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The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer: And the Birth of the Modern Arms Race (Johns Hopkins Nuclear History and Contemporary Affairs) Kindle Edition

by Priscilla J. McMillan (Author), Martin J. Sherwin (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 77 ratings
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This groundbreaking Cold War history reveals the government conspiracy to bring down America’s most famous scientist.

On April 12, 1954, the nation was astonished to learn that J. Robert Oppenheimer was facing charges of violating national security. Could the man who led the effort to build the atom bomb really be a traitor? In this riveting book, Priscilla J. McMillan draws on newly declassified U.S. government documents and materials from Russia, as well as in-depth interviews, to expose the conspiracy that destroyed the director of the Manhattan Project.

This meticulous narrative recreates the fraught years from 1949 to 1955 when Oppenheimer and a group of liberal scientists tried to head off the cabal of air force officials, anti-Communist politicians, and rival scientists, who were trying to seize control of U.S. policy and build ever more deadly nuclear weapons. Retelling the story of Oppenheimer’s trial, which took place in utmost secrecy, she describes how the government made up its own rules and violated many protections of the rule of law.

McMilliam also argues that the effort to discredit Oppenheimer, occurring at the height of the McCarthy era and sanctioned by a misinformed President Eisenhower, was a watershed in the Cold War, poisoning American politics for decades and creating dangers that haunt us today.
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  1. Part of series
    Johns Hopkins Nuclear History and Contemporary Affairs
  2. Print length
    506 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Johns Hopkins University Press
  6. Publication date
    March 18, 2018
  7. File size
    26143 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harvard historian McMillan (Marina and Lee) focuses on the nine-year span in the late 1940s and early '50s when Oppenheimer, who had spearheaded the development of the atom bomb, was transformed from a hero into an alleged security risk, accused of spying for the Soviets. In light of the outstanding new biography American Prometheus and other recent scholarship on Oppenheimer, this account doesn't transform our perception of the man or the case, but it does fill in background on the anti-Communist agitators inside and outside the federal government, such as Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss, who conspired to "destroy Oppenheimer and make [Edward] Teller the leader of the scientific community" because of the latter's enthusiasm for (and Oppenheimer's doubts about) developing the hydrogen bomb. McMillan makes Teller one of the chief villains, dwelling on his contentious relations with other atomic researchers and underlining her contempt for his role in creating a massive, "superfluous" nuclear arsenal. The idealistic claim that Oppenheimer could have slowed or prevented the arms race through sheer force of personality is less convincing. Still, this is a damning record of the "travesty of justice" perpetrated through the smear campaign against Oppenheimer. (July 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The revoking of Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, which caused his dismissal from the National Security Council and effectively ended his influence in the shaping of U.S. nuclear policy, constituted a tragic last act in the career of the father of the atomic bomb. Harvard professor McMillan offers a meticulously detailed account of the trial and the McCarthy-era shenanigans that surrounded it. Much of this story has been told before, most recently in Bird and Sherwin's definitive biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus (2005), but McMillan digs deeper, providing more evidence of the double--dealing by Oppenheimer's nemesis, security council member and McCarthy ally Lewis Strauss, and by rival physicist Edward Teller. She also argues persuasively that, had Oppenheimer remained on the council, he might have prevented the full-scale escalation of the arms race. Unfortunately, the security hearing makes for much less compelling reading than the human story of Oppenheimer himself, told so effectively in American Prometheus. Still, this account provides rich supplementary reading for those with an intense interest in the beginnings of the atomic age. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B079Y5D9B3
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (March 18, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 18, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 26143 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 506 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 77 ratings

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Priscilla Johnson McMillan

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
77 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Andrew M. Greller
5.0 out of 5 stars Most prominent victim of the Cold War
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2009
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This well-reasoned, well-researched book pinpoints the exact moment when the Cold War was effected as the dominant foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Politically victorious, but scientifically illiterate, triumphalist politicians and economic leaders are shown to have succumbed to paranoid fears and prospects for endless war profits, and in the process debased the man who had insured the ultimate victory of America over perhaps the darkest military forces ever faced by civilized humans. It is all you need to read to understand American politics in the second half of the twentieth century.
16 people found this helpful
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Booklover
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2014
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As promised.
One person found this helpful
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lannys9
4.0 out of 5 stars A Sad Commentary.
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2015
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A sad commentary on the neofacists within our government, who would go to any length to destroy a brilliant scientist, just because, after helping to create the atom bomb used to end World War II, did not want to help in the proliferation of that science into creation of the nuclear bomb which has exacerbated the arms race, to the point wherein the world lives in constant fear of its own ultimate destruction.
17 people found this helpful
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o dubhthaigh
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Alarming Warning for Today!
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2005
I knew Oppenheimer as a customer of my father, and I was always impressed by how sincere and genuine a human being he was. I'm certain he was a task master and devoted to science, but there was a sense of the consequences of his action, a fundamental humanity, if you will, that certainly was absent from the soul of Edward Teller. And this is a book that details how misinformation and innuendo leaked to the appropariate media would ruin someone who was in the way of a more nefarious and evil agenda. Teller and his colleagues were the Karl Rove and Dick Cheney of their times. Essentially this is a story of jealousy, of power, of corruption in the soul.

In addition to his seminal work with the Manhattan Project, Oppenehimer was also a man concerned with the impact on the world thereafter. He admonished Truman not to use what they had developed on no more sophisticated principle than "just because you can, doesn't mean you should," a notion wholely lacking in the Bush Administration's Putsch below the 49th parallel. The world community needs to know the perils portrayed in this book as it will provide them with the analyses they need to see beneath the Crusade of Hate and Bigotry at work in a man who doesn't think but believes. Such was the case with Edward Teller.

Teller was an Eastern European fascist (think Rick Santorum with a physics degeree - I know, I know, that's mutually exclusive) who came to the US to fulfill his meglomaniacal and socio-pathological urges. His was a peculair kind of savagery as his lust for the destructive power of the, at that point, theorectical H bomb fueled his mysoginy, his anti-semitism and his misguided research (Teller's own strategies for the Bomb didn't even work on paper - but he did have the Administration's ear). The problem for Teller was Oppenheimer - he was smarter, more thorough, practical, compassionate and aware that science, were it not to give birth to some other nazism in the soul, must have a conscience. Would that the self-named Christians of today would regard faith as bearing that imperative as well. In any case, Teller could not abide Oppenheimer and the prospect that O would ultimately compel the world to be responsible. Teller wanted the power, he wanted deployment, he wanted to strike first. To accomplish this, a bit like saying that you have earned the political capital and you intend to spend it, Teller dug into O's background. Oppenheimer had been sympathetic to the communist theory of a just world order, but like many another intellect, renounced it when the praxis didn't match up. In a US filled with fear of attack from an unknown invader - sound familiar folks? - he and his cadre managed to plant just enough smut into the minds of those who supervise security of the US scientists to smear Oppenheimer. His character maligned, he retreated to Princeton.

The book documents this struggle with a gripping sense of tragedy and should inflame anyone with a conscience. It should also be a wake up call, both for the denizens of Amerika and for the rest of us who have to deal with the policies of fear, intimidation, faith and greed. Well, at least until China calls in its debts.

We'll see how long it remains available to americans. This is a dangerous book that puts the lie right out there where you can not deny it, no matter how many ethical people you seek to ruin.
27 people found this helpful
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Kylo Ginsberg
3.0 out of 5 stars Middling, definitely not the first book you should read on Oppenheimer
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2006
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This is the third book in a row I've read on Oppenheimer (and related subjects), and this one is middling. The subject of this book is "the people and events that led to the destruction of J Robert Oppenheimer," although one of the book's flaws is that it isn't as focussed as that statement from the introduction might have it. For one thing, it's simply a given in the book that he was "destroyed" or "ruined" and yet there's scarcely a page or two about Oppenheimer the man or about Oppenheimer the man's reactions to his security clearance hearing. It's a pity too, because he's such a fascinating personality and compelling character that it would be interesting to learn more about him, personally or professionally. (I haven't read it yet, but the Kai Bird biography might be the trick here.)

What the book is more closely about is precisely the 1954 security clearance hearing, although McMillan spends about the first half of the book winding up to the subject in roundabout ways. She clearly has done her homework and has stories to tell, but she gets caught in the middle often: for example, when she goes into some depth on Teller and his contributions to the H-bomb, she appears to be digressing to slap Teller around if her real focus is the Oppenheimer security hearing, but on the other hand she doesn't go into enough depth if her purpose is to analyze the post-war community of (thermo-)nuclear bomb research.

Also, the book needed an editor to pick up the places where she repeats vignettes or quotes that she related 50 pages earlier; this unfortunately makes the book come off slapdash at times, although I think it was actually meticulously researched (no doubt just squeezed out under deadline). And, stylistically, the book's general methodical, dry tone (suitable to the material) is occasionally punctuated by McMillan's outrage with melodramatic chapter endings like: "the vast arsenal of superfluous nuclear weaponry that curses us today." My heart is with her, but she compromises the book with unbalanced rhetoric like this every 20 pages or so. One almost feels that she just couldn't stand being sober any more and has to yell out.

So the book has a number of failings, yes, but it's still largely readable and it makes an excellent supplement to more consequential books. I would certainly start with the like of Gregg Herken's The Brotherhood of the Bomb before reading this one. But coming to this book after Herken's, it does a nice job of filling in some of the gaps by virtue of a narrower focus and a number of authorial interviews providing little insights here and there. Not a must read by a long stretch, but not a waste of time for sufficiently interested readers.
43 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Patangi Rangachari
5.0 out of 5 stars RICHLY DETAILED
Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2024
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Packed with valuable insights into numerous characters--the interactions between Teller and Ulam, in particular , was fascinating. Sadly Teller comes across in the worst possible light--Freeman Dyson's comments about him in Disturbing the Universe would be a needed corrective. An exciting book--zips along.
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DiveDoc
5.0 out of 5 stars Teller’s triumph was a tradegy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2020
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A highly entertaining demolition of Edward Teller, a golden mind poisoned by ego, a genius wrecked by the habits of a flighty dilettante, a celebrated refugee overwhelmed by paranoia, a creative plagiarist and a friend who denied the work of brilliant colleagues and belittled them to ill-informed and shallow-thinking politicians. Poor Robert Oppenheimer is in the supporting cast for much of the narrative.
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