,017 --> 00:49:40,186
Is there any chance
of getting Bohr out of Denmark?
934
00:49:40,270 --> 00:49:41,396
[Groves] Nah, no dice.
935
00:49:41,479 --> 00:49:43,648
I checked with the British.
936
00:49:43,731 --> 00:49:45,733
Until we get Allied boots
back onto the continent,
937
00:49:45,817 --> 00:49:46,776
there's just no way.
938
00:49:48,653 --> 00:49:49,779
Is he that important?
939
00:49:49,863 --> 00:49:52,907
How many people do you know
who've proved Einstein wrong?
940
00:49:54,284 --> 00:49:56,202
You know, it really would be quicker
to take a plane.
941
00:49:56,286 --> 00:49:57,829
No, plane's too risky.
942
00:49:57,912 --> 00:49:59,289
Country needs us.
943
00:50:00,081 --> 00:50:02,000
[construction equipment whirring]
944
00:50:02,876 --> 00:50:06,129
The Harvard guys, they say the building's
too small for the cyclotron.
945
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:10,425
Get them together with the architects.
946
00:50:13,970 --> 00:50:15,722
When's this place supposed to open?
947
00:50:18,725 --> 00:50:19,893
Two months.
948
00:50:21,060 --> 00:50:24,355
Robert, you're the great improviser,
but this...
949
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:26,733
you can't do in your head.
950
00:50:28,276 --> 00:50:29,569
Four divisions.
951
00:50:30,570 --> 00:50:34,157
Experimental, Theoretical,
Metallurgical, Ordnance.
952
00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:35,325
Who's running Theoretical?
953
00:50:35,408 --> 00:50:36,618
I am.
954
00:50:36,701 --> 00:50:39,537
That's what I was afraid of.
You're spread too thin.
955
00:50:40,914 --> 00:50:42,373
So you take Theoretical.
956
00:50:45,293 --> 00:50:47,879
I'm not coming here, Robert.
957
00:50:54,052 --> 00:50:55,053
Why not?
958
00:51:01,893 --> 00:51:05,563
You drop a bomb
and it falls on the just, and the unjust.
959
00:51:06,940 --> 00:51:09,525
I don't wish the culmination
of three centuries of physics
960
00:51:09,609 --> 00:51:11,527
to be a weapon of mass destruction.
961
00:51:21,371 --> 00:51:22,497
Izzy.
962
00:51:23,414 --> 00:51:27,669
I don't know if we can be trusted
with such a weapon.
963
00:51:29,254 --> 00:51:32,215
But I know the Nazis can't.
964
00:51:36,386 --> 00:51:37,553
We have no choice.
965
00:51:40,431 --> 00:51:41,432
Then...
966
00:51:43,226 --> 00:51:45,895
the second thing you'll have to do
is appoint Hans Bethe
967
00:51:45,979 --> 00:51:47,689
to run the theoretical division.
968
00:51:49,983 --> 00:51:51,901
Wait, what was the first?
969
00:51:51,985 --> 00:51:55,488
Take off that ridiculous uniform.
You're a scientist.
970
00:51:55,571 --> 00:51:57,573
Groves is insisting we join.
971
00:51:57,657 --> 00:51:59,659
Tell Groves to go shit in his hat.
972
00:51:59,742 --> 00:52:01,786
They need us for who we are.
973
00:52:01,869 --> 00:52:04,372
So be yourself. Only better.
974
00:52:44,704 --> 00:52:46,247
- This is the only key.
- [keys jangle]
975
00:52:46,331 --> 00:52:49,500
And Teller's already here.
Shall I just show him in?
976
00:52:49,584 --> 00:52:52,628
- No, let's wait for the others.
- [door opens]
977
00:52:59,260 --> 00:53:00,261
Let's get started.
978
00:53:01,054 --> 00:53:02,388
Hello, Edward.
979
00:53:02,472 --> 00:53:03,514
Yes.
980
00:53:03,598 --> 00:53:05,933
Gentlemen, so, we will work here
981
00:53:06,017 --> 00:53:08,811
until the T-section at Los Alamos
is finished.
982
00:53:08,895 --> 00:53:09,896
Edward, can I please—
983
00:53:09,979 --> 00:53:11,189
It is more important.
984
00:53:13,316 --> 00:53:17,362
When I calculated the chain reaction,
I found a rather troubling possibility.
985
00:53:18,488 --> 00:53:21,032
No. This can't be right.
986
00:53:21,908 --> 00:53:23,368
Show me how you did your calculations.
987
00:53:23,451 --> 00:53:24,452
[Edward] Yes.
988
00:53:28,331 --> 00:53:31,542
- It's exponential.
- No. No, no, no. No.
989
00:53:34,962 --> 00:53:36,506
This is fantasy.
990
00:53:36,589 --> 00:53:38,633
Teller's calculations can't be right.
991
00:53:39,258 --> 00:53:41,469
Do them yourself while I go to Princeton.
992
00:53:41,552 --> 00:53:43,554
- What for?
- To talk to Einstein.
993
00:53:43,638 --> 00:53:45,932
There's not much common ground
between you two.
994
00:53:46,015 --> 00:53:47,433
That's why I should get his view.
995
00:53:52,480 --> 00:53:54,440
- Albert.
- Mmm?
996
00:53:54,524 --> 00:53:57,360
Ah, Dr. Oppenheimer. [chuckles]
997
00:53:57,443 --> 00:54:00,530
Well, have you met Dr. Gödel?
We walk here most days.
998
00:54:00,613 --> 00:54:04,617
Trees are the most inspiring structures.
999
00:54:05,284 --> 00:54:06,744
Albert, might I have a word?
1000
00:54:07,620 --> 00:54:09,539
Of course. Excuse me, Kurt.
1001
00:54:11,374 --> 00:54:14,210
You know, some days,
Kurt refuses to eat.
1002
00:54:14,293 --> 00:54:15,420
Even in Princeton.
1003
00:54:15,503 --> 00:54:18,840
He's convinced that the Nazis
can poison his food.
1004
00:54:20,216 --> 00:54:21,384
Hmm?
1005
00:54:24,679 --> 00:54:25,721
Wha—
1006
00:54:30,351 --> 00:54:33,062
Whose— Whose work is this?
1007
00:54:33,146 --> 00:54:34,313
Teller's.
1008
00:54:35,398 --> 00:54:37,108
What do you take it to mean?
1009
00:54:37,900 --> 00:54:39,610
Neutrons smash into nucleus,
1010
00:54:39,694 --> 00:54:43,030
releasing neutrons
to smash into other nuclei.
1011
00:54:43,948 --> 00:54:47,201
Criticality, a point of no return,
massive explosive force.
1012
00:54:47,743 --> 00:54:49,912
But this time,
the chain reaction doesn't stop.
1013
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:53,207
It would ignite the atmosphere.
1014
00:54:55,168 --> 00:54:56,961
When we detonate an atomic device,
1015
00:54:57,044 --> 00:54:59,130
we might start a chain reaction that...
1016
00:55:00,548 --> 00:55:01,883
destroys the world.
1017
00:55:02,925 --> 00:55:04,594
So here we are, hmm?
1018
00:55:04,677 --> 00:55:09,015
Lost in your quantum world
of probabilities
1019
00:55:09,098 --> 00:55:10,433
and needing certainty.
1020
00:55:11,476 --> 00:55:13,686
Can you run the calculations yourself?
1021
00:55:14,353 --> 00:55:18,649
About the only thing you and I have
in common is a disdain for mathematics.
1022
00:55:18,733 --> 00:55:21,903
- Who's working on this in Berkeley?
- Hans Bethe.
1023
00:55:21,986 --> 00:55:24,238
Well, he'll get to the truth.
1024
00:55:26,073 --> 00:55:28,159
And if the truth is catastrophic?
1025
00:55:28,868 --> 00:55:30,077
Then you stop.
1026
00:55:30,161 --> 00:55:33,122
And you share your findings
with the Nazis.
1027
00:55:33,998 --> 00:55:36,417
So neither side destroys the world.
1028
00:55:40,254 --> 00:55:41,255
Robert.
1029
00:55:42,757 --> 00:55:44,884
This is yours, not mine.
1030
00:55:58,898 --> 00:56:00,274
[Bethe] Teller's wrong.
1031
00:56:00,358 --> 00:56:02,193
- He's wrong.
- Shh, shh, shh...
1032
00:56:02,276 --> 00:56:03,778
[keys jangling]
1033
00:56:04,946 --> 00:56:06,113
[lock clicks]
1034
00:56:09,450 --> 00:56:10,535
[lock clicks]
1035
00:56:11,410 --> 00:56:13,829
[Bethe] When you know Teller's
critical assumptions,
1036
00:56:13,913 --> 00:56:15,206
the real picture emerges.
1037
00:56:15,289 --> 00:56:16,374
Bottom line?
1038
00:56:17,208 --> 00:56:20,211
The chances of an uncontrolled
nuclear reaction are near zero.
1039
00:56:20,294 --> 00:56:21,587
Near zero.
1040
00:56:23,047 --> 00:56:24,465
Oppie, this is good news.
1041
00:56:24,549 --> 00:56:25,591
Mmm.
1042
00:56:26,759 --> 00:56:29,637
- Can you run them again?
- No, you'll get the same answer.
1043
00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:31,305
Till they actually detonate
one of these things,
1044
00:56:31,389 --> 00:56:33,849
the best assurance
you're going to get is this.
1045
00:56:33,933 --> 00:56:34,934
Near zero.
1046
00:56:37,562 --> 00:56:40,314
- [sighs] Theory will take you only so far.
- Mmm.
1047
00:56:41,065 --> 00:56:43,734
- [Chevalier] Hello!
- Hello, you. We missed him.
1048
00:56:44,277 --> 00:56:46,529
- You want to adopt?
- She's kidding.
1049
00:56:46,612 --> 00:56:48,239
We wanted to see you before we left.
1050
00:56:48,990 --> 00:56:51,200
For parts unknown.
1051
00:56:52,702 --> 00:56:55,663
You know who I ran into
the other day? Eltenton.
1052
00:56:56,330 --> 00:56:57,582
[Oppenheimer] Huh.
1053
00:56:57,665 --> 00:57:00,001
The chemist from Shell? The union guy?
1054
00:57:00,084 --> 00:57:02,628
[Chevalier] Yeah. The FAECT guy.
1055
00:57:04,046 --> 00:57:06,257
He was moaning
about how we're handling the war.
1056
00:57:07,383 --> 00:57:08,801
How so?
1057
00:57:08,884 --> 00:57:11,762
Lack of cooperation with our allies.
1058
00:57:11,846 --> 00:57:15,975
Apparently our government's not sharing
any research with the Russians.
1059
00:57:16,058 --> 00:57:19,854
Well, he said, "Most scientists
think the policy is stupid."
1060
00:57:23,399 --> 00:57:25,151
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.
1061
00:57:25,735 --> 00:57:29,822
He mentioned that if anyone
had anything they wanted to pass on,
1062
00:57:30,698 --> 00:57:34,243
going around official channels,
that he could help.
1063
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:44,211
That would be treason.
1064
00:57:45,379 --> 00:57:46,797
Yes, of course.
1065
00:57:47,548 --> 00:57:49,175
I just thought you should know.
1066
00:57:51,802 --> 00:57:55,181
The brat is down.
Where are the martinis?
1067
00:58:00,561 --> 00:58:02,063
Coming right up.
1068
00:58:02,146 --> 00:58:03,606
[Oppenheimer]
The conversation ended there.
1069
00:58:03,689 --> 00:58:06,942
Nothing in our long-standing friendship
would have led me to believe
1070
00:58:07,026 --> 00:58:09,987
that Chevalier
was actually seeking information,
1071
00:58:10,071 --> 00:58:14,575
and I am certain that he had no idea
of the work in which I was engaged.
1072
00:58:19,372 --> 00:58:20,998
It has long been clear to me
1073
00:58:21,082 --> 00:58:24,168
that I should have reported
this incident at once.
1074
00:58:24,251 --> 00:58:26,962
[McGee] The Oppenheimer situation
highlights the tension
1075
00:58:27,046 --> 00:58:30,299
between scientists
and the security apparatus.
1076
00:58:30,383 --> 00:58:32,718
In hopes of learning how the nominee
handled such issues
1077
00:58:32,802 --> 00:58:34,845
during his time at the AEC,
1078
00:58:34,929 --> 00:58:37,682
we'll have a scientist
appearing before the committee.
1079
00:58:38,849 --> 00:58:41,352
- Who are they bringing in?
- They haven't said.
1080
00:58:41,435 --> 00:58:42,645
Mr. Chairman, if I may,
1081
00:58:42,728 --> 00:58:45,314
I'm nominated for commerce secretary.
1082
00:58:45,398 --> 00:58:47,608
Why seek the opinion of scientists?
1083
00:58:47,692 --> 00:58:49,902
This is a cabinet post, Admiral.
1084
00:58:49,985 --> 00:58:52,697
We seek a wide range of opinion.
1085
00:58:52,780 --> 00:58:55,032
Well, I'd like to know the name
of the scientist testifying,
1086
00:58:55,116 --> 00:58:56,534
I'd like the chance to cross-examine.
1087
00:58:57,118 --> 00:58:58,786
This is not a court.
1088
00:59:00,162 --> 00:59:01,163
Formality, huh?
1089
00:59:01,247 --> 00:59:04,959
No presidential Cabinet nominee
has failed to be confirmed since 1925.
1090
00:59:05,042 --> 00:59:07,211
This is just how the game is played.
1091
00:59:07,294 --> 00:59:09,672
It's in the bag, Lewis. So play nice.
1092
00:59:10,256 --> 00:59:11,966
They bring in a scientist, so what?
1093
00:59:12,049 --> 00:59:13,926
You don't know scientists
like I do, Counselor.
1094
00:59:14,009 --> 00:59:16,178
They resent anyone
who questions their judgment,
1095
00:59:16,262 --> 00:59:18,222
especially if you're not one of them.
1096
00:59:18,305 --> 00:59:19,765
I was chair of the AEC.
1097
00:59:19,849 --> 00:59:21,934
I'm easy to blame
for what happened to Robert.
1098
00:59:22,017 --> 00:59:24,270
We can't have the Senate
thinking the scientific community
1099
00:59:24,353 --> 00:59:25,813
doesn't support you, sir.
1100
00:59:26,939 --> 00:59:28,899
- Or should we pivot?
- [Senate aide] To what?
1101
00:59:28,983 --> 00:59:30,443
And embrace it.
1102
00:59:30,526 --> 00:59:33,154
"I fought Oppenheimer and the US won."
1103
00:59:33,237 --> 00:59:34,822
I-I don't think we need to go there.
1104
00:59:34,905 --> 00:59:36,991
Isn't there someone we can call
who knows what really happened?
1105
00:59:37,074 --> 00:59:38,659
- Teller.
- He'll make an impression.
1106
00:59:38,743 --> 00:59:40,578
Can you get the name of the scientist
they've called?
1107
00:59:40,661 --> 00:59:41,537
Probably.
1108
00:59:41,620 --> 00:59:44,665
Find out if he was based in Chicago
or Los Alamos during the war.
1109
00:59:44,749 --> 00:59:45,958
Why does that matter?
1110
00:59:46,041 --> 00:59:48,753
If he was based in Chicago,
he worked under Szilard and Fermi,
1111
00:59:48,836 --> 00:59:50,880
not the cult of Oppie at Los Alamos.
1112
00:59:50,963 --> 00:59:52,423
Robert built that damn place.
1113
00:59:52,506 --> 00:59:56,510
He was founder, mayor, sheriff,
all rolled into one.
1114
01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:05,936
- [officer chattering on loudspeaker]
- [Peter crying]
1115
01:00:08,939 --> 01:00:10,858
All it needs is a saloon.
1116
01:00:10,941 --> 01:00:12,318
[Peter continues crying]
1117
01:00:36,258 --> 01:00:37,551
[murmurs]
1118
01:00:38,427 --> 01:00:39,678
Let's go and see.
1119
01:00:40,596 --> 01:00:41,806
There's no kitchen.
1120
01:00:43,057 --> 01:00:45,309
Really? We'll fix that.
1121
01:00:52,316 --> 01:00:56,237
Barbed wire? Guns? Oppie.
1122
01:00:56,737 --> 01:00:58,322
[Oppenheimer] We're at war, Hans.
1123
01:01:00,825 --> 01:01:03,494
Halifax, 1917.
1124
01:01:03,577 --> 01:01:06,163
A cargo ship carrying munitions
explodes in the harbor.
1125
01:01:08,833 --> 01:01:11,627
A vast and sudden chemical reaction.
1126
01:01:15,422 --> 01:01:18,133
The biggest man-made explosion in history.
1127
01:01:18,801 --> 01:01:21,554
Now let's calculate how much more
destructive it would have been
1128
01:01:21,637 --> 01:01:25,224
if it were a nuclear,
and not a chemical, reaction.
1129
01:01:25,307 --> 01:01:28,269
Expressing power in terms of tons of TNT.
1130
01:01:28,352 --> 01:01:29,770
But it will be thousands.
1131
01:01:30,354 --> 01:01:32,940
Well, then... kilotons.
1132
01:01:36,902 --> 01:01:41,323
- Using U-235, the bomb will need-
- Ah...
1133
01:01:42,449 --> 01:01:43,450
Right, sorry.
1134
01:01:43,534 --> 01:01:47,413
Gadget will need a 33-pound sphere
about this size.
1135
01:01:47,496 --> 01:01:51,125
Or using plutonium,
the ten-pound sphere.
1136
01:01:52,668 --> 01:01:56,672
Here's the amount of uranium Oak Ridge
refined all of last month.
1137
01:02:00,718 --> 01:02:03,387
And the Hanford plant
made this much plutonium.
1138
01:02:05,723 --> 01:02:09,435
Now, if we can enrich these amounts,
we need a way to detonate them.
1139
01:02:09,518 --> 01:02:10,686
[paper rips]
1140
01:02:10,769 --> 01:02:12,146
Are we boring you, Edward?
1141
01:02:12,980 --> 01:02:14,356
A little bit, yes.
1142
01:02:14,440 --> 01:02:15,774
May I ask why?
1143
01:02:15,858 --> 01:02:19,153
We all entered this room
knowing a fission bomb was possible.
1144
01:02:19,904 --> 01:02:22,865
- How about we leave it with something new?
- Such as?
1145
01:02:22,948 --> 01:02:26,660
Instead of uranium or plutonium,
we use hydrogen.
1146
01:02:26,744 --> 01:02:27,870
[all murmuring]
1147
01:02:27,953 --> 01:02:29,413
Heavy hydrogen.
1148
01:02:29,997 --> 01:02:31,081
Deuterium.
1149
01:02:31,582 --> 01:02:32,625
You see?
1150
01:02:32,708 --> 01:02:35,377
We compact the atoms together
under great pressure
1151
01:02:35,461 --> 01:02:37,379
to induce a fusion reaction.
1152
01:02:38,464 --> 01:02:41,091
Then we'll get not kilotons,
1153
01:02:41,175 --> 01:02:42,259
but megatons.
1154
01:02:43,344 --> 01:02:45,179
Okay, hang on, hang on.
1155
01:02:45,262 --> 01:02:49,141
So how do you generate enough force
to fuse hydrogen atoms?
1156
01:02:50,267 --> 01:02:51,727
A small fission bomb.
1157
01:02:52,478 --> 01:02:53,604
- Ah...
- There we are!
1158
01:02:53,687 --> 01:02:55,481
[applause, laughter]
1159
01:02:55,564 --> 01:02:57,149
Well, since we're going
to need one anyway,
1160
01:02:57,232 --> 01:02:59,193
can we get back to the business at hand?
1161
01:02:59,276 --> 01:03:00,444
[Bartlett] The isotopes issue
1162
01:03:00,527 --> 01:03:05,532
wasn't your most important policy
disagreement with Dr. Oppenheimer,
1163
01:03:05,616 --> 01:03:08,160
it was the hydrogen bomb, wasn't it?
1164
01:03:08,243 --> 01:03:13,374
As colleagues, we agreed to disagree
on a great many things, uh,
1165
01:03:13,457 --> 01:03:17,252
and, well, one of them was the need
for an H-bomb program, yes.
1166
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:19,213
[siren wailing]
1167
01:03:30,683 --> 01:03:33,268
[Strauss]
Thanks for convening on short notice.
1168
01:03:33,352 --> 01:03:34,770
I can't believe it.
1169
01:03:36,021 --> 01:03:37,314
Here we are.
1170
01:03:37,398 --> 01:03:39,358
Catch me up. What do we know?
1171
01:03:39,441 --> 01:03:43,529
One of our B-29s over the North Pacific
has detected radiation.
1172
01:03:43,612 --> 01:03:45,197
Do we have the filter paper?
1173
01:03:45,280 --> 01:03:48,158
- There's no doubt what this is.
- White House says there's a doubt.
1174
01:03:48,242 --> 01:03:49,660
Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
1175
01:03:49,743 --> 01:03:52,538
Are those the long-range detection
filter papers?
1176
01:03:53,497 --> 01:03:54,832
It's an atomic test.
1177
01:03:58,502 --> 01:04:00,212
The Russians have a bomb.
1178
01:04:00,295 --> 01:04:03,632
We're supposed to be years ahead of them,
but some—
1179
01:04:03,716 --> 01:04:07,136
What were you guys doing at Los Alamos?
Wasn't security tight?
1180
01:04:07,219 --> 01:04:09,888
- Of course it was. You weren't there.
- [Nichols] Forgive me, Doctor...
1181
01:04:11,932 --> 01:04:13,183
but I was there.
1182
01:04:14,143 --> 01:04:17,771
We can now consider
the actual mechanics of detonation.
1183
01:04:17,855 --> 01:04:19,148
[Oppenheimer] Any ideas?
1184
01:04:19,231 --> 01:04:20,566
[Serber] I call this "shooting."
1185
01:04:20,649 --> 01:04:24,278
We fire a chunk of fissionable material
into a larger sphere
1186
01:04:24,361 --> 01:04:26,905
with enough force to achieve criticality.
1187
01:04:26,989 --> 01:04:28,699
What do we think? Anyone?
1188
01:04:28,782 --> 01:04:30,451
[Tolman]
I've been thinking about implosion.
1189
01:04:30,534 --> 01:04:33,537
Explosives around the sphere
blast inwards, crushing the material.
1190
01:04:34,621 --> 01:04:36,457
I'd like to investigate that idea.
1191
01:04:36,540 --> 01:04:38,709
I'll talk to Ordnance,
get you blowing things up.
1192
01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:41,920
- [Groves] Progress?
- Nice to see you too.
1193
01:04:42,838 --> 01:04:44,673
Meet the British contingent.
1194
01:04:44,757 --> 01:04:46,425
Dr. Oppenheimer, Klaus Fuchs.
1195
01:04:46,508 --> 01:04:48,302
How long have you been British?
1196
01:04:48,385 --> 01:04:50,554
- Since Hitler told me I wasn't German.
- Aha.
1197
01:04:51,263 --> 01:04:52,931
Come, welcome to Los Alamos.
1198
01:04:53,474 --> 01:04:55,225
School's up and running.
1199
01:04:55,309 --> 01:04:57,311
Bar... always running.
1200
01:04:58,395 --> 01:05:00,522
And I thought of a way
to reduce support staff.
1201
01:05:01,982 --> 01:05:03,776
- Is that-
- [Oppenheimer] Mrs. Serber, yes.
1202
01:05:03,859 --> 01:05:07,321
I've offered jobs to all the wives.
Admin, librarians, computation.
1203
01:05:07,404 --> 01:05:09,531
We cut down on staff,
keep families together.
1204
01:05:09,615 --> 01:05:10,783
Are these women qualified?
1205
01:05:10,866 --> 01:05:13,952
Don't be absurd. These are some
of the brightest minds in our community.
1206
01:05:14,036 --> 01:05:15,746
And they're already security cleared.
1207
01:05:15,829 --> 01:05:16,830
I've informed General Groves
1208
01:05:16,914 --> 01:05:19,374
you've been holding cross-divisional,
open discussions on a nightly basis.
1209
01:05:19,458 --> 01:05:20,709
Shut them down.
1210
01:05:20,793 --> 01:05:23,378
Compartmentalization is the key
to maintaining security—
1211
01:05:23,462 --> 01:05:24,379
[Condon] It's only the top men.
1212
01:05:24,463 --> 01:05:26,423
Who presumably communicate
with subordinates.
1213
01:05:26,507 --> 01:05:28,383
These men aren't stupid.
They can be discreet.
1214
01:05:28,467 --> 01:05:29,426
I don't like it.
1215
01:05:29,510 --> 01:05:32,179
You don't like anything enough
for that to be a fair test.
1216
01:05:38,102 --> 01:05:40,604
Once a week. Top men only.
1217
01:05:40,687 --> 01:05:43,107
- I'd like to bring my brother here.
- No.
1218
01:05:44,691 --> 01:05:45,776
Nichols...
1219
01:05:47,277 --> 01:05:49,947
I still haven't heard that
my security clearance has been approved.
1220
01:05:50,030 --> 01:05:51,949
- It hasn't.
- We're going to Chicago tomorrow.
1221
01:05:52,032 --> 01:05:53,700
Well, you should wait.
1222
01:05:53,784 --> 01:05:56,328
You are aware that the Nazis
have a two-year head start?
1223
01:05:56,411 --> 01:05:58,247
Dr. Oppenheimer,
the fact that your security clearance
1224
01:05:58,330 --> 01:06:00,374
is proving difficult to obtain
is not my fault.
1225
01:06:00,457 --> 01:06:01,792
It's yours.
1226
01:06:01,875 --> 01:06:03,544
May not be your fault,
but it's your problem.
1227
01:06:03,627 --> 01:06:05,087
Because I'm going.
1228
01:06:05,170 --> 01:06:07,297
[Strauss]
And how many people were in these, uh,
1229
01:06:08,090 --> 01:06:09,883
open discussions?
1230
01:06:09,967 --> 01:06:12,302
Too many. Compartmentalization
was supposed to be the protocol.
1231
01:06:12,386 --> 01:06:14,179
We were in a race against the Nazis.
1232
01:06:14,263 --> 01:06:17,474
- And now the race is against the Soviets.
- Not unless we start it.
1233
01:06:17,558 --> 01:06:21,603
Robert, they just fired a starting gun.
1234
01:06:21,687 --> 01:06:23,897
What's the nature of the device
they detonated?
1235
01:06:23,981 --> 01:06:27,484
The data indicates it may have been
a plutonium implosion device.
1236
01:06:27,568 --> 01:06:30,696
Like the one you built at Los Alamos.
1237
01:06:30,779 --> 01:06:33,699
The Russians have a bomb,
Truman needs to know what's next.
1238
01:06:33,782 --> 01:06:35,659
What's next? Arms talks.
1239
01:06:35,742 --> 01:06:37,202
- Arms talks.
- Obviously.
1240
01:06:38,412 --> 01:06:39,663
What about the Super?
1241
01:06:39,746 --> 01:06:43,375
Does Truman even know about it?
Did we brief him on that?
1242
01:06:43,458 --> 01:06:44,543
Not specifically.
1243
01:06:44,626 --> 01:06:47,588
We still don't know if a hydrogen bomb's
technically feasible.
1244
01:06:47,671 --> 01:06:49,756
My understanding
is that Teller proposed it?
1245
01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:51,425
- [Oppenheimer] Yes.
- At Los Alamos?
1246
01:06:51,508 --> 01:06:53,468
Teller's designs have
always been wildly impractical.
1247
01:06:53,552 --> 01:06:55,554
You'd have to deliver by ox cart.
1248
01:06:55,637 --> 01:06:57,556
- Not airplane.
- [Lawrence] Oppie.
1249
01:06:57,639 --> 01:06:59,892
I'm sorry, Dr. Lawrence.
Do you want to comment?
1250
01:07:01,685 --> 01:07:02,769
No.
1251
01:07:04,438 --> 01:07:07,024
Because if it can put us ahead again,
1252
01:07:07,107 --> 01:07:12,196
the President of the United States
needs to know about it.
1253
01:07:12,279 --> 01:07:13,697
[scoffs]
1254
01:07:13,780 --> 01:07:18,660
And if the Russians know about it already
from a spy at Los Alamos,
1255
01:07:18,744 --> 01:07:19,745
then we've gotta get going.
1256
01:07:19,828 --> 01:07:22,748
There's no proof
there was a spy at Los Alamos.
1257
01:07:22,831 --> 01:07:23,832
Robert.
1258
01:07:28,462 --> 01:07:30,547
They put it under the football stadium?
1259
01:07:30,631 --> 01:07:32,507
The field's not in use anymore.
1260
01:07:32,591 --> 01:07:33,842
Just as well.
1261
01:07:36,637 --> 01:07:38,513
- Oppie.
- Dr. Fermi.
1262
01:07:38,597 --> 01:07:40,682
Come stai? Va bene?
1263
01:07:41,391 --> 01:07:44,353
- I hear you got a little town.
- Yes. Come and see.
1264
01:07:44,436 --> 01:07:45,437
[Szilard chuckles]
1265
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:48,774
Who could think straight
in a place like that? Huh?
1266
01:07:49,691 --> 01:07:51,652
Everybody will go crazy.
1267
01:07:52,486 --> 01:07:54,780
Thank you for the vote of confidence,
Szilard.
1268
01:07:56,156 --> 01:07:58,700
Do we really—
Do we really need that in the notes?
1269
01:07:59,451 --> 01:08:01,453
When are you going to try it out?
1270
01:08:01,536 --> 01:08:03,205
We did.
1271
01:08:03,288 --> 01:08:06,541
[Fermi] The first self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction.
1272
01:08:07,334 --> 01:08:08,710
Didn't Groves tell you?
1273
01:08:08,794 --> 01:08:10,462
- [Geiger counter humming]
- No.
1274
01:08:15,259 --> 01:08:17,678
[soldier] One at a time, please.
One at a time.
1275
01:08:18,220 --> 01:08:19,471
Dr. Oppenheimer?
1276
01:08:20,222 --> 01:08:23,225
I tried Personnel.
They asked if I could type.
1277
01:08:23,308 --> 01:08:24,476
Can you?
1278
01:08:24,559 --> 01:08:27,187
Harvard forgot to teach that
on the graduate chemistry course.
1279
01:08:29,189 --> 01:08:31,733
Condon, put Mrs. Hornig here
on the plutonium team.
1280
01:08:37,114 --> 01:08:39,408
What the hell were you doing in Chicago?
1281
01:08:39,491 --> 01:08:40,701
Visiting the Met?
1282
01:08:40,784 --> 01:08:41,827
Why?
1283
01:08:41,910 --> 01:08:43,954
- Why?
- Because we have every right-
1284
01:08:44,037 --> 01:08:47,708
You have just the rights that I give you.
No more, no less.
1285
01:08:48,292 --> 01:08:50,210
We are adults
trying to run a project here.
1286
01:08:50,294 --> 01:08:51,837
This is ridiculous.
1287
01:08:51,920 --> 01:08:52,921
Tell him.
1288
01:08:54,506 --> 01:08:57,301
Compartmentalization
is the protocol we agreed to.
1289
01:08:58,552 --> 01:08:59,761
Enough of this madhouse.
1290
01:08:59,845 --> 01:09:01,763
Nobody can work under these conditions.
1291
01:09:01,847 --> 01:09:04,725
You know what, Generalissimo?
1292
01:09:04,808 --> 01:09:06,184
I quit.
1293
01:09:06,268 --> 01:09:07,477
Thanks for nothing.
1294
01:09:09,730 --> 01:09:11,273
[Groves] Better off without him.
1295
01:09:11,356 --> 01:09:12,399
[door slams]
1296
01:09:12,482 --> 01:09:15,527
Aren't you more concerned
about his discretion out there?
1297
01:09:16,653 --> 01:09:18,113
We'll have him killed.
1298
01:09:19,990 --> 01:09:21,408
I was just kidding. [chuckles]
1299
01:09:21,992 --> 01:09:23,785
No, he hates me, not America.
1300
01:09:24,411 --> 01:09:27,331
You know, General,
not everyone has levers to pull like mine.
1301
01:09:27,414 --> 01:09:28,749
I don't think I understand.
1302
01:09:29,374 --> 01:09:31,418
You didn't hire me
despite my left-wing past,
1303
01:09:31,501 --> 01:09:33,086
you hired me because of it.
1304
01:09:34,046 --> 01:09:36,006
So you could control me.
1305
01:09:36,089 --> 01:09:38,675
Well, I'm not that subtle.
1306
01:09:38,759 --> 01:09:40,260
I'm just a humble soldier.
1307
01:09:40,344 --> 01:09:42,346
You're neither humble, nor just a soldier.
1308
01:09:42,429 --> 01:09:45,182
- You studied engineering at MIT.
- Guilty as charged.
1309
01:09:45,265 --> 01:09:46,600
Well, now we understand each other,
1310
01:09:46,683 --> 01:09:48,268
perhaps you can get me
my security clearance
1311
01:09:48,352 --> 01:09:50,437
so I can perform this miracle for you.
1312
01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:58,695
[attorney] General Groves,
were you aware of Dr. Oppenheimer's
1313
01:09:58,779 --> 01:10:01,239
left-wing associations
when you appointed him?
1314
01:10:01,323 --> 01:10:03,408
[Groves] I was aware
that there were suspicions about him.
1315
01:10:03,492 --> 01:10:06,578
I was aware he had
a very extreme, liberal background.
1316
01:10:06,661 --> 01:10:09,623
In your opinion, would he ever
consciously commit a disloyal act?
1317
01:10:09,706 --> 01:10:11,625
I would be amazed if he did.
1318
01:10:11,708 --> 01:10:14,503
[attorney] So you had
complete confidence in his integrity?
1319
01:10:14,586 --> 01:10:17,172
At Los Alamos, yes,
which is where I really knew him.
1320
01:10:17,255 --> 01:10:19,925
General, did your security officers
on the project
1321
01:10:20,008 --> 01:10:22,260
advise you against the clearance
of Dr. Oppenheimer?
1322
01:10:22,344 --> 01:10:26,306
They could not and would not clear him
until I insisted.
1323
01:10:26,390 --> 01:10:28,058
And it's safe to say that you
had a pretty good knowledge
1324
01:10:28,141 --> 01:10:29,851
of Dr. Oppenheimer's security file.
1325
01:10:29,935 --> 01:10:31,019
I did.
1326
01:10:31,603 --> 01:10:34,189
There's only really one question
I need answered here today.
1327
01:10:34,272 --> 01:10:38,860
In light of the current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
1328
01:10:38,944 --> 01:10:40,737
Do you have the guidelines?
1329
01:10:48,203 --> 01:10:53,959
[Robb] Under current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
1330
01:10:54,626 --> 01:10:57,838
- [rooster crows]
- [car approaching]
1331
01:11:03,343 --> 01:11:05,053
[car door opens, closes]
1332
01:11:05,762 --> 01:11:07,431
Physics and New Mexico, huh?
1333
01:11:07,514 --> 01:11:08,765
[chuckles]
1334
01:11:08,849 --> 01:11:09,850
My God.
1335
01:11:10,392 --> 01:11:11,893
What a trek.
1336
01:11:11,977 --> 01:11:13,311
That's why you need a liaison.
1337
01:11:13,395 --> 01:11:14,771
I'm appointing Lomanitz.
1338
01:11:15,939 --> 01:11:17,065
You're gonna be okay.
1339
01:11:17,149 --> 01:11:18,400
This way, gentlemen.
1340
01:11:20,652 --> 01:11:22,362
[beakers clinking]
1341
01:11:22,446 --> 01:11:24,281
[gas hissing]
1342
01:11:28,452 --> 01:11:30,245
- Dr. Lawrence.
- Leslie.
1343
01:11:30,787 --> 01:11:32,789
I'd like to remind you what
we talked about in Berkeley.
1344
01:11:32,873 --> 01:11:34,749
Compartmentalization.
I understand completely.
1345
01:11:38,253 --> 01:11:39,379
[chattering]
1346
01:11:40,672 --> 01:11:41,673
Thank you.
1347
01:11:46,470 --> 01:11:48,513
[all cheering]
1348
01:11:50,140 --> 01:11:51,475
[Lawrence] Greetings from Berkeley.
1349
01:11:51,558 --> 01:11:54,895
I am here to update you on our progress
and solicit your input.
1350
01:11:54,978 --> 01:11:57,189
To do so,
I am going to have to share a few things
1351
01:11:57,272 --> 01:11:59,941
that General Groves told me not to.
1352
01:12:00,025 --> 01:12:02,861
Sorry, General, I said I understood,
not that I agreed.
1353
01:12:02,944 --> 01:12:04,446
- [all chuckling]
- [Lawrence] Okay.
1354
01:12:04,529 --> 01:12:06,072
Gentlemen, to business.
1355
01:12:06,656 --> 01:12:09,201
There were rumors of espionage
at Los Alamos.
1356
01:12:09,284 --> 01:12:10,410
Unsubstantiated.
1357
01:12:10,494 --> 01:12:13,580
[Strauss] I'm told that there
were communists on the project.
1358
01:12:13,663 --> 01:12:15,916
We didn't knowingly employ
any communists.
1359
01:12:15,999 --> 01:12:18,335
Were any of them involved
in discussions of the Super?
1360
01:12:18,418 --> 01:12:21,004
I seem to remember you demanding
your brother come to Los Alamos.
1361
01:12:21,087 --> 01:12:22,756
My brother had left the Party by then.
1362
01:12:22,839 --> 01:12:23,840
What about Lomanitz?
1363
01:12:23,924 --> 01:12:26,885
Lomanitz was never employed at Los Alamos.
He was a liaison.
1364
01:12:26,968 --> 01:12:29,763
Our security was tight,
as former Colonel Nichols well knows.
1365
01:12:29,846 --> 01:12:32,557
Our security was as tight as it could be
given the personalities involved,
1366
01:12:32,641 --> 01:12:33,892
but attempts were made.
1367
01:12:33,975 --> 01:12:36,811
- What is that supposed to mean?
- We've all read his file here.
1368
01:12:37,646 --> 01:12:39,814
Do we need to talk about Jean Tatlock?
1369
01:12:40,732 --> 01:12:42,943
Or the Chevalier incident?
1370
01:12:47,364 --> 01:12:48,448
Excuse me.
1371
01:12:50,283 --> 01:12:53,245
- [phone ringing]
- [secretary] That's Lomanitz, on line one.
1372
01:12:59,876 --> 01:13:00,961
Hello, Rossi.
1373
01:13:01,044 --> 01:13:04,047
What? Okay, just calm down.
1374
01:13:05,090 --> 01:13:06,383
There's been another screw-up.
1375
01:13:06,466 --> 01:13:08,134
Lomanitz just got drafted.
1376
01:13:08,218 --> 01:13:10,845
- We are at war, Doctor.
- Don't be an asshole, Nichols.
1377
01:13:10,929 --> 01:13:12,931
We need this kid. Fix it, will you?
1378
01:13:13,014 --> 01:13:14,391
It wasn't a mistake.
1379
01:13:14,474 --> 01:13:17,269
Your friend Lomanitz has been trying
to unionize the Radiation Lab.
1380
01:13:17,352 --> 01:13:18,979
He promised to quit all that.
1381
01:13:19,062 --> 01:13:20,438
Well, he hasn't.
1382
01:13:21,231 --> 01:13:24,234
Security officer at Berkeley's
concerned about communist infiltration
1383
01:13:24,317 --> 01:13:26,152
through that union, the FA—
1384
01:13:26,236 --> 01:13:28,071
FAECT.
1385
01:13:30,532 --> 01:13:32,784
Well, I'm there next week, I'll...
1386
01:13:32,867 --> 01:13:34,202
drop in to see him.
1387
01:13:36,204 --> 01:13:37,831
Your Q clearance came through.
1388
01:13:41,751 --> 01:13:45,255
It's important you not maintain or renew
any questionable associations.
1389
01:13:50,093 --> 01:13:52,178
[Robb]
Doctor, did you think social contacts
1390
01:13:52,262 --> 01:13:56,349
between a person engaged on secret
war work and communists was dangerous?
1391
01:13:56,433 --> 01:13:59,436
My awareness of the danger
would be greater today.
1392
01:14:00,186 --> 01:14:03,023
I mean, it's fair to say
that during the war years,
1393
01:14:03,106 --> 01:14:06,318
you felt that such contacts
were potentially dangerous?
1394
01:14:11,406 --> 01:14:12,657
[elevator bell dings]
1395
01:14:12,741 --> 01:14:15,076
[Oppenheimer]
Were conceivably dangerous, yes.
1396
01:14:15,869 --> 01:14:19,289
[Robb] I mean, really? Known communists?
1397
01:14:22,250 --> 01:14:23,251
[Oppenheimer] Look...
1398
01:14:24,419 --> 01:14:28,590
I've had a lot of secrets in my head
for a long time.
1399
01:14:29,799 --> 01:14:34,012
Doesn't matter who I associate with.
I don't talk about those secrets.
1400
01:14:41,645 --> 01:14:43,271
[Robb] You said in your statement
1401
01:14:44,356 --> 01:14:45,482
that you had
1402
01:14:46,608 --> 01:14:48,902
to see Jean Tatlock in 1943.
1403
01:14:50,695 --> 01:14:52,072
You left.
1404
01:14:53,448 --> 01:14:54,699
Not a word.
1405
01:14:55,367 --> 01:14:57,369
What did you think that would do to me?
1406
01:14:58,662 --> 01:14:59,663
I wrote.
1407
01:14:59,746 --> 01:15:01,748
Pages of nothing.
1408
01:15:04,250 --> 01:15:06,002
Where did you go?
1409
01:15:07,712 --> 01:15:09,214
- I can't tell you.
- Why not?
1410
01:15:09,297 --> 01:15:10,840
Because you're a communist.
1411
01:15:13,468 --> 01:15:15,470
Why did you have to see her?
1412
01:15:15,553 --> 01:15:20,308
Because she had indicated a great desire
to see me before we left.
1413
01:15:20,392 --> 01:15:25,021
At that time, I couldn't,
but I felt that she had to see me.
1414
01:15:25,105 --> 01:15:27,774
She was undergoing psychiatric treatment.
1415
01:15:27,857 --> 01:15:29,901
She was extremely unhappy.
1416
01:15:29,984 --> 01:15:32,195
Did you find out why she had to see you?
1417
01:15:37,158 --> 01:15:39,244
Because she was still in love with me.
1418
01:15:46,626 --> 01:15:48,378
Spent the night together, didn't you?
1419
01:15:56,428 --> 01:15:57,512
[Oppenheimer] Yes.
1420
01:16:03,893 --> 01:16:06,938
You drop in and out of my life
1421
01:16:07,021 --> 01:16:09,482
and you don't have to tell me why.
1422
01:16:09,566 --> 01:16:10,942
Now, that's power.
1423
01:16:11,025 --> 01:16:13,069
Not that I enjoy.
1424
01:16:13,862 --> 01:16:16,281
I'd rather be here for you as you need.
1425
01:16:16,364 --> 01:16:18,783
But you have other priorities now.
1426
01:16:19,576 --> 01:16:21,369
I have a wife and child.
1427
01:16:22,662 --> 01:16:25,081
That's not what either of us
is talking about.
1428
01:16:28,835 --> 01:16:29,878
Jean.
1429
01:16:30,754 --> 01:16:32,297
You asked me to come.
1430
01:16:33,423 --> 01:16:35,049
And I'm glad I did.
1431
01:16:35,925 --> 01:16:37,594
But I can't see you again.
1432
01:16:40,930 --> 01:16:42,599
But what if I need you?
1433
01:16:46,561 --> 01:16:48,563
You said you would always answer.
1434
01:16:51,441 --> 01:16:52,692
Not a word.
1435
01:16:53,818 --> 01:16:56,154
[Robb] Did you think that consistent
with good security?
1436
01:16:56,237 --> 01:16:59,115
- [rhythmic thudding]
- As a matter of fact, it was. Not a word.
1437
01:16:59,199 --> 01:17:00,617
[thudding intensifies]
1438
01:17:00,700 --> 01:17:02,410
[Robb] When did you see her after that?
1439
01:17:08,833 --> 01:17:10,084
[thudding stops]
1440
01:17:10,752 --> 01:17:12,253
I never saw her again.
1441
01:17:18,843 --> 01:17:21,221
I can make the last train
back to Princeton.
1442
01:17:21,971 --> 01:17:24,516
Kitty, I didn't say anything
that I hadn't already told you.
1443
01:17:24,599 --> 01:17:27,769
- Today you said it to history, didn't you?
- This is a closed hearing.
1444
01:17:29,979 --> 01:17:32,565
If they don't release the transcript,
I'm sure you will.
1445
01:17:32,649 --> 01:17:33,650
I was under oath.
1446
01:17:33,733 --> 01:17:36,736
Well, you were under an oath to me
when you went to see Jean.
1447
01:17:37,779 --> 01:17:39,155
You know, you...
1448
01:17:39,989 --> 01:17:41,449
you sit there,
1449
01:17:41,533 --> 01:17:42,534
day after day,
1450
01:17:43,660 --> 01:17:45,995
letting them pick our lives to pieces.
1451
01:17:48,414 --> 01:17:49,874
Why won't you fight?
1452
01:17:53,419 --> 01:17:56,130
[attorney]
Robert, I'm not putting her up there.
1453
01:18:01,845 --> 01:18:04,597
Dr. Oppenheimer, it's an honor.
Please, take a seat.
1454
01:18:04,681 --> 01:18:06,474
No need, I just wanted to check
1455
01:18:06,558 --> 01:18:10,520
whether I should talk to Lomanitz
while I'm here, given your concerns.
1456
01:18:10,603 --> 01:18:13,481
Well, I'd say that's really up to you,
Professor, but I'd be cautious.
1457
01:18:13,565 --> 01:18:14,899
Uh-huh. Understood.
1458
01:18:14,983 --> 01:18:17,527
Oh, and, um... [clears throat]... as regards to the union,
1459
01:18:17,610 --> 01:18:21,155
I wanted to give you a heads-up
on a man named Eltenton.
1460
01:18:21,239 --> 01:18:22,782
- A heads-up?
- Yes.
1461
01:18:22,866 --> 01:18:25,702
Just that he might merit watching, is all.
1462
01:18:27,245 --> 01:18:28,621
I'd love to get more details.
1463
01:18:28,705 --> 01:18:32,041
Well, I have an appointment now,
and I leave early tomorrow.
1464
01:18:32,125 --> 01:18:35,712
Well, come back as early as you like.
Since you haven't time now.
1465
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:38,506
You went back the next morning.
1466
01:18:38,590 --> 01:18:40,550
I did. I had to, really.
1467
01:18:41,342 --> 01:18:42,760
This time there was another man.
1468
01:18:45,013 --> 01:18:46,347
He said his name was Pash.
1469
01:18:46,431 --> 01:18:49,017
Pash. You met Colonel Pash?
1470
01:18:49,100 --> 01:18:54,230
[Robb] Colonel Pash, could you please read
from your memo dated June 29, 1943?
1471
01:18:55,982 --> 01:18:58,443
[Pash] "Results of surveillance
conducted on subject
1472
01:18:58,526 --> 01:19:01,404
indicate further possible
Communist Party connections.
1473
01:19:01,487 --> 01:19:03,823
Subject met with,
and spent considerable time with,
1474
01:19:03,907 --> 01:19:05,783
one Jean Tatlock, communist,
1475
01:19:05,867 --> 01:19:07,285
the record of whom is attached."
1476
01:19:07,368 --> 01:19:09,954
- The subject being Dr. Oppenheimer?
- [Pash] Yes.
1477
01:19:10,038 --> 01:19:11,706
[Robb] Whom you had not met?
1478
01:19:11,789 --> 01:19:13,124
[Pash] Not then, but soon after.
1479
01:19:13,207 --> 01:19:15,752
He's the head of security for the project.
Shouldn't I know him?
1480
01:19:15,835 --> 01:19:19,380
No, he should know you.
I would never put you in a room with Pash.
1481
01:19:19,464 --> 01:19:20,423
Why not?
1482
01:19:21,007 --> 01:19:22,884
When Pash first heard about Lomanitz,
1483
01:19:22,967 --> 01:19:25,887
he told the FBI he was gonna kidnap him,
1484
01:19:25,970 --> 01:19:27,722
take him out on a boat,
1485
01:19:27,805 --> 01:19:30,183
and interrogate him in the Russian manner.
1486
01:19:33,227 --> 01:19:35,396
General Groves has placed in me
a certain responsibility,
1487
01:19:35,480 --> 01:19:37,649
and it's like having a child
who I can't see.
1488
01:19:38,691 --> 01:19:40,026
By remote control.
1489
01:19:41,361 --> 01:19:42,737
So to actually meet you is...
1490
01:19:44,697 --> 01:19:46,950
- I won't take up too much of your time.
- No, not at all.
1491
01:19:47,033 --> 01:19:48,242
Whatever time you choose.
1492
01:19:49,494 --> 01:19:51,621
Mr. Johnson told me of a conversation
you had yesterday
1493
01:19:51,704 --> 01:19:52,997
in which I'm very interested.
1494
01:19:53,081 --> 01:19:55,291
It's had me worried all day.
1495
01:19:55,375 --> 01:19:58,920
Yes, well, I didn't want to talk
to Lomanitz without authorization.
1496
01:19:59,003 --> 01:20:00,922
That's not the particular interest
that I have.
1497
01:20:01,005 --> 01:20:02,465
It's something a little bit more...
1498
01:20:03,967 --> 01:20:05,426
in my opinion, more serious.
1499
01:20:05,510 --> 01:20:08,304
Now, when the FBI pointed out
that such information
1500
01:20:08,388 --> 01:20:09,722
wouldn't be admissible in court,
1501
01:20:09,806 --> 01:20:13,935
Pash made it clear he had no intention
of leaving any witness left to prosecute.
1502
01:20:14,018 --> 01:20:17,105
Now, the FBI talked him down,
but that's the man you're dancing with.
1503
01:20:17,188 --> 01:20:19,899
I gather you've heard
there are other parties
1504
01:20:19,983 --> 01:20:21,985
interested in the work
of the Radiation Lab?
1505
01:20:23,069 --> 01:20:29,450
A man attached to the Soviet Consul
indicated through intermediate people
1506
01:20:30,034 --> 01:20:34,580
to people on this project that he was
in a position to transmit information.
1507
01:20:34,664 --> 01:20:37,041
Why would anyone on the project
wanna do that?
1508
01:20:38,960 --> 01:20:41,295
Frankly, I can see
that there might be an argument
1509
01:20:41,379 --> 01:20:43,756
for the commander-in-chief
informing the Russians.
1510
01:20:43,840 --> 01:20:45,842
They're our allies after all.
1511
01:20:45,925 --> 01:20:48,720
But I don't like the idea
of it going out the back door.
1512
01:20:48,803 --> 01:20:51,014
It might not hurt
to be on the lookout for it.
1513
01:20:52,223 --> 01:20:54,017
And you said that to Pash?
1514
01:20:54,100 --> 01:20:58,312
I was trying to put it in the context
of "Russia's not Germany."
1515
01:20:58,396 --> 01:21:02,900
Boris Pash is the son
of a Russian Orthodox bishop.
1516
01:21:02,984 --> 01:21:04,902
Born here, but in 1918,
1517
01:21:04,986 --> 01:21:07,405
he went back to Russia
to fight the Bolsheviks.
1518
01:21:07,488 --> 01:21:10,324
This is a man who has killed communists
with his own hands.
1519
01:21:10,408 --> 01:21:13,536
I'm not the judge of who should
or should not have information.
1520
01:21:13,619 --> 01:21:16,205
It's my business to stop it
from going through illegally.
1521
01:21:16,289 --> 01:21:18,166
Would you be a little more specific?
1522
01:21:20,752 --> 01:21:24,464
There's a man whose name
was mentioned to me a couple of times.
1523
01:21:24,547 --> 01:21:25,548
Eltenton.
1524
01:21:26,674 --> 01:21:29,802
Uh, I believe he's a chemist
who works at Shell.
1525
01:21:29,886 --> 01:21:33,014
He talked to a friend of his
1526
01:21:33,097 --> 01:21:35,933
who's an acquaintance
of someone on the project.
1527
01:21:37,643 --> 01:21:40,063
And you thought Pash
would be satisfied with that?
1528
01:21:40,146 --> 01:21:43,983
I was attempting to give them Eltenton
without opening a can of worms.
1529
01:21:44,067 --> 01:21:45,943
I told them a cock-and-bull story.
1530
01:21:46,027 --> 01:21:47,528
Did you lie to General Groves too?
1531
01:21:47,612 --> 01:21:51,115
No. I admitted to him
that I'd lied to Pash.
1532
01:21:51,199 --> 01:21:52,909
[attorney]
Do you recall this conversation
1533
01:21:52,992 --> 01:21:54,452
about the Chevalier incident?
1534
01:21:54,535 --> 01:21:57,497
[scoffs] I've seen so many versions of it,
1535
01:21:57,580 --> 01:22:00,083
I wasn't confused before
but I'm certainly getting there now.
1536
01:22:00,166 --> 01:22:01,375
[attorney]
What was your conclusion?
1537
01:22:01,459 --> 01:22:06,756
That he was under the influence of
the typical American schoolboy attitude
1538
01:22:06,839 --> 01:22:10,301
that there's something wicked
about telling on a friend.
1539
01:22:10,384 --> 01:22:11,552
Well, now...
1540
01:22:12,303 --> 01:22:14,889
Might we know through whom
the contact was made?
1541
01:22:15,473 --> 01:22:19,268
That would involve people
who are not to be involved in this.
1542
01:22:19,352 --> 01:22:22,188
Is that someone
a member of the project?
1543
01:22:22,772 --> 01:22:26,234
A member of the faculty, yes,
but not in the project, no.
1544
01:22:26,317 --> 01:22:27,318
Ah.
1545
01:22:27,860 --> 01:22:32,490
So Eltenton made his approach through
a member of the faculty here at Berkeley?
1546
01:22:34,408 --> 01:22:36,869
As far as I know— As far as I know, yes.
1547
01:22:36,953 --> 01:22:38,871
But... [stammers]... there may have been...
1548
01:22:39,747 --> 01:22:41,457
more than one person involved.
1549
01:22:46,504 --> 01:22:50,424
Gentlemen, if I— if I seem uncooperative,
I think you can understand
1550
01:22:50,508 --> 01:22:51,634
it's because of my insistence
1551
01:22:51,717 --> 01:22:54,595
in not getting innocent people
into trouble.
1552
01:22:54,679 --> 01:22:57,515
You're trying to protect your friend.
Who's protecting you?
1553
01:22:57,598 --> 01:23:00,184
- Well, you could.
- If you gave me the name.
1554
01:23:00,268 --> 01:23:01,853
If you order me to, I'll do it.
1555
01:23:01,936 --> 01:23:05,022
That is a mistake, Robert.
You need to volunteer this name.
1556
01:23:06,607 --> 01:23:08,901
- [Robb] And did he give you the name?
- [Groves] He did.
1557
01:23:08,985 --> 01:23:10,278
- [Robb] But not then, did he?
- No.
1558
01:23:10,361 --> 01:23:12,864
No. In fact,
it was some months later, wasn't it?
1559
01:23:12,947 --> 01:23:13,948
It was.
1560
01:23:14,031 --> 01:23:16,826
- You see me as persistent.
- Well, you are-
1561
01:23:16,909 --> 01:23:18,870
You are persistent, but that is your job.
1562
01:23:18,953 --> 01:23:22,498
And—And my job is to protect the people
that work for me.
1563
01:23:22,582 --> 01:23:26,335
Instead of us going on certain steps,
which may come to your attention...
1564
01:23:28,004 --> 01:23:29,922
and be disturbing to you,
1565
01:23:30,006 --> 01:23:32,258
I would like to discuss those
with you first.
1566
01:23:33,009 --> 01:23:36,679
I'm not formulating a plan.
I'll just have to digest the whole thing.
1567
01:23:41,017 --> 01:23:44,103
In the months in between your interview
with Dr. Oppenheimer
1568
01:23:44,187 --> 01:23:46,772
and his eventual naming of Chevalier,
1569
01:23:46,856 --> 01:23:49,775
did you expend resources trying to find
the name of the intermediary?
1570
01:23:49,859 --> 01:23:52,236
Considerable resources, yes.
1571
01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:54,363
Without the name,
our job was extremely difficult.
1572
01:23:54,447 --> 01:23:55,823
And when did you receive the name?
1573
01:23:55,907 --> 01:23:58,784
I was gone by the time Oppenheimer
finally offered it up.
1574
01:23:58,868 --> 01:23:59,744
Gone?
1575
01:23:59,827 --> 01:24:01,954
They felt my time
would be better spent in Europe
1576
01:24:02,038 --> 01:24:04,373
determining the status
of the Nazi bomb project.
1577
01:24:04,457 --> 01:24:05,625
Who did?
1578
01:24:06,876 --> 01:24:07,919
General Groves.
1579
01:24:08,878 --> 01:24:10,338
He transferred me to London.
1580
01:24:13,257 --> 01:24:14,258
[marbles clattering]
1581
01:24:17,178 --> 01:24:19,013
[Serber]
It's a little early for a Christmas party.
1582
01:24:19,096 --> 01:24:22,266
Something's up.
Tolman's been away.
1583
01:24:23,351 --> 01:24:24,352
Where?
1584
01:24:24,852 --> 01:24:26,020
Ruth won't tell.
1585
01:24:29,023 --> 01:24:30,900
[chattering]
1586
01:24:30,983 --> 01:24:31,984
Hey!
1587
01:24:36,239 --> 01:24:39,367
Come on, Ruthie.
Can't tell me, who can you tell?
1588
01:24:39,951 --> 01:24:41,410
Compartmentalization, Oppie.
1589
01:24:42,119 --> 01:24:44,664
What makes you think
I know where he is anyway?
1590
01:24:44,747 --> 01:24:46,499
'Cause you do a pretty good job of knowing
1591
01:24:46,582 --> 01:24:48,417
where Mr. Tolman is when it counts.
1592
01:24:49,085 --> 01:24:50,086
Like now?
1593
01:24:50,169 --> 01:24:53,506
[Groves] Attention!
1594
01:24:53,589 --> 01:24:55,049
[chattering stops]
1595
01:24:56,342 --> 01:24:58,386
[Groves]
Early Christmas present for you all.
1596
01:24:59,303 --> 01:25:01,097
[scattered laughter]
1597
01:25:02,890 --> 01:25:05,101
[cheering]
1598
01:25:06,811 --> 01:25:09,146
[Bohr] The British pilots
put me in the bomb bay.
1599
01:25:09,230 --> 01:25:12,233
Showed me the—the oxygen,
you know, but I messed it up.
1600
01:25:12,316 --> 01:25:13,317
[scattered laughter]
1601
01:25:13,401 --> 01:25:15,695
When they opened me up in Scotland,
I was unconscious.
1602
01:25:15,778 --> 01:25:18,739
- But I pretended I'd been napping.
- [laughing]
1603
01:25:18,823 --> 01:25:20,241
[Bohr] Please enjoy your party.
1604
01:25:21,450 --> 01:25:22,785
Is it big enough?
1605
01:25:22,868 --> 01:25:24,245
To end the war?
1606
01:25:24,912 --> 01:25:27,039
To end all war.
1607
01:25:29,959 --> 01:25:33,963
- Heisenberg sought me out in Copenhagen.
- [marbles clattering]
1608
01:25:34,714 --> 01:25:37,967
It was chilling,
my old student working for the Nazis.
1609
01:25:38,050 --> 01:25:41,762
He told me some things to draw me out.
1610
01:25:42,722 --> 01:25:45,683
Sustained fission reactions in uranium.
1611
01:25:45,766 --> 01:25:47,852
That sounds more like a reactor
than a bomb.
1612
01:25:47,935 --> 01:25:49,687
Did he mention gaseous diffusion?
1613
01:25:49,770 --> 01:25:51,981
He seemed more focused on heavy water.
1614
01:25:52,064 --> 01:25:53,816
As a moderator?
1615
01:25:53,899 --> 01:25:55,151
Yes, instead of graphite.
1616
01:25:55,234 --> 01:25:57,111
[Bethe laughs]
1617
01:25:58,237 --> 01:25:59,530
What?
1618
01:26:00,614 --> 01:26:03,367
He took a wrong turn. We're ahead.
1619
01:26:03,451 --> 01:26:05,369
And with you here to help us, Niels...
1620
01:26:05,453 --> 01:26:09,123
Sorry, could you— could you
give us a moment, gentlemen?
1621
01:26:09,206 --> 01:26:10,291
[glasses clinking]
1622
01:26:15,629 --> 01:26:17,923
I am not here to help, Robert.
1623
01:26:18,424 --> 01:26:20,634
I knew you could do this without me.
1624
01:26:20,718 --> 01:26:22,845
- Then why did you come?
- To talk about after.
1625
01:26:22,928 --> 01:26:27,350
The power you're about to reveal
will forever outlive the Nazis.
1626
01:26:28,100 --> 01:26:29,685
And the world is not prepared.
1627
01:26:29,769 --> 01:26:33,314
"You could lift the stone without being
ready for the snake that's revealed."
1628
01:26:33,397 --> 01:26:35,232
We have to make
the politicians understand,
1629
01:26:35,316 --> 01:26:36,859
this isn't a new weapon.
1630
01:26:37,485 --> 01:26:38,611
It's a new world.
1631
01:26:39,362 --> 01:26:41,781
I'll be out there doing what I can,
but you...
1632
01:26:42,365 --> 01:26:45,159
You are an American Prometheus.
1633
01:26:45,242 --> 01:26:49,121
The man who gave them the power
to destroy themselves,
1634
01:26:49,205 --> 01:26:50,956
and they'll respect that.
1635
01:26:51,040 --> 01:26:53,042
Then your work really begins.
1636
01:26:57,671 --> 01:27:00,049
I'm sorry, Oppie,
but there's a call.
1637
01:27:01,842 --> 01:27:03,177
From San Francisco.
1638
01:27:10,267 --> 01:27:11,352
Robert?
1639
01:27:15,856 --> 01:27:16,982
Robert?
1640
01:27:17,483 --> 01:27:20,111
Robert. Robert.
1641
01:27:20,194 --> 01:27:21,695
Oh, my God. What's the matter?
1642
01:27:21,779 --> 01:27:22,947
What happened?
1643
01:27:23,030 --> 01:27:24,407
[both breathing heavily]
1644
01:27:24,490 --> 01:27:26,367
Her father called.
1645
01:27:26,450 --> 01:27:28,077
They found her yesterday in the bath.
1646
01:27:29,912 --> 01:27:30,996
Who?
1647
01:27:32,456 --> 01:27:34,041
She'd taken pills.
1648
01:27:34,125 --> 01:27:35,459
Left a note, not signed.
1649
01:27:37,002 --> 01:27:39,880
She took barbiturates, but there
was chloral hydrate in her blood.
1650
01:27:39,964 --> 01:27:41,465
[gasping]
1651
01:27:43,467 --> 01:27:44,677
There was a note.
1652
01:27:45,469 --> 01:27:46,887
Jean Tatlock?
1653
01:27:53,602 --> 01:27:54,854
We were together.
1654
01:27:55,521 --> 01:27:57,314
She said she needed me. I...
1655
01:27:59,692 --> 01:28:01,819
I told her I... [breathing shakily]... I wouldn't—
1656
01:28:02,695 --> 01:28:04,405
I told her I couldn't—
1657
01:28:04,488 --> 01:28:06,490
No, it was— it was me—
1658
01:28:07,950 --> 01:28:11,328
[breathing heavily]
You don't get to commit the sin
1659
01:28:11,412 --> 01:28:14,790
and then have us all feel sorry for you
that it had consequences.
1660
01:28:18,127 --> 01:28:20,004
You pull yourself together.
1661
01:28:24,008 --> 01:28:25,926
You know, people here depend on you.
1662
01:28:28,137 --> 01:28:30,264
[Serber] Donald, would you like
to contribute here, please?
1663
01:28:30,347 --> 01:28:31,515
[Donald] You're on your own, pal.
1664
01:28:31,599 --> 01:28:34,518
Bob, I'm not quitting my job
because plutonium is radioactive.
1665
01:28:34,602 --> 01:28:37,521
We just don't know what it might do
to the female reproductive system—
1666
01:28:37,605 --> 01:28:40,691
Your reproductive system is
more exposed than mine, presumably.
1667
01:28:40,774 --> 01:28:43,444
Can we please?
The implosion device is nowhere.
1668
01:28:43,527 --> 01:28:45,070
You can't rush everything.
Oppie, please.
1669
01:28:45,154 --> 01:28:47,781
Well, there's rushing and there's
getting on with it, so, pick one.
1670
01:28:47,865 --> 01:28:49,742
Wait. Neddermeyer's doing his job.
1671
01:28:49,825 --> 01:28:52,453
Teller's not helping. You're not helping.
1672
01:28:52,536 --> 01:28:55,080
I've been asking for calculations
on the implosion lenses for weeks.
1673
01:28:55,164 --> 01:28:57,791
- The British can do it. Fuchs.
- Absolutely.
1674
01:28:57,875 --> 01:29:01,170
- It's your job, Teller.
- I'm engaged in research.
1675
01:29:01,253 --> 01:29:03,672
On a hydrogen bomb
we're not even building.
1676
01:29:03,756 --> 01:29:05,382
[scattered laughter]
1677
01:29:11,931 --> 01:29:13,140
I won't work for that man.
1678
01:29:13,224 --> 01:29:15,017
[jeering]
1679
01:29:15,100 --> 01:29:17,269
Let him go. He's a prima donna.
1680
01:29:17,353 --> 01:29:19,313
[Serber] I agree.
He should leave Los Alamos.
1681
01:29:19,396 --> 01:29:20,898
Okay.
1682
01:29:20,981 --> 01:29:24,193
Kisty, you replace Neddermeyer.
Seth, I'm putting you on plutonium.
1683
01:29:24,276 --> 01:29:27,780
Lilli, you go work for Kisty,
because he needs you.
1684
01:29:27,863 --> 01:29:29,532
Fuchs, you take Teller's role.
1685
01:29:29,615 --> 01:29:32,409
I'm putting you exclusively
on the implosion device.
1686
01:29:32,493 --> 01:29:36,121
And no one is leaving Los Alamos.
1687
01:29:37,706 --> 01:29:39,708
[vehicle engine starting]
1688
01:29:39,792 --> 01:29:41,794
[chattering on loudspeaker]
1689
01:29:50,511 --> 01:29:51,762
They won't let me leave.
1690
01:29:51,845 --> 01:29:53,806
No. I won't let you leave.
1691
01:29:55,516 --> 01:29:58,102
Forget Hans. Forget fission.
1692
01:29:58,185 --> 01:30:01,313
Stay here, research what you want.
1693
01:30:01,397 --> 01:30:03,732
Fusion, the hydrogen bomb, whatever.
1694
01:30:03,816 --> 01:30:05,109
We'll meet to discuss.
1695
01:30:05,192 --> 01:30:08,028
You don't have time to meet.
You're a politician now, Robert.
1696
01:30:08,112 --> 01:30:10,656
You've left physics behind
many, many years ago.
1697
01:30:11,824 --> 01:30:12,825
Once a week.
1698
01:30:13,492 --> 01:30:15,244
One hour, you and me.
1699
01:30:21,166 --> 01:30:22,835
Now raise this fucking barrier.
1700
01:30:27,840 --> 01:30:31,510
[Robb] So the Super was under development
on your watch at Los Alamos?
1701
01:30:31,594 --> 01:30:33,012
Yes.
1702
01:30:33,095 --> 01:30:36,557
And yet, after the war,
you tried to deny it was viable.
1703
01:30:36,640 --> 01:30:39,727
No, no, no. I pointed out
technical difficulties with it.
1704
01:30:39,810 --> 01:30:41,770
Didn't you try to kill it
at the AEC meeting
1705
01:30:41,854 --> 01:30:43,272
- after the Russian bomb test?
- No.
1706
01:30:43,355 --> 01:30:46,609
[Robb] But that was the recommendation
of the AEC, was it not?
1707
01:30:46,692 --> 01:30:49,820
After hours of discussion
about the best response.
1708
01:30:49,903 --> 01:30:55,117
An H-bomb is 1,000 times the power
of an A-bomb.
1709
01:30:55,868 --> 01:30:59,997
Its only intended target
would be the largest cities.
1710
01:31:00,080 --> 01:31:01,624
It's a weapon of mass genocide.
1711
01:31:01,707 --> 01:31:05,919
Izzy, draw some circles on this side
of the map where they would target us.
1712
01:31:06,003 --> 01:31:07,129
Starting with New York.
1713
01:31:07,212 --> 01:31:08,339
- [Rabi] That's fair.
- [Strauss] DC.
1714
01:31:08,422 --> 01:31:11,050
It's a weapon of attack
with no defensive value.
1715
01:31:11,133 --> 01:31:12,635
- Deterrence.
- [Bush] "Deterrence"?
1716
01:31:12,718 --> 01:31:16,805
Do we really need more deterrence
than our current arsenal of atomic bombs?
1717
01:31:16,889 --> 01:31:20,934
Y-You drown in ten feet of water
or 10,000, what's the difference?
1718
01:31:21,018 --> 01:31:23,145
We can already drown Russia. They know it.
1719
01:31:23,228 --> 01:31:25,522
- Now they can drown us.
- [Rabi] We're just escalating.
1720
01:31:29,485 --> 01:31:32,363
- [feet stamping]
- [Strauss, distant] Robert? Robert.
1721
01:31:32,446 --> 01:31:34,531
- [stamping stops]
- [teaspoon clinks]
1722
01:31:36,367 --> 01:31:37,368
As I said,
1723
01:31:37,451 --> 01:31:41,288
Teller's designs are still as impractical
as they were during the war.
1724
01:31:41,372 --> 01:31:44,208
A hydrogen bomb can be made to work,
Oppie, you know that.
1725
01:31:44,291 --> 01:31:47,086
I don't believe we should commit
all our resources to that chance.
1726
01:31:47,169 --> 01:31:50,172
Then how would you have Truman
reassure the American people?
1727
01:31:50,255 --> 01:31:52,591
Simply by limiting the spread
of atomic weapons
1728
01:31:52,675 --> 01:31:55,135
through international control
on nuclear energy.
1729
01:31:55,761 --> 01:31:57,471
By which you mean world government.
1730
01:31:57,554 --> 01:32:00,391
The United Nations, as Roosevelt intended.
1731
01:32:00,474 --> 01:32:03,352
Well, I asked
what Truman should do, right?
1732
01:32:03,435 --> 01:32:04,436
The world's changed.
1733
01:32:04,520 --> 01:32:07,898
It's not fascism but communism
that now threatens our survival.
1734
01:32:07,981 --> 01:32:09,858
Lewis, do you understand,
1735
01:32:09,942 --> 01:32:11,527
if we build a hydrogen bomb,
1736
01:32:11,610 --> 01:32:13,821
the Russians will have no choice
but to build their own?
1737
01:32:13,904 --> 01:32:15,447
Could they be working on one already,
1738
01:32:15,531 --> 01:32:18,534
based on information gathered
from a spy at Los Alamos?
1739
01:32:18,617 --> 01:32:20,077
No spy at Los Alamos.
1740
01:32:20,160 --> 01:32:22,996
- Gentlemen. Let's not get sidetracked.
- There wasn't?
1741
01:32:23,080 --> 01:32:25,749
I say we use this moment
to gain concessions from the Russians
1742
01:32:25,833 --> 01:32:28,794
by committing that we will not build
a hydrogen bomb.
1743
01:32:28,877 --> 01:32:30,546
Thereby revealing its existence.
1744
01:32:30,629 --> 01:32:32,631
Which you seem convinced
they already know.
1745
01:32:32,715 --> 01:32:36,135
[clears throat] All right. At this point,
I'd like the committee members
1746
01:32:36,218 --> 01:32:39,888
to meet in privacy
to finalize our recommendations.
1747
01:32:41,432 --> 01:32:43,392
I'm just not sure
you wanna go down this road.
1748
01:32:43,475 --> 01:32:44,476
Lewis, with respect,
1749
01:32:44,560 --> 01:32:47,354
we are the advisory committee,
we will give them our advice.
1750
01:32:52,860 --> 01:32:54,111
Dr. Oppenheimer?
1751
01:32:54,194 --> 01:32:55,320
Hi.
1752
01:32:55,404 --> 01:32:58,240
William Borden.
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy?
1753
01:32:58,323 --> 01:32:59,575
Oh, yes, yes.
1754
01:32:59,658 --> 01:33:01,034
During the war, I was a pilot.
1755
01:33:02,494 --> 01:33:05,122
One night, flying back from a raid,
1756
01:33:05,205 --> 01:33:06,999
I saw an amazing sight,
1757
01:33:07,082 --> 01:33:08,751
like a meteor.
1758
01:33:08,834 --> 01:33:11,962
A V-2 rocket headed to England.
1759
01:33:12,045 --> 01:33:15,048
I can't help but imagine what it will be
for such an enemy rocket
1760
01:33:15,132 --> 01:33:17,968
to carry an atomic warhead.
1761
01:33:18,051 --> 01:33:19,762
[feet stamping]
1762
01:33:20,846 --> 01:33:21,764
[rocket rumbling]
1763
01:33:23,432 --> 01:33:25,142
[stamping intensifies, stops]
1764
01:33:26,935 --> 01:33:29,563
Well, let's make sure we're not the ones
to make that possible.
1765
01:33:35,694 --> 01:33:38,030
Oppie, I don't think
you wanna go up against Strauss.
1766
01:33:38,864 --> 01:33:41,033
If we both speak, they listen to me.
1767
01:33:41,575 --> 01:33:43,452
When you speak, they hear a prophet.
1768
01:33:43,535 --> 01:33:45,370
When Strauss speaks, they hear themselves.
1769
01:33:45,454 --> 01:33:47,539
They'll listen to a prophet.
1770
01:33:47,623 --> 01:33:49,541
A prophet can't be wrong.
1771
01:33:49,625 --> 01:33:50,542
Not once.
1772
01:33:50,626 --> 01:33:54,129
[McGee] Didn't you accuse Oppenheimer of
sabotaging the development of the Super?
1773
01:33:54,213 --> 01:33:58,509
I was never one of those to bandy around
terms like "sabotage."
1774
01:33:58,592 --> 01:34:00,010
[McGee] But Mr. Borden was?
1775
01:34:00,636 --> 01:34:02,346
As I understand it, possibly.
1776
01:34:02,429 --> 01:34:06,099
How was Mr. Borden able to put together
such a detailed indictment?
1777
01:34:06,183 --> 01:34:07,768
He was no longer a government employee,
1778
01:34:07,851 --> 01:34:10,020
yet he appears to have had
unlimited access
1779
01:34:10,103 --> 01:34:11,605
to Dr. Oppenheimer's file.
1780
01:34:11,688 --> 01:34:14,441
Might Mr. Nichols
have given him access to the file?
1781
01:34:14,525 --> 01:34:16,652
Or someone else at the AEC?
1782
01:34:16,735 --> 01:34:19,446
That's a very serious accusation, Senator.
1783
01:34:19,530 --> 01:34:21,114
Is it your intention to suggest
1784
01:34:21,198 --> 01:34:23,867
that Dr. Oppenheimer
is disloyal to the United States?
1785
01:34:24,451 --> 01:34:26,537
I've always assumed, and still assume,
1786
01:34:26,620 --> 01:34:29,039
that he's loyal to the United States.
1787
01:34:29,122 --> 01:34:30,165
I believe this.
1788
01:34:30,249 --> 01:34:33,627
And I shall believe it until I see
very conclusive proof to the opposite.
1789
01:34:33,710 --> 01:34:37,714
[Robb] Do you, or do you not, believe
that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?
1790
01:34:46,598 --> 01:34:49,685
[Hornig] And if I may, when Hitler
blew his brains out in that bunker,
1791
01:34:49,768 --> 01:34:53,021
it is my humble opinion that
there is no need for that bomb to be seen
1792
01:34:53,105 --> 01:34:54,606
anywhere except for that test site.
1793
01:34:54,690 --> 01:34:55,566
[scattered applause]
1794
01:34:55,649 --> 01:34:58,235
[Lilli] We at least
have to take a moment to think about
1795
01:34:58,318 --> 01:35:01,405
whether the means
justify the ends any longer, because—
1796
01:35:04,116 --> 01:35:06,285
Germany is about to surrender.
1797
01:35:06,368 --> 01:35:08,328
[members cheering, applauding]
1798
01:35:08,412 --> 01:35:12,416
It's no longer the enemy
who are the greatest threat to mankind.
1799
01:35:12,499 --> 01:35:13,417
It's our work.
1800
01:35:16,086 --> 01:35:18,505
Hitler is dead, it's true.
1801
01:35:20,465 --> 01:35:22,009
But the Japanese fight on.
1802
01:35:22,092 --> 01:35:23,844
Their defeat seems assured.
1803
01:35:23,927 --> 01:35:26,555
Not if you're a GI preparing to invade.
1804
01:35:28,098 --> 01:35:29,182
We can end this war.
1805
01:35:29,266 --> 01:35:32,603
But how do we justify using this weapon
on human beings?
1806
01:35:32,686 --> 01:35:33,896
[scattered applause]
1807
01:35:35,898 --> 01:35:38,734
We're theorists, yes?
1808
01:35:40,068 --> 01:35:44,197
We imagine a future,
and our imaginings horrify us.
1809
01:35:45,574 --> 01:35:47,910
But they won't fear it
until they understand it,
1810
01:35:47,993 --> 01:35:50,662
and they won't understand it
until they've used it.
1811
01:35:50,746 --> 01:35:54,583
When the world learns the terrible secret
of Los Alamos,
1812
01:35:54,666 --> 01:35:58,086
our work here will ensure a peace
mankind has never seen.
1813
01:35:58,170 --> 01:36:01,298
A peace based
on the kind of international cooperation
1814
01:36:01,381 --> 01:36:03,508
that Roosevelt always envisaged.
1815
01:36:08,722 --> 01:36:11,558
- [Oppenheimer] Progress?
- Two years and a billion dollars' worth?
1816
01:36:12,476 --> 01:36:14,144
Well, hard to put a price on it.
1817
01:36:14,227 --> 01:36:15,896
Not really. Just add up the bills.
1818
01:36:15,979 --> 01:36:20,233
"Rural free deliveries."
Eighty babies delivered the first year.
1819
01:36:20,317 --> 01:36:22,903
This year we've had ten a month.
1820
01:36:22,986 --> 01:36:25,864
Birth control is a little out
of my jurisdiction, General.
1821
01:36:26,365 --> 01:36:27,449
- Clearly.
- [Kitty] General.
1822
01:36:27,532 --> 01:36:28,617
Kiddo.
1823
01:36:33,622 --> 01:36:36,667
Head down, every— Fuchs. Head down.
1824
01:36:43,674 --> 01:36:45,550
That's the one. [grunts]
1825
01:36:45,634 --> 01:36:48,136
Two viable bombs. I need a date.
1826
01:36:51,181 --> 01:36:52,391
September.
1827
01:36:52,474 --> 01:36:53,517
July.
1828
01:36:53,600 --> 01:36:55,394
That's the sweet spot, gentlemen.
1829
01:36:56,186 --> 01:36:57,729
August.
1830
01:36:57,813 --> 01:36:59,356
July.
1831
01:36:59,439 --> 01:37:02,484
Test in July. But I need my brother.
1832
01:37:06,822 --> 01:37:09,408
Frank knows the desert,
he's left politics behind,
1833
01:37:09,491 --> 01:37:11,702
he's been working with Lawrence
for two years now.
1834
01:37:18,750 --> 01:37:20,377
What do we call the test?
1835
01:37:21,920 --> 01:37:25,340
"Batter my heart,
three person'd God."
1836
01:37:25,424 --> 01:37:26,425
What?
1837
01:37:28,010 --> 01:37:29,011
Trinity.
1838
01:37:37,185 --> 01:37:39,187
[Robb] You insisted on bringing
on your brother Frank,
1839
01:37:39,271 --> 01:37:40,397
a known communist.
1840
01:37:40,480 --> 01:37:42,107
Former communist.
1841
01:37:42,190 --> 01:37:44,109
You brought a known former communist
1842
01:37:44,192 --> 01:37:47,946
onto America's most secret
and important defense project.
1843
01:37:48,030 --> 01:37:51,283
I knew my brother could be trusted.
Absolutely.
1844
01:37:51,366 --> 01:37:54,619
And you felt your judgment was sound
on who on the team could be trusted.
1845
01:37:55,203 --> 01:37:58,415
Fuchs, head down.
Okay, everybody ready.
1846
01:38:08,133 --> 01:38:09,384
I hope you learned something.
1847
01:38:09,468 --> 01:38:11,845
Yeah, we learned
we're gonna need to be a lot further away.
1848
01:38:11,928 --> 01:38:13,305
Well, figure it out. Fast.
1849
01:38:13,388 --> 01:38:16,391
We leave for Washington in the morning.
We're gonna give them a date.
1850
01:38:20,020 --> 01:38:21,229
[elevator bell dings]
1851
01:38:21,313 --> 01:38:22,522
[chattering]
1852
01:38:22,606 --> 01:38:24,566
[phone ringing]
1853
01:38:24,649 --> 01:38:25,650
[service bell dinging]
1854
01:38:31,615 --> 01:38:33,325
You're a long way from Chicago, Leo.
1855
01:38:33,408 --> 01:38:36,328
If we don't act now, they're going
to use this thing against Japan.
1856
01:38:36,912 --> 01:38:39,831
We booked a meeting with Truman,
but somebody killed it.
1857
01:38:39,915 --> 01:38:42,250
You're meeting the secretary of war.
1858
01:38:42,334 --> 01:38:43,877
Just because we're building it
1859
01:38:43,960 --> 01:38:45,754
doesn't mean
we get to decide how it's used.
1860
01:38:46,630 --> 01:38:48,715
History will judge us, Robert.
1861
01:38:49,591 --> 01:38:51,551
In Chicago,
we put together a petition.
1862
01:38:52,344 --> 01:38:53,887
I'm not getting into that.
1863
01:38:53,970 --> 01:38:55,555
[clipboard clatters]
1864
01:38:59,309 --> 01:39:01,019
Just tell me your concerns
and I'll relay them.
1865
01:39:01,103 --> 01:39:02,145
My concerns?
1866
01:39:02,229 --> 01:39:05,607
Germany's defeated.
Japan's not going to hold out alone.
1867
01:39:05,690 --> 01:39:07,901
How could you know that?
You got us into this.
1868
01:39:07,984 --> 01:39:11,404
You and Einstein with your letter
to Roosevelt saying we could build a bomb.
1869
01:39:11,488 --> 01:39:12,405
Against Germany.
1870
01:39:12,489 --> 01:39:15,367
That's not how weapons manufacture
works, Szilard.
1871
01:39:15,450 --> 01:39:16,701
[Szilard] Oppie, you have to help.
1872
01:39:16,785 --> 01:39:18,537
Fermi's in the meeting.
Lawrence is in the meeting.
1873
01:39:18,620 --> 01:39:21,832
They're not you.
You're the great salesman of science.
1874
01:39:21,915 --> 01:39:24,126
You can convince anyone of anything.
1875
01:39:25,085 --> 01:39:26,086
Even yourself.
1876
01:39:26,920 --> 01:39:27,921
Excuse me.
1877
01:39:29,422 --> 01:39:32,634
The firestorm in Tokyo
killed 100,000 people.
1878
01:39:32,717 --> 01:39:34,177
Mostly civilians.
1879
01:39:35,428 --> 01:39:38,849
I worry about an America where we
do these things and no one protests.
1880
01:39:38,932 --> 01:39:42,269
Pearl Harbor and three years
of brutal conflict in the Pacific
1881
01:39:42,352 --> 01:39:44,604
bought us a lot of latitude
with the American public.
1882
01:39:45,188 --> 01:39:47,149
[Stimson]
Enough to unleash the atomic bomb?
1883
01:39:47,232 --> 01:39:50,485
[Fermi] The A-bomb might not cause
as much damage as the Tokyo bombings.
1884
01:39:50,569 --> 01:39:52,028
What are we estimating?
1885
01:39:52,112 --> 01:39:56,908
In a medium-sized city,
20,000 or 30,000 dead.
1886
01:39:56,992 --> 01:39:59,035
Yes, but don't underestimate
1887
01:39:59,119 --> 01:40:02,539
the psychological impact
of an atomic explosion.
1888
01:40:03,290 --> 01:40:06,418
A pillar of fire 10,000 feet tall.
1889
01:40:07,127 --> 01:40:10,213
Deadly neutron effects for a mile.
In all directions.
1890
01:40:10,297 --> 01:40:13,175
From one single device.
1891
01:40:13,258 --> 01:40:15,427
Dropped from a barely noticed B-29,
1892
01:40:15,510 --> 01:40:20,682
the atomic bomb will be
a terrible revelation of divine power.
1893
01:40:21,308 --> 01:40:23,935
If that's true, it would be definitive.
1894
01:40:24,019 --> 01:40:26,021
World War II would be over.
1895
01:40:26,104 --> 01:40:27,647
Our boys would come home.
1896
01:40:27,731 --> 01:40:28,857
Military targets?
1897
01:40:30,192 --> 01:40:32,194
Uh... There aren't any big enough.
1898
01:40:32,277 --> 01:40:35,197
Perhaps a vital war plant
1899
01:40:35,280 --> 01:40:37,866
with workers housed nearby?
1900
01:40:37,949 --> 01:40:41,119
And we could issue a warning
to reduce civilian casualties.
1901
01:40:41,203 --> 01:40:43,121
They'd send everything they have
up against us,
1902
01:40:43,205 --> 01:40:44,873
and I'd be up in that plane.
1903
01:40:44,956 --> 01:40:48,168
But if we announce it
and it fails to go off,
1904
01:40:48,251 --> 01:40:50,837
we'd scupper any chance
of a Japanese surrender.
1905
01:40:50,921 --> 01:40:55,342
Is there no way to demonstrate
a bomb to Japan to provoke surrender?
1906
01:40:55,425 --> 01:40:59,554
We intend to demonstrate it
in the most unambiguous terms. Twice.
1907
01:40:59,638 --> 01:41:01,848
Once, to show the weapon's power,
1908
01:41:01,932 --> 01:41:05,352
and a second to show that we can
keep doing this until they surrender.
1909
01:41:05,435 --> 01:41:08,813
We have a list of 12 cities
to choose from—
1910
01:41:08,897 --> 01:41:10,815
Sorry, 11.
1911
01:41:10,899 --> 01:41:12,776
I've taken Kyoto off the list
1912
01:41:12,859 --> 01:41:16,404
due to its cultural significance
to the Japanese people.
1913
01:41:16,488 --> 01:41:18,698
Also, my wife and I honeymooned there.
1914
01:41:19,199 --> 01:41:20,492
It's a magnificent city.
1915
01:41:24,162 --> 01:41:25,956
Let me make this simple for you,
gentlemen.
1916
01:41:26,039 --> 01:41:28,500
According to my intelligence,
which I cannot share with you,
1917
01:41:28,583 --> 01:41:32,671
the Japanese people will not surrender,
under any circumstances,
1918
01:41:32,754 --> 01:41:36,049
short of a successful
and total invasion of the home islands.
1919
01:41:36,800 --> 01:41:39,386
Many lives will be lost,
American and Japanese.
1920
01:41:39,469 --> 01:41:43,390
The use of the atomic bomb
on Japanese cities will save lives.
1921
01:41:43,473 --> 01:41:45,392
If we retain moral advantage.
1922
01:41:46,059 --> 01:41:47,227
How so?
1923
01:41:47,310 --> 01:41:49,479
Well, if we use this weapon
without informing our allies,
1924
01:41:49,562 --> 01:41:52,440
they'll see it as a threat,
and we'll be in an arms race.
1925
01:41:52,524 --> 01:41:54,442
How open can we be
with the Soviets?
1926
01:41:54,526 --> 01:41:58,571
Secrecy won't stop the Soviets
from becoming part of the atomic world.
1927
01:41:58,655 --> 01:42:00,657
We've been told
they have no uranium.
1928
01:42:00,740 --> 01:42:03,702
You've been misinformed.
A Russian bomb is a matter of time.
1929
01:42:03,785 --> 01:42:07,247
The program needs to continue
at full pace after the war.
1930
01:42:08,039 --> 01:42:09,874
Secretary Stimson, if I may,
1931
01:42:09,958 --> 01:42:13,920
not all scientists
on the project are in agreement.
1932
01:42:14,004 --> 01:42:17,590
In fact, this might be a moment
to consider other opinions. If you talk—
1933
01:42:17,674 --> 01:42:20,343
The Manhattan Project
has been plagued from the start
1934
01:42:20,427 --> 01:42:23,805
by certain scientists
of doubtful discretion
1935
01:42:23,888 --> 01:42:25,307
and uncertain loyalty.
1936
01:42:25,390 --> 01:42:27,392
One of them just tried to meet
with the president.
1937
01:42:27,475 --> 01:42:30,562
Now, we need these men,
but as soon as it's practical,
1938
01:42:30,645 --> 01:42:32,939
we should sever any such scientists
from the program.
1939
01:42:33,023 --> 01:42:34,274
Wouldn't you agree, Doctor?
1940
01:42:35,859 --> 01:42:37,527
[Marshall]
if a Russian bomb is inevitable,
1941
01:42:38,236 --> 01:42:41,281
perhaps we should invite
their top scientists to Trinity?
1942
01:42:41,364 --> 01:42:44,951
President Truman has no intention
of raising expectations
1943
01:42:45,035 --> 01:42:47,704
that Stalin be included
in the atomic project.
1944
01:42:47,787 --> 01:42:49,247
Informing him of our breakthrough
1945
01:42:49,331 --> 01:42:51,249
and presenting it
as a means to win the war
1946
01:42:51,333 --> 01:42:53,126
need not make unkeepable promises.
1947
01:42:53,209 --> 01:42:55,337
But the Potsdam peace conference in July
1948
01:42:55,420 --> 01:42:58,757
will be President Truman's last chance
to have that conversation.
1949
01:42:59,466 --> 01:43:01,301
Can you give us a working bomb by then?
1950
01:43:02,677 --> 01:43:05,889
Absolutely. We will test fire
before the conference.
1951
01:43:10,769 --> 01:43:16,983
Ground Zero, observation posts
at 10,000 yards north, south and west.
1952
01:43:17,067 --> 01:43:18,068
Where do we trigger from?
1953
01:43:18,151 --> 01:43:20,236
South, 10,000.
1954
01:43:20,320 --> 01:43:23,573
And Base Camp is ten miles south here.
1955
01:43:23,656 --> 01:43:28,912
And there's a further observation post
on— on that hill 20 miles away.
1956
01:43:28,995 --> 01:43:31,915
What's that, Frank?
Trigger lines already went in.
1957
01:43:31,998 --> 01:43:35,460
The Air Force requested
a line of lights for their B-29.
1958
01:43:35,543 --> 01:43:37,879
What B-29? Our bomb's on the tower.
1959
01:43:37,962 --> 01:43:41,049
They wanna use the test
to confirm a safe operating distance.
1960
01:43:41,132 --> 01:43:43,843
- That's risky.
- Not as risky as dropping one over Japan
1961
01:43:43,927 --> 01:43:45,887
and hoping that we were right
about the blast radius.
1962
01:43:45,970 --> 01:43:48,139
Don't let them slow us down.
We're firing on the 15th.
1963
01:43:48,223 --> 01:43:50,517
- The 15th? That's not-
- [Groves] The 15th.
1964
01:43:52,227 --> 01:43:53,228
The 15th.
1965
01:43:54,604 --> 01:43:56,564
[Oppenheimer] So I'll be here
at South Observation point
1966
01:43:56,648 --> 01:43:58,942
with Frank and Kistiakowsky.
1967
01:43:59,025 --> 01:44:02,779
You'll all be assigned
to Base Camp, West Observation,
1968
01:44:02,862 --> 01:44:04,447
or Far Observation.
1969
01:44:14,374 --> 01:44:18,294
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Careful with the knife. There, carefully.
1970
01:44:19,796 --> 01:44:23,842
- Are those safe distances?
- They're based on your calculations.
1971
01:44:23,925 --> 01:44:26,469
Time to stand behind your science, Hans.
Literally.
1972
01:44:50,076 --> 01:44:51,119
Yeah.
1973
01:44:56,416 --> 01:44:58,084
What about the radiation cloud?
1974
01:44:58,168 --> 01:45:01,296
Without high winds, it should settle
within two to three miles.
1975
01:45:01,379 --> 01:45:03,590
Evacuation measures are in place.
[inhales]
1976
01:45:03,673 --> 01:45:06,468
But we need good weather for visibility,
so it has to be fine.
1977
01:45:07,927 --> 01:45:09,262
Everybody out.
1978
01:45:19,439 --> 01:45:21,399
We go on the night of the 15th.
1979
01:45:21,483 --> 01:45:25,445
It's a hard deadline,
so if anyone has anything, speak now.
1980
01:45:25,528 --> 01:45:27,697
Little, little more. Okay, stop, stop.
1981
01:45:27,780 --> 01:45:31,576
Everybody, mattresses.
Put the mattress underneath.
1982
01:45:48,843 --> 01:45:51,346
Could use a final implosion test.
1983
01:45:53,389 --> 01:45:55,683
- It couldn't hurt.
- Do it.
1984
01:45:56,935 --> 01:45:59,145
Is there anything else that might stop us?
1985
01:45:59,229 --> 01:46:00,438
[thunderclap]
1986
01:46:02,732 --> 01:46:05,109
[sheets flapping]
1987
01:46:34,013 --> 01:46:35,557
It's happening, isn't it?
1988
01:46:37,725 --> 01:46:39,143
I'll send a message.
1989
01:46:39,894 --> 01:46:41,312
If it's gone our way...
1990
01:46:42,939 --> 01:46:43,982
take in the sheets.
1991
01:46:48,152 --> 01:46:49,195
Robert.
1992
01:46:52,407 --> 01:46:53,449
Break a leg.
1993
01:47:06,796 --> 01:47:07,797
Okay.
1994
01:47:59,932 --> 01:48:03,102
[Fermi] Oppie's taken
a very modest three kilotons.
1995
01:48:03,186 --> 01:48:05,438
- Teller's in with 45.
- [Rabi] Twenty.
1996
01:48:05,521 --> 01:48:07,774
20,000 tons of TNT.
1997
01:48:07,857 --> 01:48:11,152
And does anyone want the side action
on atmospheric ignition?
1998
01:48:11,235 --> 01:48:13,112
[laughter]
1999
01:48:13,905 --> 01:48:17,075
- Are you saying we'll have to delay?
- I'm saying it would be prudent.
2000
01:48:17,158 --> 01:48:18,951
This weather,
has it reached the site?
2001
01:48:22,830 --> 01:48:23,998
[phone ringing]
2002
01:48:24,082 --> 01:48:26,250
Bethe is calling to tell you
the implosion test failed.
2003
01:48:26,334 --> 01:48:28,878
Hello, Hans. Yes, he's here.
2004
01:48:30,171 --> 01:48:31,172
Yes.
2005
01:48:32,590 --> 01:48:33,591
[handset settles in cradle]
2006
01:48:33,675 --> 01:48:35,301
- Is he wrong?
- No.
2007
01:48:35,385 --> 01:48:37,136
- No?
- No.
2008
01:48:38,137 --> 01:48:40,598
- So we're about to fire a dud?
- No.
2009
01:48:40,682 --> 01:48:44,060
- Explain.
- Well, I can't. I just-I just know.
2010
01:48:44,143 --> 01:48:45,853
I know the implosion lenses will work.
2011
01:48:45,937 --> 01:48:48,356
If we fire these detonators
and they don't trigger a reaction,
2012
01:48:48,439 --> 01:48:52,068
two years' worth of plutonium
will be scattered across White Sands.
2013
01:48:52,151 --> 01:48:54,779
A month of my salary
against ten bucks says it lights.
2014
01:48:55,571 --> 01:48:56,406
Jesus.
2015
01:49:03,788 --> 01:49:05,832
[weatherman] The wind's picking up
at Zero, not the rain.
2016
01:49:05,915 --> 01:49:06,999
Lightning circling.
2017
01:49:07,083 --> 01:49:08,876
You think it might be time
to tell your men
2018
01:49:08,960 --> 01:49:11,629
to get away from the steel tower
with the atomic bomb?
2019
01:49:11,713 --> 01:49:14,841
[laughter]
2020
01:49:14,924 --> 01:49:17,552
- Let's get to South Observation.
- Pull 'em out.
2021
01:49:17,635 --> 01:49:19,721
[Oppenheimer]
We can make our determination there.
2022
01:49:21,639 --> 01:49:22,849
[thunderclap]
2023
01:49:24,892 --> 01:49:27,019
[Oppenheimer]
The team hasn't slept in two nights.
2024
01:49:27,103 --> 01:49:30,440
If we stand down, make the bomb safe,
we won't be back here for weeks.
2025
01:49:30,523 --> 01:49:34,235
Then we'll miss Potsdam.
I gotta get word to Truman by 7:00.
2026
01:49:34,318 --> 01:49:36,279
Our window's closing.
What is this doing?
2027
01:49:36,362 --> 01:49:37,739
Raining, blowing, lightning.
2028
01:49:37,822 --> 01:49:39,991
- For how long, damn it?
- It's holdin' strong.
2029
01:49:40,074 --> 01:49:42,243
- It'll break before dawn.
- How could you know that?
2030
01:49:42,326 --> 01:49:44,328
I know this desert.
Storm cools overnight.
2031
01:49:44,412 --> 01:49:46,456
Just before dawn, the storm breaks.
2032
01:49:46,539 --> 01:49:48,708
He could be right,
but schedule as late as possible.
2033
01:49:48,791 --> 01:49:50,042
5:30.
2034
01:49:50,126 --> 01:49:52,462
Sign your forecast.
If you're wrong, I'll hang you.
2035
01:49:52,545 --> 01:49:54,756
- Frank, tell them all, 5:30.
- 5:30.
2036
01:49:54,839 --> 01:49:56,007
- 5:30.
- 5:30.
2037
01:49:58,676 --> 01:50:00,386
Three years,
2038
01:50:00,470 --> 01:50:01,804
4,000 people,
2039
01:50:01,888 --> 01:50:03,598
two billion dollars.
2040
01:50:03,681 --> 01:50:05,975
Well, if it doesn't go off,
2041
01:50:06,058 --> 01:50:07,351
we're both finished.
2042
01:50:08,227 --> 01:50:10,188
[thunder rumbling]
2043
01:50:10,271 --> 01:50:12,899
I'm betting on three kilotons.
2044
01:50:12,982 --> 01:50:14,817
Anything less,
they won't get what it is.
2045
01:50:15,818 --> 01:50:19,155
What did Fermi mean
by "atmospheric ignition"?
2046
01:50:19,238 --> 01:50:20,281
Well, we had a moment
2047
01:50:20,364 --> 01:50:24,452
where it looked like the chain reaction
from an atomic device might never stop.
2048
01:50:25,286 --> 01:50:27,371
Setting fire to the atmosphere.
2049
01:50:27,455 --> 01:50:29,916
Why is Fermi still taking side bets on it?
2050
01:50:30,625 --> 01:50:32,585
Call it gallows humor.
2051
01:50:35,421 --> 01:50:40,051
Wait, are we saying there's a chance
that when we push that button,
2052
01:50:40,134 --> 01:50:41,469
we destroy the world?
2053
01:50:41,552 --> 01:50:45,264
Nothing in our research over three years
supports that conclusion.
2054
01:50:45,348 --> 01:50:48,100
Except as the most remote possibility.
2055
01:50:49,060 --> 01:50:51,020
- How remote?
- Chances are near zero.
2056
01:50:52,605 --> 01:50:53,606
Near zero.
2057
01:50:54,899 --> 01:50:57,235
What do you want from theory alone?
2058
01:50:57,318 --> 01:50:58,319
[scoffs]
2059
01:50:59,070 --> 01:51:00,947
Zero would be nice.
2060
01:51:04,367 --> 01:51:10,331
In exactly one hour, 58 minutes,
we'll know.
2061
01:51:17,129 --> 01:51:18,256
It's letting up.
2062
01:51:31,227 --> 01:51:33,479
The arming party's left Zero,
they're heading this way.
2063
01:51:33,563 --> 01:51:34,522
Throwing the switches.
2064
01:51:34,605 --> 01:51:37,859
Turn the cars.
Ready for emergency evacuation.
2065
01:51:37,942 --> 01:51:39,944
[wind howling]
2066
01:51:55,585 --> 01:51:56,878
[soldier] Take your welder's glass.
2067
01:51:56,961 --> 01:51:58,504
Everybody, take your places.
2068
01:51:59,171 --> 01:52:01,007
Everybody take a welder's glass!
2069
01:52:02,758 --> 01:52:04,594
Everybody take a welder's glass.
2070
01:52:54,310 --> 01:52:56,187
[timer ticking]
2071
01:52:56,270 --> 01:52:57,480
Twenty minutes.
2072
01:53:01,484 --> 01:53:02,610
[Fermi] Twenty minutes.
2073
01:53:13,788 --> 01:53:15,122
[Feynman] That's 20.
2074
01:53:18,334 --> 01:53:19,710
On the leg, please.
2075
01:53:21,295 --> 01:53:23,130
- Feynman.
- No.
2076
01:53:23,214 --> 01:53:25,883
- For your eyes, sir.
- The glass stops the UV.
2077
01:53:25,967 --> 01:53:27,510
And what stops the glass?
2078
01:53:29,261 --> 01:53:31,764
I'm gonna head to Base Camp.
Best of luck.
2079
01:53:32,473 --> 01:53:33,933
Robert...
2080
01:53:35,142 --> 01:53:36,602
try not to blow up the world.
2081
01:53:48,489 --> 01:53:49,657
Watch that needle.
2082
01:53:49,740 --> 01:53:53,202
If the detonators don't charge,
or the voltage drops below one volt,
2083
01:53:53,285 --> 01:53:54,787
you hit that button, you abort.
2084
01:53:54,870 --> 01:53:56,455
Understood?
2085
01:53:56,539 --> 01:53:57,707
Understood.
2086
01:54:05,089 --> 01:54:07,425
[soldier on loudspeaker]
Two minutes to detonation.
2087
01:54:07,508 --> 01:54:09,427
Everybody down.
2088
01:54:09,510 --> 01:54:13,597
Do not turn around until you see light
reflected on the hills.
2089
01:54:13,681 --> 01:54:16,600
Then look at the explosion
only through your welder's glass.
2090
01:54:16,684 --> 01:54:18,894
[on loudspeaker]
Ninety seconds to detonation.
2091
01:54:19,562 --> 01:54:20,855
[static on radio]
2092
01:54:20,938 --> 01:54:23,691
[on radio]
Eighty seconds to detonation.
2093
01:54:23,774 --> 01:54:25,151
Is it rubbed in?
2094
01:54:25,901 --> 01:54:26,902
Yeah.
2095
01:54:33,784 --> 01:54:36,704
[on radio]
Sixty seconds to detonation.
2096
01:54:51,510 --> 01:54:53,721
These things are hard on your heart.
2097
01:54:53,804 --> 01:54:55,014
[on loudspeaker] Thirty seconds.
2098
01:54:58,059 --> 01:54:59,518
[light buzzes]
2099
01:55:00,561 --> 01:55:01,812
Detonator's charged.
2100
01:55:12,156 --> 01:55:16,577
[on loudspeaker] 17, 16, 15...
2101
01:55:16,660 --> 01:55:23,042
14, 13, 12, 11...
2102
01:55:23,542 --> 01:55:24,710
Ten...
2103
01:55:24,794 --> 01:55:26,087
[detonator hums]
2104
01:55:26,170 --> 01:55:28,172
... nine,
2105
01:55:28,255 --> 01:55:29,423
eight...
2106
01:55:30,216 --> 01:55:31,425
seven...
2107
01:55:32,843 --> 01:55:34,136
six...
2108
01:55:35,346 --> 01:55:36,347
five...
2109
01:55:38,432 --> 01:55:39,517
four...
2110
01:55:41,185 --> 01:55:42,353
three...
2111
01:55:43,145 --> 01:55:44,313
Two...
2112
01:55:45,940 --> 01:55:47,024
one.
2113
01:55:50,694 --> 01:55:52,363
[Oppenheimer breathing deeply]
2114
01:56:00,538 --> 01:56:01,914
[gasps]
2115
01:56:01,997 --> 01:56:03,415
[gasps]
2116
01:56:06,669 --> 01:56:07,670
[grunts]
2117
01:56:08,462 --> 01:56:09,463
[exhales]
2118
01:56:13,050 --> 01:56:14,093
[breathing deeply]
2119
01:56:22,226 --> 01:56:24,854
[deep breathing continues]
2120
01:56:54,592 --> 01:56:57,219
[breathing heavily]
2121
01:57:19,867 --> 01:57:22,036
[Oppenheimer] "And now I am become Death."
2122
01:57:24,622 --> 01:57:26,248
"The destroyer of worlds."
2123
01:57:28,876 --> 01:57:30,544
[shock wave thunders]
2124
01:57:41,555 --> 01:57:43,224
[shock wave thunders]
2125
01:57:48,938 --> 01:57:50,522
[shock wave thunders]
2126
01:57:57,446 --> 01:57:58,864
[objects rattling]
2127
01:57:59,740 --> 01:58:00,741
It worked.
2128
01:58:08,082 --> 01:58:10,501
[scattered laughter]
2129
01:58:10,584 --> 01:58:12,211
[cheers, laughs]
2130
01:58:12,294 --> 01:58:14,922
[cheering, applauding]
2131
01:58:23,472 --> 01:58:26,809
[applauding, cheering]
2132
01:58:35,317 --> 01:58:36,360
[Kistiakowsky cheers]
2133
01:58:36,443 --> 01:58:38,362
- You owe me ten dollars!
- Oh!
2134
01:58:38,445 --> 01:58:40,531
[both laughing]
2135
01:58:40,614 --> 01:58:41,740
Come on!
2136
01:58:41,824 --> 01:58:44,285
I— I'm good for it, Kisty. [laughs]
2137
01:58:44,368 --> 01:58:45,452
You are. [laughs]
2138
01:58:46,203 --> 01:58:48,330
Yes, you are! [laughs]
2139
01:58:48,414 --> 01:58:50,874
[cheering, applauding]
2140
01:58:50,958 --> 01:58:53,294
[cheering, applauding]
2141
01:58:53,377 --> 01:58:55,337
[chattering]
2142
01:59:16,483 --> 01:59:18,902
We did it! Well done.
2143
01:59:25,034 --> 01:59:26,744
[Groves] Get me Potsdam right away.
2144
01:59:38,255 --> 01:59:40,924
- Get a message to Kitty.
- We can't say anything.
2145
01:59:41,008 --> 01:59:42,301
Tell her to take in the sheets.
2146
01:59:52,353 --> 01:59:54,355
- [baby screaming]
- [phone ringing]
2147
01:59:56,899 --> 01:59:58,025
Shh.
2148
01:59:58,108 --> 01:59:59,693
- Hello?
- [Charlotte] Hi. Kitty?
2149
01:59:59,777 --> 02:00:02,905
What— What? Charlotte.
Charlotte, go ahead, go ahead.
2150
02:00:02,988 --> 02:00:07,284
Oh, um, well, I don't know, he just said
to tell you to "bring in the sheets."
2151
02:00:10,204 --> 02:00:11,205
Kitty?
2152
02:00:12,915 --> 02:00:15,376
Kitty? Kitty, are you still there?
2153
02:00:22,549 --> 02:00:25,594
If they detonate it too high in the air,
the blast won't be as powerful.
2154
02:00:25,677 --> 02:00:28,097
With respect, Dr. Oppenheimer,
2155
02:00:28,180 --> 02:00:29,473
we'll take it from here.
2156
02:00:40,067 --> 02:00:42,444
Did Truman brief Stalin at Potsdam?
2157
02:00:43,070 --> 02:00:45,572
A brief would be an overstatement.
2158
02:00:45,656 --> 02:00:49,368
He referred to a powerful new weapon.
2159
02:00:50,035 --> 02:00:54,832
Stalin hoped we'd use it
against Japan.
2160
02:00:56,083 --> 02:00:57,084
That's it?
2161
02:00:57,751 --> 02:00:59,711
Robert, we've given them an ace,
2162
02:00:59,795 --> 02:01:01,296
it's for them to play the hand.
2163
02:01:03,298 --> 02:01:04,716
You're aiming for the 6th?
2164
02:01:05,342 --> 02:01:07,678
Well, it's up to the CO
in the Pacific.
2165
02:01:09,221 --> 02:01:10,848
Should I come with you
to Washington?
2166
02:01:12,641 --> 02:01:13,767
What for?
2167
02:01:16,270 --> 02:01:17,813
Well, you'll keep me informed.
2168
02:01:19,148 --> 02:01:20,149
Of course.
2169
02:01:22,401 --> 02:01:23,569
As best I can.
2170
02:01:23,652 --> 02:01:26,864
- [truck engine starts]
- [people applauding]
2171
02:01:28,615 --> 02:01:30,409
[chains rattling]
2172
02:01:41,753 --> 02:01:44,423
Would the Japanese surrender
if they knew what was coming?
2173
02:01:45,674 --> 02:01:46,884
I don't know.
2174
02:01:49,636 --> 02:01:51,638
[Teller] Have you seen Szilard's petition?
2175
02:01:51,722 --> 02:01:54,099
What the hell does Szilard know
about the Japanese?
2176
02:01:54,183 --> 02:01:55,517
You're not signing it, are you?
2177
02:01:56,518 --> 02:01:58,770
Many people have. A lot of people have.
2178
02:01:58,854 --> 02:02:00,022
Edward,
2179
02:02:01,482 --> 02:02:03,358
the fact that we built this bomb
2180
02:02:03,442 --> 02:02:06,069
does not give us any more right
or responsibility
2181
02:02:06,153 --> 02:02:08,363
to decide how it's used than anyone else.
2182
02:02:08,447 --> 02:02:10,491
But we're the only people
who know about it.
2183
02:02:11,074 --> 02:02:14,036
I've told Stimson the various opinions
of the community.
2184
02:02:14,119 --> 02:02:15,204
But what's your opinion?
2185
02:02:16,830 --> 02:02:18,040
Once it's used...
2186
02:02:19,333 --> 02:02:22,878
nuclear war, perhaps all war...
2187
02:02:24,463 --> 02:02:25,923
becomes unthinkable.
2188
02:02:26,507 --> 02:02:28,634
Until somebody builds a bigger bomb.
2189
02:02:49,613 --> 02:02:51,198
I thought they would call.
2190
02:02:51,281 --> 02:02:52,741
It's only the 5th.
2191
02:02:55,244 --> 02:02:56,912
In Japan, it's the 6th.
2192
02:03:09,967 --> 02:03:10,968
Charlotte.
2193
02:03:13,595 --> 02:03:15,055
Try Groves.
2194
02:03:16,098 --> 02:03:17,099
Anything?
2195
02:03:19,226 --> 02:03:20,769
Charlotte?
2196
02:03:20,852 --> 02:03:22,187
[Charlotte] Truman's on the radio.
2197
02:03:23,355 --> 02:03:25,274
[Truman on radio] Sixteen hours ago,
2198
02:03:26,191 --> 02:03:31,321
an American airplane
dropped one bomb on Hiroshima...
2199
02:03:31,405 --> 02:03:32,906
[feedback squealing]
2200
02:03:32,990 --> 02:03:36,118
[on loudspeaker]... and destroyed
its usefulness to the enemy.
2201
02:03:36,201 --> 02:03:38,203
[soldiers cheering]
2202
02:03:38,287 --> 02:03:44,001
The bomb had more power
than 20, 000 tons of TNT
2203
02:03:46,253 --> 02:03:48,171
It is an atomic bomb.
2204
02:03:48,255 --> 02:03:50,924
- [truck horns honking]
- [soldiers cheering]
2205
02:03:51,008 --> 02:03:55,637
It is a harnessing
of the basic power of the universe.
2206
02:03:57,848 --> 02:03:58,849
[Charlotte] Groves on one.
2207
02:03:58,932 --> 02:04:00,892
[Truman] We are now prepared to destroy,
2208
02:04:00,976 --> 02:04:04,438
more rapidly and completely,
the Japanese—
2209
02:04:04,521 --> 02:04:06,273
[clears throat] General?
2210
02:04:06,356 --> 02:04:09,151
[Groves] I'm very proud of you
and all of your people.
2211
02:04:09,234 --> 02:04:10,736
It went all right?
2212
02:04:10,819 --> 02:04:13,113
Apparently,
it went with a tremendous bang.
2213
02:04:14,364 --> 02:04:18,160
Well, everyone here
is feeling reasonably good about it.
2214
02:04:20,078 --> 02:04:21,538
It's been a long road.
2215
02:04:21,622 --> 02:04:24,207
I think one of the wisest things
I ever did
2216
02:04:24,291 --> 02:04:26,543
was when I selected the director
of Los Alamos.
2217
02:04:27,419 --> 02:04:29,671
- [horn honking]
- [cheering]
2218
02:04:29,755 --> 02:04:33,759
[Truman] We have spent
more than two billion dollars
2219
02:04:33,842 --> 02:04:37,554
on the greatest scientific gamble
in history,
2220
02:04:38,221 --> 02:04:40,098
and we have won.
2221
02:04:40,974 --> 02:04:43,435
[cheering]
2222
02:04:44,645 --> 02:04:48,231
[all] Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2223
02:04:48,315 --> 02:04:51,860
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2224
02:04:51,943 --> 02:04:55,280
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2225
02:04:55,364 --> 02:04:58,408
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2226
02:04:58,492 --> 02:05:01,411
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2227
02:05:01,495 --> 02:05:04,373
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
2228
02:05:04,456 --> 02:05:06,833
[cheering, applauding]
2229
02:05:06,917 --> 02:05:09,127
[feet stamping]
2230
02:05:12,005 --> 02:05:14,007
[stamping intensifies]
2231
02:05:30,982 --> 02:05:33,985
[cheering, whistling]
2232
02:05:38,407 --> 02:05:39,616
[whooping]
2233
02:06:08,311 --> 02:06:09,479
The world...
2234
02:06:11,356 --> 02:06:12,566
will remember this day.
2235
02:06:12,649 --> 02:06:15,026
[cheering]
2236
02:06:23,618 --> 02:06:25,829
[rumbling]
2237
02:06:32,002 --> 02:06:33,503
It's too soon to—
2238
02:06:34,129 --> 02:06:37,883
It's too soon to determine
what the results of the bombing are.
2239
02:06:40,969 --> 02:06:42,763
But I'll bet the Japanese didn't like it.
2240
02:06:42,846 --> 02:06:44,014
[cheering]
2241
02:06:51,646 --> 02:06:53,148
[person screaming]
2242
02:06:54,858 --> 02:06:57,152
[no audible dialogue]
2243
02:06:58,862 --> 02:07:01,031
[no audible dialogue]
2244
02:07:03,658 --> 02:07:05,202
I'm so proud.
2245
02:07:06,286 --> 02:07:08,205
So proud of what you have accomplished.
2246
02:07:08,288 --> 02:07:09,790
[no audible dialogue]
2247
02:07:15,879 --> 02:07:18,465
I just wish we had it in time
to use against the Germans.
2248
02:07:18,548 --> 02:07:20,091
[no audible dialogue]
2249
02:07:41,196 --> 02:07:43,824
- [laughing, distorted]
- [crowd cheering]
2250
02:07:48,745 --> 02:07:51,164
[laughing]
2251
02:08:06,805 --> 02:08:08,723
[sobbing]
2252
02:08:08,807 --> 02:08:11,017
[scream, distorted]
2253
02:08:29,035 --> 02:08:32,038
[sobbing]
2254
02:08:32,122 --> 02:08:33,748
[laughter]
2255
02:08:37,168 --> 02:08:39,170
[distorted wailing continues]
2256
02:09:03,778 --> 02:09:05,780
[footsteps approaching]
2257
02:09:08,408 --> 02:09:09,743
Dr. Oppenheimer?
2258
02:09:10,869 --> 02:09:12,037
Dr. Oppenheimer?
2259
02:09:12,120 --> 02:09:13,121
[chuckles]
2260
02:09:13,204 --> 02:09:14,289
Nice picture.
2261
02:09:15,040 --> 02:09:16,750
President Truman will see you now.
2262
02:09:31,056 --> 02:09:33,808
Dr. Oppenheimer. It's an honor.
2263
02:09:33,892 --> 02:09:35,769
- Mr. President.
- Please.
2264
02:09:35,852 --> 02:09:37,020
Thank you.
2265
02:09:37,646 --> 02:09:38,772
Secretary Byrnes.
2266
02:09:41,441 --> 02:09:44,152
How's it feel to be the most famous man
in the world?
2267
02:09:45,278 --> 02:09:47,948
You helped save a lot of American lives.
2268
02:09:48,615 --> 02:09:52,911
- What we did at Hiroshima was a—
- And Nagasaki.
2269
02:09:53,745 --> 02:09:54,996
Well, obviously.
2270
02:09:55,872 --> 02:09:58,959
Your invention
let us bring our boys home.
2271
02:09:59,042 --> 02:10:01,169
Well, it was hardly...
2272
02:10:01,252 --> 02:10:02,253
my invention.
2273
02:10:02,337 --> 02:10:04,464
It was you on the cover of Time.
2274
02:10:04,547 --> 02:10:07,509
[Truman, Byrnes laughing]
2275
02:10:07,592 --> 02:10:11,262
Jim tells me you're concerned
about an arms race with the Soviets.
2276
02:10:11,346 --> 02:10:12,347
Oh, yes, uh...
2277
02:10:13,932 --> 02:10:15,225
Well, um...
2278
02:10:15,308 --> 02:10:16,643
It's that, uh,
2279
02:10:16,726 --> 02:10:19,813
now is our chance to secure...
2280
02:10:20,730 --> 02:10:23,566
international cooperation on...
[clears throat]... atomic energy
2281
02:10:23,650 --> 02:10:25,819
a—a—and I'm concerned—
2282
02:10:25,902 --> 02:10:28,780
Do you know when the Soviets
are gonna have the bomb?
2283
02:10:28,863 --> 02:10:30,699
I don't think I could give a precise—
2284
02:10:30,782 --> 02:10:32,033
Never.
2285
02:10:32,867 --> 02:10:34,411
Never.
2286
02:10:34,494 --> 02:10:37,789
Mr. President,
the Russians have good physicists
2287
02:10:37,872 --> 02:10:40,417
- a-a-and abundant resources.
- Abundant?
2288
02:10:40,500 --> 02:10:41,501
- [Truman chuckles]
- Yes.
2289
02:10:42,252 --> 02:10:44,295
- I don't think so.
- [chuckles]
2290
02:10:44,379 --> 02:10:47,924
Well, they'll put everything they have in...
2291
02:10:51,761 --> 02:10:56,516
I hear you're leaving Los Alamos.
[sniffles]
2292
02:10:56,599 --> 02:10:57,851
What should we do with it?
2293
02:10:57,934 --> 02:11:00,061
Give it back to the Indians.
2294
02:11:07,736 --> 02:11:10,989
Um, Dr. Oppenheimer,
2295
02:11:11,072 --> 02:11:14,200
if what you say about the Soviets is true,
2296
02:11:14,284 --> 02:11:18,371
we have to build up Los Alamos,
not shut it down.
2297
02:11:22,083 --> 02:11:23,668
Mr. President...
2298
02:11:24,878 --> 02:11:26,004
Um...
2299
02:11:29,090 --> 02:11:32,802
I feel that I have blood on my hands.
2300
02:11:52,530 --> 02:11:57,786
You think anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki
2301
02:11:57,869 --> 02:12:00,789
gives a shit who built the bomb?
2302
02:12:04,125 --> 02:12:06,503
They care who dropped it.
2303
02:12:07,295 --> 02:12:08,296
I did.
2304
02:12:11,216 --> 02:12:13,676
Hiroshima isn't about you.
2305
02:12:20,141 --> 02:12:21,434
Dr. Oppenheimer.
2306
02:12:25,230 --> 02:12:26,231
[clears throat]
2307
02:12:33,071 --> 02:12:35,281
Don't let that crybaby
back in here.
2308
02:12:40,912 --> 02:12:43,957
[Strauss] Robert saw that hand-wringing
got him nowhere.
2309
02:12:44,791 --> 02:12:46,126
By the time I met him,
2310
02:12:46,209 --> 02:12:49,838
he'd fully embraced
his "father of the bomb" reputation.
2311
02:12:49,921 --> 02:12:52,257
And he used his profile
to influence policy.
2312
02:12:52,340 --> 02:12:53,925
[chattering]
2313
02:12:59,305 --> 02:13:00,306
[camera shutter clicks]
2314
02:13:01,182 --> 02:13:03,184
[Robb]
Doctor, in the years following the war,
2315
02:13:03,268 --> 02:13:05,353
would you say
that you exerted a great influence
2316
02:13:05,436 --> 02:13:07,313
on the atomic policies of the USA?
2317
02:13:07,397 --> 02:13:09,941
[Oppenheimer]
I think "great" would be an overstatement.
2318
02:13:10,024 --> 02:13:11,860
[Robb] Really?
If we look at the issue of isotopes,
2319
02:13:11,943 --> 02:13:15,572
were you not personally responsible for
destroying all opposition to their export?
2320
02:13:15,655 --> 02:13:18,074
- You could use a bottle of beer...
- [gallery laughing]
2321
02:13:18,158 --> 02:13:19,325
... when making atomic weapons.
2322
02:13:19,409 --> 02:13:20,410
In fact, you do.
2323
02:13:20,493 --> 02:13:21,870
I was the spokesman,
2324
02:13:21,953 --> 02:13:24,455
but the opinion among scientists
was unanimous.
2325
02:13:24,539 --> 02:13:27,625
All along with McCarthy on the rise,
he knew he was vulnerable.
2326
02:13:28,501 --> 02:13:32,172
His brother was blacklisted
by every university in the country.
2327
02:13:33,673 --> 02:13:36,801
Lomanitz wound up working
the railroad, laying track.
2328
02:13:38,511 --> 02:13:40,763
And Chevalier went into exile.
2329
02:13:42,599 --> 02:13:46,477
But none of that stopped Robert
from pushing the GAC
2330
02:13:46,561 --> 02:13:48,980
to recommend arms control
instead of the H-bomb.
2331
02:13:51,316 --> 02:13:54,569
He was devastated when Truman
rejected their recommendation.
2332
02:13:56,696 --> 02:13:58,364
I miss Richard more than I can bear.
2333
02:13:58,448 --> 02:14:00,450
I know, Ruth, I know.
2334
02:14:00,533 --> 02:14:03,620
Part of me's glad he didn't live to see
where this is all going.
2335
02:14:06,873 --> 02:14:08,791
Here comes the birthday boy.
2336
02:14:08,875 --> 02:14:10,001
To gloat.
2337
02:14:10,084 --> 02:14:11,794
Have fun.
2338
02:14:11,878 --> 02:14:13,838
Robert, uh, my son and his fiancée
2339
02:14:13,922 --> 02:14:16,257
are desperate to meet
the father of the atomic bomb, and so...
2340
02:14:16,341 --> 02:14:18,426
Well... good day.
2341
02:14:25,475 --> 02:14:26,768
Is this a bad time?
2342
02:14:27,435 --> 02:14:28,645
What do you think, Lewis?
2343
02:14:29,229 --> 02:14:31,356
Well, I think it must have been
a blow for you.
2344
02:14:31,439 --> 02:14:32,482
For the world.
2345
02:14:34,108 --> 02:14:37,111
The world? What does Fuchs mean
to the rest of the world?
2346
02:14:38,655 --> 02:14:40,073
Fuchs?
2347
02:14:40,156 --> 02:14:41,532
Klaus Fuchs?
2348
02:14:43,201 --> 02:14:45,411
Oh, dear. You haven't heard.
2349
02:14:48,623 --> 02:14:50,667
Klaus Fuchs, the British scientist
2350
02:14:50,750 --> 02:14:53,294
that you put onto the implosion team
at Los Alamos...
2351
02:14:54,629 --> 02:14:59,175
turns out he was spying for the Soviets
the whole time.
2352
02:14:59,259 --> 02:15:00,468
I'm sorry.
2353
02:15:06,140 --> 02:15:08,935
[Strauss]
After the truth about Fuchs came out,
2354
02:15:09,018 --> 02:15:11,020
the FBI stepped up surveillance on him.
2355
02:15:11,104 --> 02:15:13,690
He knew his phone was tapped,
2356
02:15:13,773 --> 02:15:15,566
he was followed everywhere,
2357
02:15:16,359 --> 02:15:17,986
his trash picked through.
2358
02:15:21,197 --> 02:15:25,410
- But never stopped speaking his mind.
- A man of conviction.
2359
02:15:25,493 --> 02:15:28,413
And maybe he thought fame
could actually protect him.
2360
02:15:30,665 --> 02:15:33,543
When Eisenhower took office,
he saw one more chance.
2361
02:15:35,086 --> 02:15:36,087
He took it.
2362
02:15:36,170 --> 02:15:42,885
America and Russia may be likened
to two scorpions in a bottle,
2363
02:15:42,969 --> 02:15:49,225
each capable of killing the other,
but only at the risk of his own life.
2364
02:15:49,809 --> 02:15:51,936
Now, there are various aspects
of this policy—
2365
02:15:52,020 --> 02:15:57,025
[Strauss] Lot of scientists blame me,
but how was I supposed to protect him?
2366
02:15:57,108 --> 02:16:00,528
... are too secret for discussion,
candor is the only remedy.
2367
02:16:00,611 --> 02:16:04,198
Officials in Washington need to start
leveling with the American people.
2368
02:16:04,282 --> 02:16:05,992
[murmuring]
2369
02:16:06,075 --> 02:16:08,745
That was the last straw
for Robert's enemies.
2370
02:16:08,828 --> 02:16:10,830
So he had to lose his security clearance?
2371
02:16:10,913 --> 02:16:13,499
- And with it, his credibility.
- [knocks on window]
2372
02:16:13,583 --> 02:16:15,835
But how could they do it?
2373
02:16:15,918 --> 02:16:19,005
He was a war hero.
He'd already told everyone about his past.
2374
02:16:19,088 --> 02:16:21,299
Borden dredged it all up.
2375
02:16:21,382 --> 02:16:24,552
How could Borden get access
to Oppenheimer's FBI file?
2376
02:16:24,635 --> 02:16:28,431
- Could it have been Nichols?
- No, I can't imagine he'd do that.
2377
02:16:28,514 --> 02:16:30,516
But whoever did unleashed a firestorm
2378
02:16:30,600 --> 02:16:34,979
that burned a path from the White House
back to my desk at the AEC.
2379
02:16:35,480 --> 02:16:37,106
You see him in there, right?
2380
02:16:37,857 --> 02:16:40,151
I've worked my whole life to get here,
2381
02:16:40,943 --> 02:16:43,154
Cabinet of the United States of America,
2382
02:16:43,237 --> 02:16:46,783
and now, in front of the entire country,
they're gonna put me back in my place.
2383
02:16:48,618 --> 02:16:50,286
A lowly shoe salesman.
2384
02:16:50,995 --> 02:16:53,122
Lewis, we can win this thing.
2385
02:16:53,206 --> 02:16:56,292
I-I think we can get the Senate
to grasp that you did your duty,
2386
02:16:56,376 --> 02:16:58,002
painful though it was.
2387
02:16:58,086 --> 02:17:00,546
- Now, will Hill's testimony back us up?
- Hill will be fine.
2388
02:17:00,630 --> 02:17:01,631
I don't really know him,
2389
02:17:01,714 --> 02:17:04,008
but he was one of Szilard's boys
in Chicago,
2390
02:17:04,092 --> 02:17:05,593
and they never forgave Robert
2391
02:17:05,676 --> 02:17:07,970
for not supporting the petition
against bombing Japan.
2392
02:17:08,054 --> 02:17:09,138
[projector clicks]
2393
02:17:09,222 --> 02:17:12,683
[Morrison] This was taken
31 days after the bombing.
2394
02:17:13,601 --> 02:17:17,897
Virtually everyone in the street
for nearly a mile around,
2395
02:17:18,606 --> 02:17:21,776
was instantly and seriously burned.
2396
02:17:21,859 --> 02:17:22,944
[audience gasping]
2397
02:17:23,027 --> 02:17:27,782
[Morrison] The Japanese spoke of people
who wore striped clothing
2398
02:17:27,865 --> 02:17:30,493
upon whom, the skin was burned in stripes.
2399
02:17:31,661 --> 02:17:34,205
There were many
who thought themselves lucky,
2400
02:17:34,288 --> 02:17:38,167
who climbed out of the ruins
of their homes, only slightly injured.
2401
02:17:39,919 --> 02:17:41,462
But they died anyway.
2402
02:17:42,422 --> 02:17:46,759
They died days or weeks later
from the radium-like rays
2403
02:17:46,843 --> 02:17:50,721
emitted in great numbers
at the moment of the explosion.
2404
02:17:52,056 --> 02:17:54,142
Did you read
this crap in the papers?
2405
02:17:54,225 --> 02:17:56,227
A British physicist is saying
2406
02:17:56,310 --> 02:17:59,230
the atomic bombings
were not the last act of World War II,
2407
02:17:59,313 --> 02:18:02,191
but the first act of this cold war
with Russia.
2408
02:18:02,275 --> 02:18:03,693
Which physicist?
2409
02:18:03,776 --> 02:18:06,446
I think you knew him.
Patrick Blackett.
2410
02:18:07,947 --> 02:18:09,240
[scoffs]
2411
02:18:09,323 --> 02:18:10,825
He may not be wrong.
2412
02:18:10,908 --> 02:18:12,368
Stimson is now telling me
2413
02:18:12,452 --> 02:18:15,621
we bombed an enemy
that was essentially defeated.
2414
02:18:15,705 --> 02:18:18,207
Robert, you've all the influence now.
2415
02:18:19,041 --> 02:18:20,585
Please.
2416
02:18:20,668 --> 02:18:22,962
Urge them to continue my research
on the Super.
2417
02:18:23,045 --> 02:18:25,173
I neither can nor will, Edward.
2418
02:18:25,256 --> 02:18:26,591
Why not?
2419
02:18:26,674 --> 02:18:28,134
It's not the right use of our resources.
2420
02:18:28,217 --> 02:18:30,303
Is that what you really believe?
2421
02:18:31,095 --> 02:18:35,057
J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Sphinx-like guru of the atom.
2422
02:18:36,392 --> 02:18:38,019
Nobody knows what you believe.
2423
02:18:39,228 --> 02:18:41,022
Do you? Hmm?
2424
02:18:41,522 --> 02:18:43,983
[Groves] One final time,
our program director,
2425
02:18:44,066 --> 02:18:45,735
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
2426
02:18:47,403 --> 02:18:49,614
[Oppenheimer]
I hope that, in years to come,
2427
02:18:49,697 --> 02:18:52,241
you will look back on your work
here with pride.
2428
02:18:53,034 --> 02:18:57,330
But today that pride must be tempered
with a profound concern.
2429
02:18:59,165 --> 02:19:02,793
If atomic weapons are to be added
to the arsenals of a warring world,
2430
02:19:04,253 --> 02:19:08,508
then the day will come when people
will curse the name of Los Alamos.
2431
02:19:12,762 --> 02:19:15,348
Sorry, Admiral. Stopped off to get this.
2432
02:19:16,516 --> 02:19:18,476
It seems pretty favorable.
2433
02:19:19,268 --> 02:19:21,729
There's Oppenheimer. What's the caption?
2434
02:19:21,812 --> 02:19:24,607
Uh, "J. Robert Oppenheimer,
Strauss fought...
2435
02:19:26,442 --> 02:19:27,693
and the US won."
2436
02:19:28,861 --> 02:19:29,862
That'll work.
2437
02:19:29,946 --> 02:19:32,365
Those were your words from the other day.
2438
02:19:32,448 --> 02:19:33,699
We needed to pivot.
2439
02:19:34,325 --> 02:19:36,911
But how would you know what
Time magazine's gonna write?
2440
02:19:36,994 --> 02:19:38,579
Henry Luce is a friend.
2441
02:19:46,546 --> 02:19:48,756
You sat here
and let me tell you how it's done,
2442
02:19:49,507 --> 02:19:51,634
but you've been far ahead all along.
2443
02:19:51,717 --> 02:19:54,053
Survival in Washington
2444
02:19:54,929 --> 02:19:57,139
is about knowing how to get things done.
2445
02:19:57,640 --> 02:19:58,641
Right.
2446
02:20:00,768 --> 02:20:02,603
What was it you said about Borden?
2447
02:20:02,687 --> 02:20:04,772
"Why get caught
holding the knife yourself?"
2448
02:20:06,899 --> 02:20:09,944
I'm beginning to think Borden
was holding the knife for you.
2449
02:20:12,446 --> 02:20:16,659
It's gonna come down to how much influence
Borden's been able to exert on Teller.
2450
02:20:16,742 --> 02:20:17,785
[Kitty laughing]
2451
02:20:17,868 --> 02:20:19,203
[attorney]
Did I say something funny?
2452
02:20:19,287 --> 02:20:23,874
Just "Borden, Borden, Borden"
when we all know that it's Strauss.
2453
02:20:23,958 --> 02:20:26,419
Lewis brought me to Princeton, Kitty.
2454
02:20:26,502 --> 02:20:29,213
And then you humiliated him
in front of Congress.
2455
02:20:29,297 --> 02:20:31,799
- But more useful than a sandwich.
- [gallery laughing]
2456
02:20:35,052 --> 02:20:36,053
How'd I do?
2457
02:20:37,305 --> 02:20:39,098
Maybe a little too well, Robert.
2458
02:20:39,181 --> 02:20:40,725
That was six years ago.
2459
02:20:40,808 --> 02:20:44,353
You know the truly vindictive,
patient as saints.
2460
02:20:44,437 --> 02:20:47,106
Strauss has been perfectly clear
that he is neutral.
2461
02:20:47,189 --> 02:20:50,651
- [glass shatters]
- Wake up! It is Strauss!
2462
02:20:50,735 --> 02:20:53,696
It's always been Strauss, and you know it.
2463
02:20:53,779 --> 02:20:55,406
Why won't you fight him?
2464
02:20:56,115 --> 02:20:57,283
Christ's sake.
2465
02:20:58,659 --> 02:21:02,455
It wasn't Nichols, or Hoover,
or one of Truman's guys.
2466
02:21:02,538 --> 02:21:04,915
It was you. You gave the file to Borden.
2467
02:21:04,999 --> 02:21:07,293
You set him on Oppenheimer.
You convinced him to—
2468
02:21:07,376 --> 02:21:11,797
Borden didn't take any convincing.
2469
02:21:11,881 --> 02:21:13,716
Take your time, use the entire file.
2470
02:21:13,799 --> 02:21:16,135
Write up your conclusions,
send them to the FBI.
2471
02:21:16,218 --> 02:21:20,556
The material is obviously extensive,
but there's nothing new here.
2472
02:21:20,640 --> 02:21:22,725
[Strauss] Your conclusions will be.
2473
02:21:22,808 --> 02:21:24,852
And they'll have to be answered.
2474
02:21:24,935 --> 02:21:26,687
Hoover passes them to McCarthy?
2475
02:21:26,771 --> 02:21:30,149
Oppenheimer's too slippery
for that self-promoting clown.
2476
02:21:30,232 --> 02:21:33,027
I've talked it over with Hoover,
he'll hold McCarthy at bay
2477
02:21:33,110 --> 02:21:34,779
while you do this with the AEC.
2478
02:21:34,862 --> 02:21:35,988
A trial.
2479
02:21:36,072 --> 02:21:37,365
No. No trial.
2480
02:21:37,448 --> 02:21:40,201
You can't give Oppenheimer a platform.
2481
02:21:40,284 --> 02:21:42,119
You can't martyr him.
2482
02:21:42,203 --> 02:21:45,456
We need a systematic destruction
of Oppenheimer's credibility
2483
02:21:45,539 --> 02:21:48,876
so he can never again speak
on matters of national security.
2484
02:21:49,669 --> 02:21:50,670
Then what?
2485
02:21:52,338 --> 02:21:55,633
A shabby little room,
far from the limelight.
2486
02:21:55,716 --> 02:21:57,259
[chattering]
2487
02:22:01,430 --> 02:22:03,474
[Strauss]
A simple, bureaucratic procedure.
2488
02:22:03,557 --> 02:22:05,893
His Q clearance is up for renewal.
2489
02:22:05,976 --> 02:22:08,604
You send your accusations to the FBI...
2490
02:22:10,898 --> 02:22:13,984
Hoover sends them to the AEC,
you're forced to act.
2491
02:22:15,027 --> 02:22:16,278
You write up an indictment.
2492
02:22:16,362 --> 02:22:20,324
You tell Oppenheimer his security
clearance is not being renewed.
2493
02:22:20,408 --> 02:22:22,368
But offer him the chance to appeal.
2494
02:22:22,451 --> 02:22:24,745
As you can see, Robert,
it's not yet signed.
2495
02:22:24,829 --> 02:22:27,164
- May I keep this?
- No.
2496
02:22:27,248 --> 02:22:30,960
If you do decide to appeal,
they'll have to send you a copy.
2497
02:22:31,043 --> 02:22:34,672
When he appeals, and trust me, he will,
2498
02:22:34,755 --> 02:22:36,757
- I appoint a board.
- [chattering]
2499
02:22:36,841 --> 02:22:39,552
They will, of course, have counsel.
2500
02:22:39,635 --> 02:22:41,303
- [Nichols] Prosecutor?
- In all but name.
2501
02:22:41,387 --> 02:22:43,305
- Who?
- Roger Robb.
2502
02:22:43,389 --> 02:22:44,390
Ouch.
2503
02:22:44,473 --> 02:22:47,685
Robb will have security clearance
to examine Oppenheimer's file.
2504
02:22:47,768 --> 02:22:49,103
As will the Gray board.
2505
02:22:49,186 --> 02:22:50,438
Defense counsel will not.
2506
02:22:51,731 --> 02:22:53,023
A closed hearing.
2507
02:22:53,107 --> 02:22:57,278
"The so-called and derogatory information
in your indictment of me..."
2508
02:22:57,361 --> 02:23:00,906
No audience.
No reporters. No burden of proof.
2509
02:23:01,490 --> 02:23:02,992
No burden of proof?
2510
02:23:04,618 --> 02:23:05,786
We're not convicting.
2511
02:23:06,871 --> 02:23:08,497
We're just denying.
2512
02:23:14,295 --> 02:23:16,255
What is it you said?
2513
02:23:17,131 --> 02:23:20,468
"This is just how the game is played."
2514
02:23:21,177 --> 02:23:22,928
Well, forgive my naivete.
2515
02:23:23,596 --> 02:23:27,266
Amateurs seek the sun... get eaten.
2516
02:23:28,601 --> 02:23:31,645
Power stays in the shadows.
2517
02:23:31,729 --> 02:23:34,690
But, sir, you're out of the shadows now.
2518
02:23:34,774 --> 02:23:36,734
Yeah, that's why this has to work.
2519
02:23:36,817 --> 02:23:37,985
Well...
2520
02:23:39,695 --> 02:23:42,364
Teller's testifying this morning.
That'll help.
2521
02:23:42,448 --> 02:23:43,949
And then...
2522
02:23:44,033 --> 02:23:45,409
Hill is in the afternoon.
2523
02:23:45,493 --> 02:23:47,119
Hill is gonna help us too.
2524
02:23:50,206 --> 02:23:52,833
[Strauss] As you can see, Robert,
it's not yet signed.
2525
02:23:53,501 --> 02:23:55,169
- May I keep this?
- [Nichols] No.
2526
02:23:57,671 --> 02:24:02,635
If you do decide to appeal,
then they'll have to send you a copy.
2527
02:24:06,055 --> 02:24:08,140
Take my car and driver. I insist.
2528
02:24:13,020 --> 02:24:14,980
I'll have to consult my lawyers, Lewis.
2529
02:24:15,064 --> 02:24:17,775
Of course. But don't take too long.
2530
02:24:17,858 --> 02:24:19,902
I can't keep Nichols at bay.
2531
02:24:26,158 --> 02:24:28,369
I'm sorry it's come to this, Robert.
2532
02:24:28,452 --> 02:24:29,912
I think it's wrong.
2533
02:24:42,967 --> 02:24:46,428
[Oppenheimer] Nichols wants me to fight
so he can get it all on the record.
2534
02:24:46,512 --> 02:24:48,264
Strauss wants me to walk away.
2535
02:24:48,347 --> 02:24:53,018
Strauss knows that you can't do that.
You'd be accepting the charges.
2536
02:24:53,686 --> 02:24:55,229
You'll lose your job.
2537
02:24:55,312 --> 02:24:58,232
You will lose your reputation.
We'll lose our house.
2538
02:24:58,315 --> 02:24:59,984
Robert, we have to fight.
2539
02:25:03,070 --> 02:25:05,155
As AEC counsel,
I can't represent you.
2540
02:25:05,239 --> 02:25:06,782
I'll call Lloyd Garrison.
2541
02:25:07,366 --> 02:25:09,577
- He's good.
- The best, but...
2542
02:25:10,578 --> 02:25:11,704
I have to warn you...
2543
02:25:13,372 --> 02:25:15,416
this won't be a fair fight.
2544
02:25:15,499 --> 02:25:18,043
During your interview
with Boris Pash in 1943,
2545
02:25:18,127 --> 02:25:19,753
did you refer to microfilm?
2546
02:25:19,837 --> 02:25:23,007
- No.
- Tab 11, page one, paragraph three.
2547
02:25:23,090 --> 02:25:24,466
You never said, "Man of the consulate
2548
02:25:24,550 --> 02:25:26,510
expert in the use of microfilm."
2549
02:25:26,594 --> 02:25:27,636
- [Garrison] I'm sorry.
- No.
2550
02:25:27,720 --> 02:25:29,889
I would like to know what document
Mr. Robb is quoting from
2551
02:25:29,972 --> 02:25:31,932
and if we might be furnished with a copy.
2552
02:25:32,016 --> 02:25:33,809
The document is classified, Mr. Garrison.
2553
02:25:33,893 --> 02:25:36,061
I think we should get back
to firsthand information.
2554
02:25:36,145 --> 02:25:38,814
- This is firsthand.
- How so, Roger?
2555
02:25:40,774 --> 02:25:42,151
There was a recording of the interview.
2556
02:25:46,947 --> 02:25:49,867
[Garrison] You let my client sit here
and potentially perjure himself
2557
02:25:49,950 --> 02:25:52,411
and all this time, you had a recording?
2558
02:25:52,494 --> 02:25:55,122
Nobody told your client
to misrepresent his former answers.
2559
02:25:55,205 --> 02:25:57,333
Misrepres-
It was 12 years ago.
2560
02:25:57,416 --> 02:25:58,667
Can we hear this recording?
2561
02:25:58,751 --> 02:26:00,169
You don't have the clearance,
Mr. Garrison.
2562
02:26:00,252 --> 02:26:03,255
- But you're reading it into the record.
- Please, please.
2563
02:26:03,339 --> 02:26:07,176
Is this proceeding interested
in entrapment or in truth?
2564
02:26:07,259 --> 02:26:11,096
If it's truth, where's the disclosure?
Where's the witness list?
2565
02:26:11,180 --> 02:26:13,891
Mr. Garrison, this isn't a trial,
as you're well aware.
2566
02:26:13,974 --> 02:26:18,145
Evidentiary rules do not apply.
We are dealing with national security.
2567
02:26:18,228 --> 02:26:19,438
Yes, sir, with all due respect,
2568
02:26:19,521 --> 02:26:22,900
I fail to see how national security
prevents the prosecution
2569
02:26:22,983 --> 02:26:25,903
- from providing us a list of witnesses.
- Perhaps we are in need of a brief recess.
2570
02:26:25,986 --> 02:26:28,030
[Oppenheimer]
Gentlemen, you have my words.
2571
02:26:28,113 --> 02:26:30,950
If you say they're from a transcript,
then I'll accept it.
2572
02:26:31,033 --> 02:26:33,744
I've already explained
I made up a cock-and-bull story.
2573
02:26:33,827 --> 02:26:36,914
But why would anyone
make up such an elaborate story?
2574
02:26:36,997 --> 02:26:38,457
Because I was an idiot.
2575
02:26:39,166 --> 02:26:40,793
Why lie?
2576
02:26:40,876 --> 02:26:44,797
Well, clearly with the intention
of not revealing who the intermediary was.
2577
02:26:44,880 --> 02:26:47,424
Your friend, Haakon Chevalier,
the communist?
2578
02:26:47,508 --> 02:26:48,759
Is he still your friend?
2579
02:26:49,760 --> 02:26:50,803
Yes.
2580
02:26:54,056 --> 02:26:56,183
[Garrison] Dr. Rabi, thank you for coming.
2581
02:26:56,266 --> 02:26:58,060
Do you know who else
the prosecution has called?
2582
02:26:58,143 --> 02:27:00,354
Teller, obviously.
2583
02:27:01,355 --> 02:27:03,691
- They've asked Lawrence.
- What did he say?
2584
02:27:03,774 --> 02:27:07,069
- He wasn't going to help them, but...
- But?
2585
02:27:07,653 --> 02:27:12,116
Strauss told him that you and Ruth Tolman
have been having an affair for years.
2586
02:27:12,199 --> 02:27:14,576
The whole time you lived with them
in Pasadena.
2587
02:27:14,660 --> 02:27:18,038
He convinced Lawrence
that Richard died of a broken heart.
2588
02:27:18,122 --> 02:27:19,957
- That's absurd.
- What part?
2589
02:27:20,040 --> 02:27:21,834
The broken heart.
2590
02:27:21,917 --> 02:27:22,960
Richard never found out.
2591
02:27:24,336 --> 02:27:25,671
Is Lawrence gonna testify?
2592
02:27:25,754 --> 02:27:26,880
I don't know.
2593
02:27:27,798 --> 02:27:32,511
[Garrison] Dr. Rabi, what governmental
positions do you currently hold?
2594
02:27:32,594 --> 02:27:36,473
I am the chairman of
the General Advisory Committee to the AEC,
2595
02:27:36,557 --> 02:27:38,350
succeeding Dr. Oppenheimer.
2596
02:27:38,434 --> 02:27:40,561
And how long have you known
Dr. Oppenheimer?
2597
02:27:41,270 --> 02:27:43,522
Since 1928. I...
2598
02:27:43,605 --> 02:27:45,107
I know him quite well.
2599
02:27:45,190 --> 02:27:49,737
Well enough to speak to the bearing
of his loyalty and character?
2600
02:27:49,820 --> 02:27:53,240
Dr. Oppenheimer is a man
of upstanding character.
2601
02:27:53,866 --> 02:27:57,619
And he is loyal to the United States,
to his friends,
2602
02:27:57,703 --> 02:27:59,955
to the institutions of which he is part.
2603
02:28:01,790 --> 02:28:03,042
Eat.
2604
02:28:05,919 --> 02:28:07,921
- [door opens]
- [footsteps approaching]
2605
02:28:22,061 --> 02:28:24,313
- [Oppenheimer] What was that?
- Nothing to worry about.
2606
02:28:27,566 --> 02:28:29,485
[Robb] After the Russian A-bomb test,
2607
02:28:29,568 --> 02:28:32,196
did Dr. Lawrence come to see you
about the hydrogen bomb?
2608
02:28:32,279 --> 02:28:33,864
You'd be better off asking him.
2609
02:28:33,947 --> 02:28:35,491
Well, I fully intend to.
2610
02:28:36,325 --> 02:28:40,245
Would you say that Dr. Oppenheimer
was unalterably opposed to the H-bomb?
2611
02:28:40,329 --> 02:28:43,332
No, he thought that a fusion program
2612
02:28:43,415 --> 02:28:46,168
would come at the expense
of our awfully good fission program.
2613
02:28:46,251 --> 02:28:50,172
- But that proved not to be the case.
- In the event, both could be done.
2614
02:28:50,255 --> 02:28:52,925
Suppose that this board
did not feel satisfied that,
2615
02:28:53,008 --> 02:28:57,012
in his testimony here,
Dr. Oppenheimer had been wholly truthful.
2616
02:28:57,096 --> 02:28:59,181
What would you say whether or not
he should be cleared?
2617
02:28:59,264 --> 02:29:01,558
Why go through all this against a man
2618
02:29:01,642 --> 02:29:03,685
who has accomplished
what Dr. Oppenheimer has?
2619
02:29:03,769 --> 02:29:05,312
Look at his record.
2620
02:29:05,395 --> 02:29:07,648
We have an A-bomb
and a whole series of it.
2621
02:29:07,731 --> 02:29:09,566
We have a whole series of Super bombs.
2622
02:29:09,650 --> 02:29:12,194
What more do you want? Mermaids?
2623
02:29:12,736 --> 02:29:16,323
[Teller] But I've known Secretary Strauss
for many years,
2624
02:29:16,406 --> 02:29:19,868
and I feel it a necessity
to express the warm support
2625
02:29:19,952 --> 02:29:22,371
for science and scientists
Lewis has shown.
2626
02:29:22,454 --> 02:29:25,332
We'll break now,
unless there's any immediate business.
2627
02:29:25,415 --> 02:29:28,210
[Strauss]
Senator, I'd like to once again request
2628
02:29:28,293 --> 02:29:31,004
that we're furnished
with a list of witnesses.
2629
02:29:31,088 --> 02:29:32,798
And I will remind the nominee
2630
02:29:32,881 --> 02:29:35,509
that we don't always have
that information in advance.
2631
02:29:35,592 --> 02:29:38,679
We do know that Dr. Hill
will be here after lunch.
2632
02:29:38,762 --> 02:29:41,515
Mr. Chairman,
our next scheduled witness, Dr. Lawrence,
2633
02:29:41,598 --> 02:29:44,393
has apparently come down with colitis.
2634
02:29:47,729 --> 02:29:50,107
So we'll proceed
with William Borden instead.
2635
02:29:51,066 --> 02:29:53,819
Mr. Borden, welcome. Please take a seat.
2636
02:29:55,154 --> 02:29:59,867
Mr. Borden, during your investigation
into Dr. Oppenheimer,
2637
02:29:59,950 --> 02:30:02,911
- did you reach certain conclusions?
- I did.
2638
02:30:02,995 --> 02:30:05,581
And did there come a time
when you expressed those conclusions
2639
02:30:05,664 --> 02:30:09,084
in a letter to Mr. J. Edgar Hoover
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
2640
02:30:09,168 --> 02:30:11,461
- That is correct.
- Prior to the writing of the letter,
2641
02:30:11,545 --> 02:30:13,839
did you discuss the writing of the letter
with anybody attached
2642
02:30:13,922 --> 02:30:15,591
to the Atomic Energy Commission?
2643
02:30:15,674 --> 02:30:17,843
- I did not.
- [Robb] Do you have a copy of the letter?
2644
02:30:17,926 --> 02:30:18,969
I have one in front of me.
2645
02:30:19,052 --> 02:30:21,346
Would you please be so kind
as to read it, sir?
2646
02:30:22,014 --> 02:30:24,850
"Dear Mr. Hoover,
the purpose of this letter is to state"—
2647
02:30:24,933 --> 02:30:27,728
[Garrison]
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, if I could have a—
2648
02:30:27,811 --> 02:30:31,064
What is the purpose of the delay?
He's simply gonna read the letter.
2649
02:30:31,148 --> 02:30:34,401
[chuckles] Mr. Chairman, this is
the first I've seen of this letter,
2650
02:30:34,484 --> 02:30:37,446
and I see statements here, at least one,
2651
02:30:37,529 --> 02:30:40,032
of a kind that I don't think anyone
would like to see go into the record.
2652
02:30:40,115 --> 02:30:42,743
These are accusations
that have not previously been made.
2653
02:30:42,826 --> 02:30:44,661
That are not part of the indictment
from Nichols.
2654
02:30:44,745 --> 02:30:47,080
Accusations of a kind
that I don't think belong here.
2655
02:30:47,164 --> 02:30:49,249
The witness wrote this letter
on his own initiative,
2656
02:30:49,333 --> 02:30:51,627
laying out evidence
that has already been before the board.
2657
02:30:51,710 --> 02:30:53,378
His conclusions are valid testimony,
2658
02:30:53,462 --> 02:30:56,715
just like the positive conclusions
of friends of Dr. Oppenheimer.
2659
02:30:56,798 --> 02:30:58,342
It cuts both ways.
2660
02:30:58,425 --> 02:31:00,552
How long has counsel
been in possession of this letter?
2661
02:31:00,636 --> 02:31:04,556
I don't think I should be subject
to cross-examination by you, Mr. Garrison.
2662
02:31:04,640 --> 02:31:07,726
[Gray] Mr. Garrison, given that we
on the board have all read the letter,
2663
02:31:07,809 --> 02:31:10,145
wouldn't it be better
to have it in the record?
2664
02:31:10,229 --> 02:31:11,772
Let's proceed.
2665
02:31:13,690 --> 02:31:15,317
[Borden] "Dear Mr. Hoover,
2666
02:31:15,400 --> 02:31:18,445
the purpose of this letter
is to state my opinion
2667
02:31:18,528 --> 02:31:22,699
based upon years of study
of the available classified evidence,
2668
02:31:22,783 --> 02:31:24,785
that more probably than not
2669
02:31:24,868 --> 02:31:29,706
J. Robert Oppenheimer
is an agent of the Soviet Union.
2670
02:31:29,790 --> 02:31:32,209
The following conclusions are justified.
2671
02:31:32,292 --> 02:31:36,630
One, between 1929 and 1942,
more probably than not,
2672
02:31:36,713 --> 02:31:40,550
J. Robert Oppenheimer
was a sufficiently hardened communist,
2673
02:31:40,634 --> 02:31:43,011
that he volunteered information
to the Soviets.
2674
02:31:43,095 --> 02:31:45,430
Two, more probably than not,
2675
02:31:45,514 --> 02:31:49,142
he has since been functioning
as an espionage agent.
2676
02:31:49,810 --> 02:31:52,312
Three, more probably than not,
2677
02:31:52,396 --> 02:31:54,982
he has since acted
under a Soviet directive
2678
02:31:55,065 --> 02:31:57,859
in influencing
United States military policy"...
2679
02:31:57,943 --> 02:32:00,195
- I'm sorry, Robert.
- ..."atomic energy, intelligence"...
2680
02:32:00,279 --> 02:32:05,158
Is anyone ever going to tell the truth
about what's happening here?
2681
02:32:05,242 --> 02:32:08,078
[chairman]
We will now hear from Dr. David Hill.
2682
02:32:08,161 --> 02:32:09,579
[shutters clicking]
2683
02:32:14,835 --> 02:32:15,836
[shutter clicks]
2684
02:32:18,380 --> 02:32:21,383
Dr. Hill, would you care
to make a statement?
2685
02:32:23,385 --> 02:32:24,386
Thank you.
2686
02:32:24,469 --> 02:32:28,473
I've been asked to testify
about Lewis Strauss.
2687
02:32:28,557 --> 02:32:33,812
A man who has given years of service
in high positions of government
2688
02:32:33,895 --> 02:32:38,650
and who is known to be earnest,
hardworking and intelligent.
2689
02:32:39,818 --> 02:32:42,321
The views I have to express are my own,
2690
02:32:42,404 --> 02:32:45,157
but I believe that much I have to say
will help to indicate
2691
02:32:45,240 --> 02:32:48,702
why most of the scientists in this country
2692
02:32:48,785 --> 02:32:53,582
would prefer to see Mr. Strauss
completely out of government.
2693
02:32:53,665 --> 02:32:55,667
[gallery murmuring]
2694
02:32:55,751 --> 02:32:59,671
You're referring to the hostility
of certain scientists
2695
02:32:59,755 --> 02:33:03,467
directed toward Mr. Strauss
because of his commitment to security,
2696
02:33:03,550 --> 02:33:06,261
as demonstrated in the Oppenheimer affair?
2697
02:33:08,722 --> 02:33:09,723
No.
2698
02:33:10,515 --> 02:33:15,062
Because of the personal vindictiveness
he demonstrated against Dr. Oppenheimer.
2699
02:33:15,145 --> 02:33:16,730
[murmuring intensifies]
2700
02:33:16,813 --> 02:33:18,690
- [chairman] Order.
- [gavel rapping]
2701
02:33:18,774 --> 02:33:20,025
Order.
2702
02:33:20,609 --> 02:33:24,112
It appears to most scientists
around this country
2703
02:33:25,405 --> 02:33:28,241
that Robert Oppenheimer
is now being pilloried
2704
02:33:28,325 --> 02:33:32,746
and put through an ordeal
because he expressed his honest opinions.
2705
02:33:32,829 --> 02:33:36,041
Dr. Bush, I thought I was performing
a service to my country
2706
02:33:36,124 --> 02:33:37,250
when hearing this case.
2707
02:33:37,334 --> 02:33:41,838
No board in this country
should sit in judgment of a man
2708
02:33:41,922 --> 02:33:44,007
because he expressed strong opinions.
2709
02:33:44,091 --> 02:33:46,760
If you wanna try that case,
you should try me.
2710
02:33:47,260 --> 02:33:50,472
Excuse me, gentlemen, if I become stirred.
2711
02:33:51,348 --> 02:33:52,349
But I am.
2712
02:33:52,933 --> 02:33:56,812
Dr. Hill, we've already heard that
Mr. Strauss did not bring the charges,
2713
02:33:56,895 --> 02:33:59,856
or participate in the hearings
against Dr. Oppenheimer.
2714
02:33:59,940 --> 02:34:04,611
The Oppenheimer matter
was initiated and carried through
2715
02:34:04,694 --> 02:34:07,155
largely through the animus
of Lewis Strauss.
2716
02:34:07,239 --> 02:34:08,615
[gallery murmuring]
2717
02:34:08,698 --> 02:34:11,576
Oppenheimer made mincemeat
out of Strauss's position
2718
02:34:11,660 --> 02:34:13,703
on the shipment of isotopes to Norway,
2719
02:34:13,787 --> 02:34:17,290
and Strauss never forgave him
this public humiliation.
2720
02:34:17,958 --> 02:34:21,211
Another controversy between them centered
around their differences in judgment
2721
02:34:21,294 --> 02:34:24,381
on how the H-bomb
would contribute to national security.
2722
02:34:24,464 --> 02:34:26,925
Strauss turned
to the personnel security system
2723
02:34:27,008 --> 02:34:30,595
in order to destroy
Oppenheimer's effectiveness.
2724
02:34:30,679 --> 02:34:33,557
And Strauss was able
to find a few ambitious men
2725
02:34:33,640 --> 02:34:36,393
who also disagreed
with Oppenheimer's positions
2726
02:34:36,476 --> 02:34:39,855
and envied him
his prestige in government circles.
2727
02:34:39,938 --> 02:34:44,025
I've always assumed, and still assume,
that he's loyal to the United States.
2728
02:34:44,651 --> 02:34:45,652
I believe this.
2729
02:34:45,735 --> 02:34:49,156
And I shall believe it until I see
very conclusive proof to the opposite.
2730
02:34:49,239 --> 02:34:52,951
Do you, or do you not, believe that
Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?
2731
02:34:56,830 --> 02:34:58,123
In a great number of cases,
2732
02:34:58,206 --> 02:35:01,543
I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer
act in a way which was, to me,
2733
02:35:01,626 --> 02:35:03,545
exceedingly hard to understand.
2734
02:35:03,628 --> 02:35:06,214
I thoroughly disagreed with him
in numerous issues,
2735
02:35:06,298 --> 02:35:09,718
and his actions, frankly,
appeared to me confused and complicated.
2736
02:35:09,801 --> 02:35:11,511
To this extent, I feel,
2737
02:35:11,595 --> 02:35:14,556
I want to see the vital interests
of this country
2738
02:35:14,639 --> 02:35:16,725
in hands which I understand better,
2739
02:35:16,808 --> 02:35:18,643
and therefore trust more.
2740
02:35:19,478 --> 02:35:21,229
- Thank you, Doctor.
- [Robb] Thank you.
2741
02:35:24,983 --> 02:35:26,067
I'm sorry.
2742
02:35:28,862 --> 02:35:31,114
[Kitty] You shook his fucking hand?
2743
02:35:31,990 --> 02:35:33,992
Oh, I would have spit in his face.
2744
02:35:34,075 --> 02:35:35,994
Not sure the board
would have appreciated that.
2745
02:35:36,077 --> 02:35:37,954
Is it not gentlemanly enough for you?
2746
02:35:38,038 --> 02:35:40,624
I think you're all being
too goddamn gentlemanly.
2747
02:35:40,707 --> 02:35:42,626
Gray must see what Robb is doing.
2748
02:35:42,709 --> 02:35:44,544
Why doesn't he just shut him down?
2749
02:35:44,628 --> 02:35:47,214
And you shaking Teller's hand.
2750
02:35:47,297 --> 02:35:50,342
You need to stop playing the martyr.
2751
02:35:51,134 --> 02:35:56,097
Under the current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
2752
02:36:02,103 --> 02:36:06,650
Under my interpretation
of the Atomic Energy Act,
2753
02:36:06,733 --> 02:36:11,321
which did not exist
when I hired Dr. Oppenheimer in 1942,
2754
02:36:12,614 --> 02:36:18,119
I would not clear him today
if I were on the commission.
2755
02:36:18,203 --> 02:36:19,746
[Robb]
Good, thank you, General, that is all.
2756
02:36:19,829 --> 02:36:22,332
But I don't think
I'd clear any of those guys.
2757
02:36:22,415 --> 02:36:23,416
That's all.
2758
02:36:26,503 --> 02:36:28,630
[Garrison]
Dr. Oppenheimer had no responsibility
2759
02:36:28,713 --> 02:36:31,216
in the selection or the clearance
of Klaus Fuchs, did he?
2760
02:36:31,299 --> 02:36:32,551
No. None at all.
2761
02:36:32,634 --> 02:36:35,804
And you wouldn't want to leave this board
with any suggestion today
2762
02:36:35,887 --> 02:36:39,015
that you're here questioning
his basic loyalty to the United States
2763
02:36:39,099 --> 02:36:40,600
and the operation of Los Alamos.
2764
02:36:40,684 --> 02:36:42,018
By no means.
2765
02:36:42,102 --> 02:36:45,021
I hope I didn't lead anyone
to believe otherwise for an instant.
2766
02:36:46,314 --> 02:36:47,524
[Gray] Thank you, General.
2767
02:36:56,908 --> 02:36:58,618
[door opens]
2768
02:37:05,041 --> 02:37:07,168
Okay. We shouldn't keep them waiting.
2769
02:37:07,252 --> 02:37:08,253
She'll be here.
2770
02:37:08,753 --> 02:37:10,046
Do you even want her here?
2771
02:37:10,630 --> 02:37:12,549
Only a fool or an adolescent
2772
02:37:12,632 --> 02:37:14,676
presumes to know
someone else's relationship,
2773
02:37:14,759 --> 02:37:16,678
and you're neither, Lloyd.
2774
02:37:16,761 --> 02:37:18,346
- [door opens]
- [footsteps approaching]
2775
02:37:19,389 --> 02:37:22,142
Kitty and I, we're grown-ups.
2776
02:37:23,226 --> 02:37:25,312
We've walked through fire together.
2777
02:37:25,895 --> 02:37:27,147
She'll do fine.
2778
02:37:28,064 --> 02:37:32,235
[Garrison] Would you describe your views
on communism as pro, anti, neutral?
2779
02:37:32,319 --> 02:37:33,403
[Kitty] Very strongly against.
2780
02:37:33,486 --> 02:37:38,033
I've had nothing to do with communism
since 1936, since...
2781
02:37:39,159 --> 02:37:40,994
since before I met Robert.
2782
02:37:42,787 --> 02:37:43,913
That's all.
2783
02:37:44,998 --> 02:37:46,750
[Hill]
The record demonstrates that Oppenheimer
2784
02:37:46,833 --> 02:37:50,045
was not interrogated
by impartial and disinterested counsel
2785
02:37:50,128 --> 02:37:51,129
for the Gray board.
2786
02:37:51,212 --> 02:37:53,048
He was interrogated by a prosecutor
2787
02:37:53,131 --> 02:37:55,842
who used all the tricks
of a rather ingenious legal background.
2788
02:37:55,925 --> 02:38:00,263
You are charging now that
the Gray board permitted a prosecution.
2789
02:38:01,014 --> 02:38:03,099
If I were on the Gray board,
2790
02:38:03,183 --> 02:38:06,519
I would have protested against the tactics
of the man who served, in fact,
2791
02:38:06,603 --> 02:38:08,063
as the prosecuting counsel.
2792
02:38:08,146 --> 02:38:09,981
A man appointed, not by the board...
2793
02:38:11,274 --> 02:38:12,567
but by Lewis Strauss.
2794
02:38:13,443 --> 02:38:14,694
[gallery murmuring]
2795
02:38:15,320 --> 02:38:16,279
Who was this?
2796
02:38:17,906 --> 02:38:19,574
I'm sorry?
2797
02:38:19,658 --> 02:38:20,825
[McGee] Who was this?
2798
02:38:20,909 --> 02:38:22,160
Uh, Roger Robb.
2799
02:38:22,827 --> 02:38:24,162
Mrs. Oppenheimer.
2800
02:38:28,667 --> 02:38:30,835
Did you have
a Communist Party membership card?
2801
02:38:32,671 --> 02:38:33,838
I'm—
2802
02:38:33,922 --> 02:38:34,923
I'm not sure.
2803
02:38:35,006 --> 02:38:36,216
Not sure?
2804
02:38:38,927 --> 02:38:40,053
Well—
2805
02:38:43,098 --> 02:38:44,099
Well?
2806
02:38:53,358 --> 02:38:56,361
I mean, presumably,
the act of joining the Party
2807
02:38:56,444 --> 02:38:59,656
required sending some money
and receiving a card, no?
2808
02:39:02,617 --> 02:39:03,618
Yeah.
2809
02:39:07,372 --> 02:39:08,915
[sighs]
2810
02:39:09,666 --> 02:39:10,834
Sorry.
2811
02:39:11,876 --> 02:39:13,211
[Robb] Yeah.
2812
02:39:15,255 --> 02:39:18,591
It's just it was all so very long ago,
Mr. Robb, wasn't it?
2813
02:39:18,675 --> 02:39:20,301
- Not really.
- Long enough to have forgotten.
2814
02:39:20,385 --> 02:39:23,513
- Did you return the card or rip it up?
- The card whose existence I've forgotten?
2815
02:39:23,596 --> 02:39:26,558
- Your Communist Party membership card.
- Haven't the slightest idea.
2816
02:39:29,394 --> 02:39:33,815
Can a distinction be made between
Soviet communism and communism?
2817
02:39:33,898 --> 02:39:37,026
In the days when I was a member,
I thought they were definitely two things.
2818
02:39:37,110 --> 02:39:40,155
I thought that the Communist Party
of the United States
2819
02:39:40,238 --> 02:39:42,699
was concerned with our domestic problems.
2820
02:39:42,782 --> 02:39:43,950
I now no longer believe this.
2821
02:39:44,033 --> 02:39:46,536
I believe the thing's linked together
and spread all over the world,
2822
02:39:46,619 --> 02:39:50,331
and I have believed this
since I left the Party, 16 years ago.
2823
02:39:50,415 --> 02:39:52,917
- But-
- 17 years ago. My mistake.
2824
02:39:53,501 --> 02:39:54,919
- But you sai-
- Sorry, 18.
2825
02:39:56,337 --> 02:39:57,630
18 years ago.
2826
02:39:58,882 --> 02:40:01,760
Are you familiar with the fact
your husband was making contributions
2827
02:40:01,843 --> 02:40:04,012
to the Spanish Civil War as late as 1942?
2828
02:40:04,095 --> 02:40:06,389
I knew that Robert
gave money from time to time.
2829
02:40:06,473 --> 02:40:08,933
Did you know this money
was going into Communist Party channels?
2830
02:40:09,017 --> 02:40:11,060
- Don't you mean "through"?
- Pardon?
2831
02:40:11,144 --> 02:40:13,646
I think you mean "through
Communist Party channels," don't you?
2832
02:40:13,730 --> 02:40:15,315
- Yes!
- Yes?
2833
02:40:15,398 --> 02:40:17,442
- Yes!
- Yes.
2834
02:40:17,525 --> 02:40:20,528
Then would it be fair to say
that this meant that by 1942,
2835
02:40:20,612 --> 02:40:24,491
your husband had not stopped having
anything to do with the Communist Party?
2836
02:40:24,574 --> 02:40:27,577
You don't have to answer that yes or no.
You can answer that any way you wish.
2837
02:40:27,660 --> 02:40:29,370
I know that, thank you.
2838
02:40:29,454 --> 02:40:31,206
It's your question.
2839
02:40:31,289 --> 02:40:32,749
It's not properly phrased.
2840
02:40:32,832 --> 02:40:34,501
- Do you understand what I'm getting at?
- I do.
2841
02:40:34,584 --> 02:40:37,545
- Then why don't you answer it that way?
- 'Cause I don't like your phrase.
2842
02:40:37,629 --> 02:40:39,464
"Having anything to do
with the Communist Party."
2843
02:40:39,547 --> 02:40:42,675
Because Robert never had anything to do
with the Communist Party as such.
2844
02:40:42,759 --> 02:40:45,094
I know he gave money to Spanish refugees.
2845
02:40:45,178 --> 02:40:48,348
I know he took an intellectual interest
in communist ideas—
2846
02:40:48,431 --> 02:40:50,183
Are there two types of communists?
2847
02:40:50,266 --> 02:40:52,977
Intellectual communists
and your plain, old, regular commie?
2848
02:40:53,061 --> 02:40:54,187
[laughs]
2849
02:40:54,270 --> 02:40:55,897
Well, I couldn't answer that one.
2850
02:40:55,980 --> 02:40:58,525
[Evans chuckles] I couldn't either.
2851
02:41:05,448 --> 02:41:06,699
Good evening.
2852
02:41:06,783 --> 02:41:08,117
Robert, you can't win this thing.
2853
02:41:08,201 --> 02:41:10,495
It's a kangaroo court
with a predetermined outcome.
2854
02:41:10,578 --> 02:41:14,499
- Why put yourself through more of it?
- I have my reasons.
2855
02:41:16,000 --> 02:41:17,168
All right.
2856
02:41:17,252 --> 02:41:18,461
Good night.
2857
02:41:18,545 --> 02:41:19,796
[car door closes]
2858
02:41:23,174 --> 02:41:24,509
He has a point.
2859
02:41:25,760 --> 02:41:27,595
I'm not sure you understand, Albert.
2860
02:41:27,679 --> 02:41:28,721
No?
2861
02:41:29,305 --> 02:41:31,933
I left my country never to return.
2862
02:41:32,892 --> 02:41:34,978
You served your country well.
2863
02:41:35,061 --> 02:41:37,939
If this is the reward
she offers you, then...
2864
02:41:38,898 --> 02:41:41,234
perhaps you should turn your back on her.
2865
02:41:42,277 --> 02:41:44,320
Damn it, I happen to love this country.
2866
02:41:45,113 --> 02:41:47,407
Then tell them to go to hell.
2867
02:41:47,490 --> 02:41:48,950
Interestingly enough,
2868
02:41:49,033 --> 02:41:51,452
this is no longer a confirmation hearing,
2869
02:41:51,536 --> 02:41:54,330
it's now a trial about a trial!
2870
02:41:56,124 --> 02:41:59,043
It's not good he's telling everyone
you initiated the hearings.
2871
02:41:59,127 --> 02:42:01,170
He can't prove a goddamn thing.
2872
02:42:01,254 --> 02:42:04,757
He certainly can't prove
that I gave the file to Borden.
2873
02:42:04,841 --> 02:42:07,886
We're not in court, sir.
There's no burden of proof.
2874
02:42:07,969 --> 02:42:09,679
Right. They're not convicting...
2875
02:42:10,597 --> 02:42:11,598
just denying.
2876
02:42:12,515 --> 02:42:15,435
But why would Hill come here
to tear me down? What's his angle?
2877
02:42:15,518 --> 02:42:18,313
Do people need a reason
to do the right thing?
2878
02:42:18,396 --> 02:42:19,314
As he sees it.
2879
02:42:19,397 --> 02:42:22,692
I told you, Oppenheimer poisoned
the scientists against me,
2880
02:42:22,775 --> 02:42:24,152
right from that first meeting.
2881
02:42:24,235 --> 02:42:27,238
I don't know what Oppenheimer
said to him that day,
2882
02:42:27,322 --> 02:42:30,199
but Einstein wouldn't even meet my eye.
2883
02:42:30,283 --> 02:42:31,618
[no audible dialogue]
2884
02:42:31,701 --> 02:42:34,537
[Strauss] Oppenheimer knows
how to manipulate his own.
2885
02:42:34,621 --> 02:42:38,374
And at Los Alamos,
he preyed on the naivete of scientists
2886
02:42:38,458 --> 02:42:40,627
who thought they'd get a say
in how we used their work.
2887
02:42:40,710 --> 02:42:42,921
Don't ever think
he was that naive himself.
2888
02:42:43,671 --> 02:42:45,048
[Robb] Doctor.
2889
02:42:45,131 --> 02:42:49,928
During your work on the hydrogen bomb,
were you deterred by any moral qualms?
2890
02:42:50,762 --> 02:42:51,971
Yes, of course.
2891
02:42:52,055 --> 02:42:53,890
But you still got on with your work,
didn't you?
2892
02:42:53,973 --> 02:42:58,144
Yes, because this was work of exploration.
It was not the preparation of a weapon.
2893
02:42:58,227 --> 02:43:00,313
You mean it was more of
an academic excursion?
2894
02:43:00,396 --> 02:43:03,399
No, it is not an academic thing
whether you can build a hydrogen bomb.
2895
02:43:03,483 --> 02:43:04,692
It's a matter of life and death.
2896
02:43:04,776 --> 02:43:05,985
By 1942,
2897
02:43:06,069 --> 02:43:08,321
you were actively pushing the development
of the hydrogen bomb, weren't you?
2898
02:43:08,404 --> 02:43:11,574
Pushing's not the right word.
Supporting it and working on it, yes.
2899
02:43:11,658 --> 02:43:14,035
So when did these moral qualms
become so strong
2900
02:43:14,118 --> 02:43:17,121
that you actively opposed the development
of the hydrogen bomb?
2901
02:43:17,205 --> 02:43:19,958
When it was suggested
that it be the policy of the United States
2902
02:43:20,041 --> 02:43:22,877
to make these things at all cost,
without regard to the balance
2903
02:43:22,961 --> 02:43:26,464
between these weapons
and atomic weapons as part of our arsenal.
2904
02:43:27,924 --> 02:43:30,009
What do moral qualms have to do with that?
2905
02:43:30,718 --> 02:43:33,554
- What do moral qualms have to do with it?
- Yes.
2906
02:43:33,638 --> 02:43:35,723
Oppenheimer wanted to own the atomic bomb.
2907
02:43:35,807 --> 02:43:37,767
He wanted to be the man
who moved the Earth.
2908
02:43:37,850 --> 02:43:42,313
He talks about putting
the nuclear genie back in the bottle.
2909
02:43:42,397 --> 02:43:45,900
Well, I'm here to tell you
that I know J. Robert Oppenheimer,
2910
02:43:45,984 --> 02:43:49,195
and if he could do it all over,
he'd do it all the same.
2911
02:43:49,278 --> 02:43:52,991
You know he's never once said
that he regrets Hiroshima?
2912
02:43:53,074 --> 02:43:55,827
He'd do it all over. Why?
2913
02:43:55,910 --> 02:43:59,706
Because it made him
the most important man who ever lived.
2914
02:43:59,789 --> 02:44:03,543
[stammering]
Well, we've freely used the atomic bomb—
2915
02:44:03,626 --> 02:44:05,670
[Robb] In fact, Doctor,
you assisted in selecting the target
2916
02:44:05,753 --> 02:44:07,922
to drop the atomic bomb on Japan,
didn't you?
2917
02:44:08,006 --> 02:44:09,882
- Yes.
- [Robb] Then you knew, did you not,
2918
02:44:09,966 --> 02:44:12,218
that by dropping that atomic bomb
on the target you selected,
2919
02:44:12,301 --> 02:44:15,221
that thousands of civilians would be
killed or injured, is that correct?
2920
02:44:15,304 --> 02:44:17,473
- Yes, not as many as turned out-
- [feet stamping]
2921
02:44:17,557 --> 02:44:20,059
Oh. Well, how many
were killed or injured?
2922
02:44:20,143 --> 02:44:21,227
70,000.
2923
02:44:21,310 --> 02:44:22,687
70,000 at both Hiroshima and—
2924
02:44:22,770 --> 02:44:24,522
110,000 at both.
2925
02:44:24,605 --> 02:44:26,190
[Robb] On the day of each bombing?
2926
02:44:27,734 --> 02:44:29,986
- Yes.
- And in the weeks and years that followed?
2927
02:44:30,069 --> 02:44:33,322
It has been put at somewhere
between 50,000 and 100,000.
2928
02:44:33,406 --> 02:44:35,491
- 220,000 dead, at least.
- [Oppenheimer] Yes.
2929
02:44:35,575 --> 02:44:37,118
Any moral scruples about that?
2930
02:44:39,037 --> 02:44:40,038
Terrible ones.
2931
02:44:40,121 --> 02:44:43,916
Yet you testified in here that the bombing
of Hiroshima was very successful.
2932
02:44:44,000 --> 02:44:47,045
- Technically successful.
- Oh! Technically, it was very successful.
2933
02:44:47,128 --> 02:44:49,505
And it is also alleged
to have helped end the war.
2934
02:44:49,589 --> 02:44:52,675
Would you have been supportive of the
dropping of a hydrogen bomb on Hiroshima?
2935
02:44:52,759 --> 02:44:55,136
- That would make no sense at all.
- Why?
2936
02:44:55,219 --> 02:44:57,055
[stammering] The target is too small.
2937
02:44:57,138 --> 02:44:59,640
Well, supposing there had been
a target in Japan big enough
2938
02:44:59,724 --> 02:45:01,100
for a thermonuclear weapon,
2939
02:45:01,184 --> 02:45:02,727
would you have been opposed
to the dropping of it?
2940
02:45:02,810 --> 02:45:04,520
This was not a problem
with which I was confronted—
2941
02:45:04,604 --> 02:45:06,064
I'm confronting you with it now, sir.
2942
02:45:06,147 --> 02:45:07,815
It was all part of his plan.
2943
02:45:07,899 --> 02:45:11,736
He wanted the glorious, insincere guilt
of the self-important
2944
02:45:11,819 --> 02:45:13,780
to wear like a fucking crown.
2945
02:45:13,863 --> 02:45:19,368
Say, "No, we cannot go down this road,"
even as he knew we'd have to.
2946
02:45:19,452 --> 02:45:21,120
Would you have been opposed
to the dropping
2947
02:45:21,204 --> 02:45:23,539
of a thermonuclear weapon on Japan
because of moral scruples?
2948
02:45:23,623 --> 02:45:24,999
- Yes, I believe I would, sir.
- [feet stamping]
2949
02:45:25,083 --> 02:45:26,084
Did you oppose the dropping
2950
02:45:26,167 --> 02:45:28,878
of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
because of moral scruples?
2951
02:45:28,961 --> 02:45:30,880
- We set forth our arg-
- No, you.
2952
02:45:30,963 --> 02:45:32,673
- I'm asking you. You!
- I set-
2953
02:45:32,757 --> 02:45:35,051
I set forth our arguments
against dropping it,
2954
02:45:35,134 --> 02:45:36,844
- but I did not endorse them.
- [stamping intensifies]
2955
02:45:36,928 --> 02:45:40,056
You mean after working night and day
for three years building the bomb,
2956
02:45:40,139 --> 02:45:42,100
you then argued against the use of it.
[laughs]
2957
02:45:42,183 --> 02:45:45,895
I was asked by the secretary of war
what the views of scientists were.
2958
02:45:45,978 --> 02:45:48,189
I gave him the views against
and the views for.
2959
02:45:48,272 --> 02:45:50,691
You supported the dropping
of the atom bomb on Japan.
2960
02:45:50,775 --> 02:45:53,277
- What do you mean, "support"?
- [Robb] You supported it.
2961
02:45:53,361 --> 02:45:55,822
- You helped pick the target, didn't you?
- I did my job.
2962
02:45:55,905 --> 02:45:58,282
I was not in a policy-making position
at Los Alamos.
2963
02:45:58,366 --> 02:46:00,326
I would have done anything
I was asked to do.
2964
02:46:00,409 --> 02:46:02,829
Then you would have built
the H-bomb too, wouldn't you?
2965
02:46:02,912 --> 02:46:04,956
- I couldn't.
- I didn't ask you that, Doctor.
2966
02:46:05,039 --> 02:46:06,374
And the GAC report,
2967
02:46:06,457 --> 02:46:09,043
which you co-authored
after the Soviet atomic test,
2968
02:46:09,127 --> 02:46:12,588
- said a Super bomb should never be built.
- [stamping intensifies]
2969
02:46:12,672 --> 02:46:14,048
What we meant— What I meant was—
2970
02:46:14,132 --> 02:46:15,967
- What you? Who? Who?
- What I meant-
2971
02:46:17,885 --> 02:46:20,763
And wouldn't the Russians
do anything to increase their strength?
2972
02:46:20,847 --> 02:46:23,391
- [stamping stops]
- if we did it, they would have to do it.
2973
02:46:23,474 --> 02:46:27,728
Our efforts would only fuel their efforts,
just as it had with the atomic bomb.
2974
02:46:27,812 --> 02:46:30,815
"Just as it had with the atomic bomb,"
exactly!
2975
02:46:31,524 --> 02:46:35,778
No moral scruples in 1945, plenty in 1949.
2976
02:46:40,074 --> 02:46:41,242
[Gray] Dr. Oppenheimer...
2977
02:46:43,452 --> 02:46:46,205
when did
your strong moral convictions develop
2978
02:46:46,289 --> 02:46:48,082
with respect to the hydrogen bomb?
2979
02:46:55,923 --> 02:46:57,758
When it became clear to me...
2980
02:46:59,218 --> 02:47:02,263
that we would tend
to use any weapon we had.
2981
02:47:05,308 --> 02:47:07,518
[Strauss]
J. Robert Oppenheimer the Martyr.
2982
02:47:07,602 --> 02:47:10,146
I gave him exactly what he wanted.
2983
02:47:10,730 --> 02:47:14,358
To be remembered for Trinity,
not Hiroshima.
2984
02:47:15,109 --> 02:47:17,236
Not Nagasaki.
2985
02:47:20,198 --> 02:47:21,949
He should be thanking me.
2986
02:47:22,992 --> 02:47:24,285
Well, he's not.
2987
02:47:27,705 --> 02:47:29,123
Do we still have enough votes,
2988
02:47:29,207 --> 02:47:31,125
or is the crowning moment of my career
2989
02:47:31,209 --> 02:47:34,295
about to become
the most public humiliation of my life?
2990
02:47:35,213 --> 02:47:38,841
Full Senate's about to vote.
You'll scrape through.
2991
02:47:38,925 --> 02:47:40,509
Great, then gather the fucking press.
2992
02:47:41,093 --> 02:47:42,470
[Gray] Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
2993
02:47:42,553 --> 02:47:45,556
This board,
having heard testimony from you
2994
02:47:45,640 --> 02:47:48,851
and many of your current
and former colleagues,
2995
02:47:48,935 --> 02:47:53,022
has come to the unanimous conclusion
that you are a loyal citizen.
2996
02:47:55,274 --> 02:48:00,488
However, in the light
of your continuing associations
2997
02:48:00,571 --> 02:48:04,033
and disregard for the security apparatus
of this country,
2998
02:48:04,116 --> 02:48:07,578
together with your somewhat
disturbing conduct
2999
02:48:07,662 --> 02:48:09,580
on the hydrogen bomb program,
3000
02:48:09,664 --> 02:48:11,332
and the regrettable lack of candor
3001
02:48:11,415 --> 02:48:14,293
in certain of your responses
to this board,
3002
02:48:14,377 --> 02:48:17,213
we have voted two-to-one
3003
02:48:17,296 --> 02:48:20,341
to deny the renewal
of your security clearance.
3004
02:48:20,424 --> 02:48:23,386
A full written opinion,
with a dissent from Mr. Evans,
3005
02:48:23,469 --> 02:48:26,639
will be issued to the AEC
in the coming days.
3006
02:48:26,722 --> 02:48:27,932
That is all.
3007
02:48:32,353 --> 02:48:33,854
Gordon.
3008
02:48:33,938 --> 02:48:35,481
[indistinct]
3009
02:48:38,651 --> 02:48:40,152
[Kitty on phone] Robert.
3010
02:48:40,987 --> 02:48:42,029
Robert.
3011
02:48:45,157 --> 02:48:46,450
Don't, uh...
3012
02:48:49,287 --> 02:48:50,788
Don't take in the sheets.
3013
02:48:52,415 --> 02:48:54,333
[reporters clamoring]
3014
02:48:56,210 --> 02:48:58,254
- [reporter] Sir.
- [Senate aide] Two minutes. Two minutes.
3015
02:48:58,337 --> 02:49:00,172
You'll get your shot.
3016
02:49:00,881 --> 02:49:02,466
[clamoring continues]
3017
02:49:03,884 --> 02:49:05,052
[Strauss] Is it official?
3018
02:49:07,346 --> 02:49:11,058
[Senate aide] Well, there were a couple
of unexpected holdouts.
3019
02:49:16,314 --> 02:49:18,357
I'm denied. Yeah?
3020
02:49:19,150 --> 02:49:20,818
- I'm afraid so, sir.
- All right.
3021
02:49:28,492 --> 02:49:29,660
Who were the holdouts?
3022
02:49:29,744 --> 02:49:32,538
Um... There were three,
3023
02:49:32,621 --> 02:49:35,041
led by the junior senator
from Massachusetts.
3024
02:49:35,124 --> 02:49:37,251
Young guy trying to make
a name for himself,
3025
02:49:37,335 --> 02:49:39,587
didn't like what you did to Oppenheimer.
3026
02:49:39,670 --> 02:49:40,671
What's his name?
3027
02:49:41,589 --> 02:49:44,675
Uh, Kennedy. John F. Kennedy.
3028
02:49:48,512 --> 02:49:49,680
Kitty?
3029
02:49:55,936 --> 02:49:59,315
Did you think that if you let them
tar and feather you,
3030
02:49:59,398 --> 02:50:01,525
that the world would forgive you?
3031
02:50:05,404 --> 02:50:06,906
It won't.
3032
02:50:09,241 --> 02:50:10,451
We'll see.
3033
02:50:20,503 --> 02:50:21,962
Goddamn it.
3034
02:50:23,839 --> 02:50:24,882
[muttering]
3035
02:50:24,965 --> 02:50:26,884
You told me I'd be okay.
3036
02:50:26,967 --> 02:50:29,261
Yeah, well,
I didn't have all the facts, did I?
3037
02:50:29,345 --> 02:50:30,388
Here's a fact.
3038
02:50:30,471 --> 02:50:32,640
President Eisenhower
pinned the Medal of Freedom
3039
02:50:32,723 --> 02:50:34,141
on my chest last year,
3040
02:50:34,225 --> 02:50:36,685
'cause I've always done
what's right for this country.
3041
02:50:36,769 --> 02:50:39,063
They don't want me in the Cabinet room?
3042
02:50:39,146 --> 02:50:41,607
Oh, that's— That's fine.
3043
02:50:41,690 --> 02:50:43,984
Maybe they should just invite
Oppenheimer instead.
3044
02:50:44,068 --> 02:50:45,986
Maybe they will.
3045
02:50:46,070 --> 02:50:49,990
I told you, he turned the scientists
against me one by one,
3046
02:50:50,074 --> 02:50:51,242
starting with Einstein.
3047
02:50:51,325 --> 02:50:53,702
I told you about Einstein.
I saw him by the pond.
3048
02:50:53,786 --> 02:50:55,121
You did, but you know, sir,
3049
02:50:55,204 --> 02:50:59,083
since nobody really knows
what they said to each other that day,
3050
02:50:59,166 --> 02:51:02,711
is it possible
they didn't talk about you at all?
3051
02:51:02,795 --> 02:51:05,047
Is it possible they spoke about something...
3052
02:51:06,215 --> 02:51:07,633
more important?
3053
02:51:07,716 --> 02:51:09,593
- [reporter] Mr. Strauss!
- [all clamoring]
3054
02:51:09,677 --> 02:51:11,220
[camera shutters clicking]
3055
02:51:18,477 --> 02:51:20,187
Oh! [chuckles]
3056
02:51:22,565 --> 02:51:23,732
Thank you. [chuckles]
3057
02:51:23,816 --> 02:51:25,192
Albert.
3058
02:51:26,444 --> 02:51:28,404
- Ah...
- [clears throat]
3059
02:51:28,487 --> 02:51:30,030
The man of the moment.
3060
02:51:34,118 --> 02:51:37,371
You once held a reception for me.
3061
02:51:37,455 --> 02:51:40,875
- In Berkeley. You gave me an award, mmm?
- Yes.
3062
02:51:41,750 --> 02:51:45,171
You all thought
that I had lost the ability to understand
3063
02:51:45,254 --> 02:51:47,089
what I'd started.
3064
02:51:47,173 --> 02:51:50,718
So, the award really wasn't for me.
3065
02:51:50,801 --> 02:51:53,137
It was for all of you, hmm?
3066
02:51:54,889 --> 02:51:56,265
Now it's your turn
3067
02:51:57,099 --> 02:52:01,520
to deal with the consequences
of your achievement.
3068
02:52:02,688 --> 02:52:04,231
And one day,
3069
02:52:04,315 --> 02:52:06,317
when they've punished you enough...
3070
02:52:08,277 --> 02:52:11,822
they'll serve you salmon and potato salad.
3071
02:52:16,285 --> 02:52:17,453
Make speeches...
3072
02:52:17,536 --> 02:52:19,205
[no audible dialogue]
3073
02:52:19,288 --> 02:52:20,748
... give you a medal.
3074
02:52:22,750 --> 02:52:24,168
Hello, Frank.
3075
02:52:24,251 --> 02:52:25,586
You're happy, I'm happy.
3076
02:52:32,843 --> 02:52:35,513
[Einstein] Pat you on the back,
tell you all is forgiven.
3077
02:52:37,389 --> 02:52:38,390
Just remember...
3078
02:52:40,309 --> 02:52:42,102
it won't be for you.
3079
02:52:47,316 --> 02:52:48,651
It'll be for them.
3080
02:53:02,164 --> 02:53:03,457
Albert.
3081
02:53:05,209 --> 02:53:08,587
When I came to you
with those calculations,
3082
02:53:08,671 --> 02:53:12,383
we thought we might start
a chain reaction that would
3083
02:53:12,466 --> 02:53:14,301
destroy the entire world?
3084
02:53:15,219 --> 02:53:18,764
Mmm. I remember it well. What of it?
3085
02:53:22,726 --> 02:53:24,270
I believe we did.
3086
02:53:27,439 --> 02:53:28,816
[feet stamping]
3087
02:53:36,949 --> 02:53:38,867
[stamping continues]