15 April, 2024 Siobhan Marie Day 0 Comments 7 categories
J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke about the atomic bomb in a 1965 interview with CBS News and Mike Wallace. Photo Credit: CBS News Archive

CBS NEWS ARCHIVES: Robert Oppenheimer discusses the atomic bomb in 1965…

In 1965, J. Robert Oppenheimer sat down with CBS News reporter Mike Wallace, in part of that interview, provided by CBS News archives, Wallace asks Oppenheimer if he thinks the use of the bomb was necessary, to which Oppenheimer gives him an honest answer. Oppenheimer is considered the “Father of the Atomic Bomb” and lead the top secret Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos Laboratory to develope an atomic bomb and end World War II.

J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke about the atomic bomb in a 1965 interview with CBS News and Mike Wallace. Photo Credit: CBS News Archive
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Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. Known for his investigative journalism, he interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspondents featured on CBS news program 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968. Wallace retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006, but still appeared occasionally on the series until 2008. He was the father of Chris Wallace. Wallace interviewed many politicians, celebrities, and academics, such as Joseph Bonanno, Vladimir Horowitz, Luciano Pavarotti, Malcolm X, Richard Nixon, Pearl S. Buck, Deng Xiaoping, Ronald Reagan, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Jiang Zemin, Ruhollah Khomeini, Kurt Waldheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Louis Farrakhan, Manuel Noriega, John Nash, Gordon B. Hinckley, Vladimir Putin, Maria Callas, Barbra Streisand, Salvador Dalí, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, William Carlos Williams, Mickey Cohen, Roy Cohn, Dean Reed, Jimmy Fratianno, Aldous Huxley, and Ayn Rand. Photo Credit: Google Images
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer" (2023) Photo Credit: Universal Pictures - © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer" (2023) Photo Credit: Universal Pictures - © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project on 16 July 1945 was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. The Manhattan Project was a program of research and development undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs. The Army program was designated the Manhattan District, as its first headquarters were in Manhattan; the name gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. The project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$2 billion (equivalent to about $27 billion in 2023), over 80 percent of which was for building and operating the plants that produced the fissile material. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the US, the UK, and Canada. Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons
The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Robert Oppenheimer was its first director, serving from 1943 to December 1945, when he was succeeded by Norris Bradbury. In order to enable scientists to freely discuss their work while preserving security, the laboratory was located on the isolated Pajarito Plateau in Northern New Mexico. The wartime laboratory occupied buildings that had once been part of the Los Alamos Ranch School. Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons
General Leslie Groves (left) and J. Robert Oppenheimer, key figures in the development of the first atomic bomb, 1945. Photo Credit: Marie Hansen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
J. Robert Oppenheimer (left) and Gen. Leslie R. Groves examining the remains of a steel tower at the Trinity test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, September 1945. Photo Credit: Britannica
J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer; /ˈɒpənhaɪmər/ OP-ən-hy-mər; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. He was director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II and is often called the "father of the atomic bomb". Photo Credit: Associated Press
German planes fly over Poland, Sept. 1939. Photo Credit: Defense.gov

Oppenheimer discusses the war and what lead up to the U.S. Government recruiting him to develop the atom bomb, and discribes what the war had been like since 1939, and while the results were so devestating, why the develpment and use was needed to end the war. Oppenheimer notably struggled with his decision decades after he changed the course of history, science, and the look of war in the future.

J. Robert Oppenheimer in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study. Photo Credit: Google Images

You can watch part of that CBS News Interview with J. Robert Oppenheimer and Mike Wallace below:

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, Based on "American Prometheus" by Kai Bird, and Martin J. Sherwin, Produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, and Christopher Nolan, Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, with Cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema, and Edited by Jennifer Lame, with Music by Ludwig Göransson, Production companies: Syncopy Inc., and Atlas Entertainment, Distributed by Universal Pictures (2023)

Oppenheimer is available now on Peacock…

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