Background: Oppenheimer and Teller: The mismatched 'fathers of the bomb'

By Chris Melzer Jul 16, 2005, 8:29 GMT

Washington - Two physicists who worked together on the Manhattan Project had similar personal and educational backgrounds rooted in Europe, but in other ways could not have been more different, particularly in the paths they took after the first nuclear explosion 60 years ago this week.

Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atom bomb, and Edward Teller, who developed the hydrogen bomb after his work on the Manhattan Project, played pivotal roles in developing the atomic bomb.

The contemplative and quiet Oppenheimer, sometimes given to self- doubt, and the self-confident, straightforward Teller respected each other, but in the end, their conflict dominated.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York. His Jewish father had emigrated from Germany, and the younger Oppenheimer returned there to complete his doctorate after graduating from Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Among Oppenheimer's scholarly attributes was his ability to speak half a dozen languages, including Dutch, which he picked up in six weeks to read a book that interested him. Upon returning to the United States, he was considered an excellent professor and theorist in physics.

Teller, almost four years younger, also studied in Germany. As a Jew, he was denied university admission in Hungary, his native country. He emigrated to the United States in 1935 and in the early 1940s was recruited to be part of the exclusive and secret team of researchers who comprised the Manhattan Project.

His boss was Robert Oppenheimer.

Aside from taking on the scientific challenge of developing the world's first atomic bomb, the two had personal reasons to join the project - the personal injustices they experienced in Europe as Jews, and the relatives they left behind.

Both wanted to forestall the Axis dictators, especially Hitler, from developing the bomb. Oppenheimer and Teller knew well the work of two of the top German physicists linked to Hitler's efforts: Teller did his doctorate with Werner Heisenberg, while Oppenheimer had studied with Max Born.

Morally, however, the two started diverging while working on the bomb project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. While doubt plagued Oppenheimer, Teller had few such worries about creating such an instrument of destruction.

Teller believed democracies had to be armed to remain strong against fascist as well as communist dictators.

After the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later, forcing the Japanese to surrender, Oppenheimer spoke out against an arms race. He became chairman of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) to the new Atomic Energy Commission and hoped to use his influence and newfound celebrity to counter the influence of Cold War zealots.

Teller, meanwhile, saw his work as a testament of his loyalty to the United States, and openly expressed doubt over Oppenheimer's reliability on arms questions. He pushed instead for a crash programme to develop the more powerful hydrogen bomb.

Oppenheimer won a small victory when his GAC unanimously opposed development of the hydrogen bomb and called it a potential weapon of "genocide". The AEC commissioners accepted the GAC recommendations in a 3-2 vote, reinforcing Oppenheimer's moral stance.

However, President Harry Truman sided with the hard-liners and opted to push for the hydrogen bomb. In 1954, 13 years before his death, the government revoked Oppenheimer's security clearance. In the same year Teller led the project that exploded the United States' first hydrogen bomb.

Teller, who wrote short stories in both German and Hungarian in his retirement, died two years ago at the age of 95. Before his death he said his dispute with Oppenheimer was unavoidable, but also the most painful thing he'd experienced in his life.

Oppenheimer died in 1967.