Oppenheimer: The Missed Opportunity

Oppenheimer: The Missed Opportunity

This is the final episode in a three-part series about "Oppenheimer" and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film.

By the time he left office in early 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower had overseen the expansion of the nation's nuclear arsenal to 20,000 weapons. The United States had dramatically outpaced the USSR in the opening years of the arms race. The Soviet Union had roughly 2,000 bombs after the first full decade of the Cold War. The "missile gap" notwithstanding, both superpowers had more than enough nuclear firepower to destroy the world many times over, and this was the actual point of the policy of "mutually-assured destruction." Robert Oppenheimer and like-minded scientists had hoped to avoid this outcome by trying to influence national defense policy after the Second World War. Christopher Nolan's blockbuster film "Oppenheimer" shines a light on the physicist's opposition to the H-bomb program and his support for international arms control and openness, rather than secrecy, in national security policy. In this episode, historian Gregg Herken, author of "Brotherhood of the Bomb," discusses whether the U.S. missed a chance to avoid an arms race and decades of Cold War by ignoring Oppenheimer's advice in the late-1940s and early 1950s.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(608)

Congress' Slide Into Irrelevance

Congress' Slide Into Irrelevance

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Is Congress irreparably broken or temporarily stuck as it fails to act as a co-equal branch of government willing to check a rogue...

24 Juli 0s

Liberal Patriotism

Liberal Patriotism

The podcast needs your support. Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Have too many liberals and leftists given up on patriotism? Have they forgotten the tradition of s...

21 Juli 0s

Origins of a Forever War

Origins of a Forever War

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Now well into its fifth year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to be a stalemate on the ground while the combatants seek a dec...

17 Juli 37min

Moby-Dick and Democracy

Moby-Dick and Democracy

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby-Dick has something to teach us about democracy, citizenship, and the rule of law. A flop when p...

14 Juli 45min

The Death of Lindsey Graham

The Death of Lindsey Graham

This is a special episode of History As It Happens. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is dead. His office says Graham died from "a brief and sudden illness" on Saturday night in Washington. He was...

12 Juli 18min

Roger Griffin, From Fascism to Trumpism

Roger Griffin, From Fascism to Trumpism

Keep the narrative flow going while supporting the show! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. The discourse is drowning in -isms. President Trump is railing against an...

10 Juli 57min

Why Mossadegh Matters

Why Mossadegh Matters

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. When the Trump administration attacked Iran in late February, some war backers dreamt that the Iranian people would rise en masse ...

7 Juli 51min

America250! Day in the Life of a Soldier

America250! Day in the Life of a Soldier

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. This is the eighth episode in a series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentenn...

3 Juli 45min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

svenska-fall
p3-krim
aftonbladet-daily
aftonbladet-krim
rss-krimstad
flashback-forever
rss-sanning-konsekvens
tv4-nyheterna-story
rss-krimreportrarna
motiv
rss-frandfors-horna
mannen-utan-spar
rss-vad-fan-hande
de-fyras-gang
rss-flodet
spar
politiken
rss-aftonbladet-krim
olyckan-inifran
grans