A LASTING IMPACT
"He did more than any other man to make American physics great...He was a leader...But he was not domineering, he never dictated what should be done. He brought out the best of us, like a good host with his guests..."
— Hans Bethe, Eulogy for J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1967
— Hans Bethe, Eulogy for J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1967
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a controversial figure who was both extolled and denounced for his development of the atomic bomb. He died both a hero and a villain, as the man who had ended the bloodshed of a global war but simultaneously ushered in greater threats for nuclear violence. His inner turmoil reflects society's complicated relationship with scientific advancements.
Oppenheimer's legacy both transcends generations and countries. To this day, nuclear weapons are an object of discussion, threat, and concern, and nuclear politics play a large role in politics at home and abroad. With time, what once marked Oppenheimer's success ironically became his downfall. The unintended consequences of his terribly exceptional leadership at Los Alamos continue to reverberate in the modern world, a world in which man can destroy entire cities, hideously kill thousands of people in a split second, and terrorize an entire country -- all with the push of a button and the detonation of a single weapon.
Oppenheimer's legacy both transcends generations and countries. To this day, nuclear weapons are an object of discussion, threat, and concern, and nuclear politics play a large role in politics at home and abroad. With time, what once marked Oppenheimer's success ironically became his downfall. The unintended consequences of his terribly exceptional leadership at Los Alamos continue to reverberate in the modern world, a world in which man can destroy entire cities, hideously kill thousands of people in a split second, and terrorize an entire country -- all with the push of a button and the detonation of a single weapon.
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"[We] have made a thing, a most terrible weapon, that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world. We have made a thing that, by all standards of the world we grew up in, is an evil thing. And by doing so, by our participation in making it possible to make these things, we have raised again the question of whether science is good for man, of whether it is good to learn about the world, to try to understand it, to try to control it, to help give to the world of men increased insight, increased power."
— J. Robert Oppenheimer, Speech to the American Philosophical Society, 1946
— J. Robert Oppenheimer, Speech to the American Philosophical Society, 1946