During the film that bears his name was successful at the box officeAllow me to point out the impact of his influence on American soil.
A complex man, an equally complex challenge and legacy
In an interview with the Harvard Gazette, Professor Steven Shapin stresses that Oppenheimer’s decision to lead the Manhattan Project came as a surprise. One of his colleagues reportedly even said he didn’t have the skills to run a burger stand.
However, General Leslie Groves put him in charge of the largest collaborative project between scientists of the time. The names of Groves and Oppenheimer will forever be associated with nuclear weapons history.
The eccentric, enigmatic and charismatic Oppenheimer knew how to accept the challenge and thus confirmed the statement of Gustave Le Bon: “It is not men who make events, but events which, on the contrary, make men.”
While nuclear weapons have had a profound impact on the way we think about national security, foreign policy, and warfare, Oppenheimer’s legacy is also visible at the Los Alamos site in New Mexico.
He can rightly be considered a hero there who helped found the city and Los Alamos National Lab. New Mexico, a particularly poor state, will also benefit from the arrival of military industries and researchers from around the world.
Even today, the state and Oppenheimer-related institutions still enjoy tourist side effects. The Oppenheimer Festival has been taking place since last Thursday.
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Negative and especially radioactive fallout
While the positive ramifications of the Oppenheimer departure and the Manhattan Project are well known, there is still a very grim record that we cannot ignore.
Near the Trinidad test site, site of the first nuclear test, Spanish-speaking and Apache Mescaleros suffered the ill effects of nuclear weapons development. A large number of very rare types of cancer have been identified.
The website Axios pointed out last week that the US government has accelerated the production of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project and at the same time has built more than 500 uranium mines in Navaho territory, which is also overrepresented in cancer statistics.
Unlike radiation victims in Nevada, who were able to benefit from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, those in New Mexico who are predominantly ethnic minorities received no help. Oppenheimer or the US government never apologized.
You will surely understand that not everyone is excited about the film’s release or the commemorations surrounding the famous researcher’s work. That’s exactly what one of the victims, Tina Cordova, says: “I have nothing against him. But I really despise the fact that they brought the Manhattan Project to New Mexico because it changed our state forever.”
