The Atomic Bomb

At a recent program sponsored by the Atomic Heritage Foundation, devoted to a new biography of J. Philip Oppenheimer, director of Los Alamos during the 1940s, I noted that the majority of well known scientists identified with the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos were Jewish: Oppenheimer, Szilard, Teller, Einstein and so forth.

Which to me raises the question as to whether or not the bomb would have been developed, or at least developed as rapidly as it was, had we not been facing a Nazi enemy with its strong anti-Jewish policies. Or, whether or not the cast of characters would have been different had the enemy been different.

Whether the motivations of the scientists have been studied in this manner, I do not know.

I have not read the Oppenheimer book, although Oppenheimer has fascinated me because of the many aspects of his personality. Perhaps one day.........