(7 of 10)
Confused & Complicated. The sharpest blows any scientist struck at Oppenheimer came from Dr. Edward Teller, the physicist who developed the H-bomb. In 1942, he said, Oppenheimer was all for thermonuclear experimentation. But after Germany and Japan were defeated, he used his influence strongly against it. As a result, there was little progress until the Oppenheimer advisory committee's recommendation was overruled by President Truman in 1950.
Robb: Doctor, let me ask you for your opinion as an expert on this question.
Suppose you had gone to work on the thermonuclear in 1945 or 1946—really gone to work on it. Can you give us any opinion as to when in your view you might have achieved that weapon, and would you explain your opinion? Teller: It is my belief that if at the end of the war some people like Dr. Oppenheimer would have lent moral support —not even their own work, just moral support—to work on the thermonuclear gadget, I think we could have kept at least as many people in Los Alamos as we then recruited in 1949 under very difficult conditions. I therefore believe that, if we had gone to work in 1945, we could have achieved the thermonuclear bomb just about four years earlier.
On the question of Oppenheimer's loyalty and security, Dr. Teller had well-defined views.
Teller: I do not want to suggest any [disloyalty]. I know Dr. Oppenheimer as an intellectually most alert and a very complicated person, and I think it would be presumptuous and wrong on my part if I would try in any way to analyze his motives. But I have always assumed, and I now assume, that he is loyal to the United States. I believe this, and I shall believe it until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite.
Q: Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk? A: In a great number of cases I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer act—I understood that Dr. Oppenheimer acted—in a way which for me was exceedingly hard to understand. I thoroughly disagreed with him in numerous issues, and his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated. To this extent I feel that I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more. In this very limited sense I would like to express a feeling that I would feel personally more secure if public matters would rest in other hands.
In addition to the doubts created by Oppenheimer's stand on the hydrogen bomb, the board heard that there was serious concern about his attitude toward detection of atomic explosions in Russia.