/ Modified may 1, 2010 2:24 a.m.

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

A revealing portrait of the influential American scientist who led the development of the atomic bomb. Dramatic re-creations feature David Strathairn. Tuesday, January 27th, 10:00 pm PBS-World

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck , The Bourne Ultimatum ) as J. Robert Oppenheimer.

“The country asked him to do something and he did it brilliantly, and they repaid him for the tremendous job he did by breaking him.” – Marvin L. Goldberger, Los Alamos scientist

J. Robert Oppenheimer was brilliant, arrogant, proud, charismatic — and a national hero. Under his leadership during World War II, the United States succeeded in becoming the first nation to harness the power of nuclear energy to create the ultimate weapon of mass destruction: the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him, humiliated him and cast him aside. The question in AMERICAN EXPERIENCE The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer asks is, “Why?”

He was already under a cloud of suspicion because of his connections to communists when he was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1930s. Although Oppenheimer himself never joined the communist party, many of those close to him had, including his wife and brother. Both Army Intelligence and the FBI considered the eminent scientist a security risk; at Los Alamos, his phones were tapped, his office was wired, his mail was opened and his comings and goings were closely monitored. In 1953, his past connections to communists became a pretext to revoke his security clearance. It was the height of the “Red Scare,” and a group of powerful Washington insiders built a case against him. When he insisted on a hearing to regain his reputation, they made certain that he wouldn’t stand a chance.

“It was the worst kind of kangaroo court,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes in THE TRIALS OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER. Throughout the hearings, the FBI bugged Oppenheimer’s lawyers’ offices, his home and nearly everywhere he went, and delivered information, even the defense strategy, to the prosecutor bent on bringing him down. A parade of 40 witnesses on both sides testified, including Edward Teller, a scientist who resented Oppenheimer from their days together at Los Alamos. Teller’s testimony would drive the final nail into Oppenheimer’s coffin. On June 9, 1954, the security board ruled two to one that although Oppenheimer was a “loyal citizen” and was owed a “great debt of gratitude” for his magnificent service, his security clearance should be permanently revoked.

See previews and find out more at pbs.org/amex.

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