We can end this war. MORRISON: But how do we justify using this weapon on human beings? - (murmurs of assent) - (scattered applause)
Oppenheimer
1.7s
ROBERT: Well done.
Oppenheimer
1.6s
And Chevalier went into exile.
Oppenheimer
2.7s
(somber music continues)
Oppenheimer
1.6s
KISTIAKOWSKY: Yeah.
Oppenheimer
11.9s
It's just it was all so very long ago, - Mr. Robb, wasn't it? - Not really. Long enough to have forgotten. Did you return the card or rip it up? The card whose existence I've forgotten? Your Communist Party membership card. Haven't the slightest idea.
Oppenheimer
1m57s
Terrible ones. But yet you testified in here that the bombing of Hiroshima was very successful. - Technically successful. - ROBB: Oh! Technically, it was very successful. And it is also alleged to have helped end the war. Would you have been in support of the dropping of a hydrogen bomb on Hiroshima? That would make no sense at all. - Why? - The-the target is too small. Well, supposing there had been a target in Japan big enough for a thermonuclear weapon, would you have been opposed to the dropping of it? This was not a problem with which I was confronted... Well, I'm confronting you with it now, sir. It was all part of his plan. He wanted the glorious, insincere guilt of the self-important to wear like a fuckin' crown. Say, "No, we cannot go down this road," even as he knew we'd have to. Would you have been opposed to the dropping of a thermonuclear weapon on Japan - because of moral scruples? - Yes, I believe I would, sir. Well, did you oppose the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima because of moral scruples? - We set forth our arguments... - (tense music building) No, you, you, you. I'm asking you. - I set... I set forth... - ROBB: Not we. You, you, you! Our arguments against dropping it, but I did not endorse them. You mean after working night and day for three years building the bomb, you then argued against the use of it? (laughs) I was asked by the Secretary of War what the views of scientists were. I gave him the views against and the views for. You supported the dropping of the atom bomb on Japan. - What do you mean "support"? - ROBB: Didn't you? - You supported it! - What do you mean "support"? Well, you helped pick the target, didn't you? - (muffled rumbling) - I did my job. I was not in a policy-making position at Los Alamos. I would have done anything I was asked to do. Well, then you would have built the H-bomb too, - wouldn't you? - I couldn't. I didn't ask you that, Doctor! And the GAC report which you co-authored after the Soviet atomic test said a Super bomb should never be built! What we meant, what I meant was... - ROBB: What you, who? Who? - What I meant... (tense music continues) And wouldn't the Russians do anything - to increase their strength? - (music stops) (raises voice): If we did it, they would have to do it. Our efforts would only fuel their efforts, just as it had with the atomic bomb. "Just as it had with the atomic bomb," exactly! No moral scruples in 1945, plenty in 1949.
Oppenheimer
1m9s
What do moral qualms have to do with that? Wha... What do moral qualms - have to do with it? - ROBB: Yes. Oppenheimer wanted to own the atomic bomb. He wanted to be the man who moved the Earth. He talks about putting the nuclear genie back in the bottle. Well, I'm here to tell you that I know J. Robert Oppenheimer, and if he could do it all over, he'd do it all the same. You know he's never once said that he regrets Hiroshima? He'd do it all over. Why? Because it made him the most important man who ever lived. (voice quivering): Well, we've... we've freely used the atomic bomb... ROBB: In fact, Doctor, you assisted in selecting the target to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, - didn't you? - Yes. ROBB: Well, then you knew, did you not, that by dropping that atomic bomb on the target you selected, that thousands of civilians would be killed or injured, is that correct? Yes, not as many as turned out... Oh. Well, how many were killed or injured? - 70,000. - ROBB: 70,000 at both Hiroshima and... 110,000 at both. ROBB: On the day of each bombing? (tense music playing) Yes. And in the weeks and years that followed? It has been put at somewhere between 50 and 100,000. - 220,000 dead at least? - ROBERT: Yes. Any moral scruples about that?
Oppenheimer
26.9s
Albert. When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world. Mm, I remember it well. What of it? I believe we did. (suspenseful music continues) (rhythmic stomping)
Oppenheimer
2.2s
(up-tempo music continues)
Oppenheimer
2.2s
It's an atomic test.
Oppenheimer
31s
- Is that... - ROBERT: Mrs. Serber, yes. I've offered jobs to all the wives. Admin, librarians, computation. We cut down on staff, keep families together. - Are these women qualified? - ROBERT: Don't be absurd. These are some of the brightest minds in our community. And they're already security cleared. I've informed General Groves you've been holding cross-divisional open discussions - on a nightly basis. - Shut them down. Compartmentalization is the key to maintaining security... CONDON: It's only the top men. Who presumably communicate with subordinates. These men aren't stupid. - They can be discreet. - I don't like it. You don't like anything enough for that to be a fair test.
Oppenheimer
24.4s
SERBER: We can now consider the actual mechanics of detonation. ROBERT: Any ideas? SERBER: I call this "shooting." We fire a chunk of fissionable material into a larger sphere with enough force to achieve criticality. What do we think? Anyone? TOLMAN: I've been thinking about implosion. Explosives around the sphere blast inwards, - crushing the material. - (blasting) I'd like to investigate that idea. I'll talk to Ordnance, get you blowing things up.
Oppenheimer
15.3s
The Russians have a bomb. We're supposed to be years ahead of them, but some... What were you guys doing at Los Alamos? Wasn't security tight? Of course it was. You weren't there. - It was... - NICHOLS: Forgive me, Doctor... but I was there.
Oppenheimer
9s
There's no kitchen. Really? We'll fix that. (gripping music continues)
Oppenheimer
4.2s
And the Hanford plant made this much plutonium.
Oppenheimer
2.6s
(mutters indistinctly)
Oppenheimer
3.1s
Condon, put Mrs. Hornig here on the plutonium team.