Further On Oppenheimer the Man

Abstract In chapter 9 I referred to Bethe and Weisskopf for an account of Oppenheimer’s role as leader of the Los Alamos enterprise. As repeatedly stated, since I had not been there myself, I do not feel competent to form a personal judgment of that role. I am further constrained because reminiscences by others on science at Los Alamos are of course restricted by rules on classified information as they existed at the time those recollections were written down. That last restriction does not, however, apply to the numerous reminiscences of Oppenheimer’s personality, not only by physicists but also by others. Moreover, I am in a position to confront those readily with my own memories of the years immediately after the war. What follows next is therefore an excerpt of others’ observations of Oppenheimer the man in Los Alamos.