As one of the most anticipated movies of the year, oppenheimer has already taken theaters by storm since its release on Friday, July 21, 2023. Based on the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan’s film was shot and distributed in 70mm IMAX format in 30 IMAX theaters and on 13,000 screens worldwide.
A major historical claim in the history of the Manhattan Project is that President Harry S. Truman referred to Oppenheimer as a crybaby, which was also depicted in the Christopher Nolan film. Since most of the movies narrate real events, the question of the authenticity of the events remains.
Was Truman’s alleged yelling at Oppenheimer an unfounded rumor or the truth?
Nolan’s oppenheimer features a scene in which Cillian Murphy enters the Oval Office to speak with the President, Harry S. Truman, played by Gary Oldman. Truman in the movie is initially excited to meet the man behind the atomic bomb, but soon becomes angry and disappointed when he hears the infamous words:
“Mr. President, I feel like I have blood on my hands.”
As Truman offers his handkerchief, the two figures separate and the President is heard calling him a crybaby. However, to distinguish between fact and fiction, one must look to history due to the lack of verifiable evidence.
Whereas the film lumps different scenarios into one for the sake of storytelling, Kai Bird’s American Prometheus tells a different story. After the war ended, Oppenheimer or “Oppie” requested an audience with the President on the recommendation of an acquaintance; his intention was to discuss the possibility of a future nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union. Truman was delighted to receive him because he was expecting a celebratory meeting to end the war with the bombing of Japan.
Truman and Oppie met in the Oval Office on October 25, 1945, and seemed to have opposing views on achieving international control of atomic weapons. The first asked the scientist when the Soviet Union would have its own nuclear weapons. Unable to guess the date, Truman replied:
“Never.”
This was the pivotal moment when Oppie mentions the infamous phrase, and the story has only been presented in different guises ever since. An account in the book mentions that Truman told the Atomic Energy Commission and Tennessee Valley Authority head David Lilienthal, to which he responded by saying:
“I told him there was blood on my hands, to let me worry about it.”
Another version mentions that the president symbolically took out a handkerchief for Oppie to wipe the blood from his hands, as shown in the film. In one account he added:
“Well, here, do you want to clean your hands?”
The President’s Second Report includes:
“It doesn’t matter, it’ll all come out in the wash.”
The book recalls Truman standing up to mark the end of the meeting. Truman could be heard saying through the walls:
“Blood on his hands, damn it, he doesn’t have half as much blood on his hands as I do. Just don’t go around scolding yourself about it.”
He reportedly told then-Deputy Secretary Dean Acheson the following:
“I don’t want to see that bitch in this office ever again.”
Furthermore, he wrote in a letter to Acheson in May 1946 that he called Oppenheimer a whiny dietary scientist.
As a theoretical scientist and director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, Oppenheimer made significant contributions to, and was considered more of a field leader in, the Manhattan Project in New Mexico. However, Oppenheimer expressed deep regret and moral concern about the use of nuclear weapons for mass murder, and that too without the knowledge of the Soviet Union.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn