The FBI built a case against him by illegally wiretapping Oppenheimer's phone. Edgar Hoover to begin surveilling Oppenheimer. In 1953, the AEC chairman asked then-FBI Director J. Einstein ignores Strauss (it is later revealed why), but this further angers Strauss, who believes Oppenheimer is turning the scientific community against him. The film reenacts another instance when Strauss feels Oppenheimer slighted him - as Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein, played by Tom Conti, speak by a pond after Strauss offers Oppenheimer a prestigious job at the Institute for Advanced Study. However, Strauss was the first to take serious action about Oppenheimer's Communist accusations. Some believed that Strauss' motivation to take down Oppenheimer was related to long-held resentment after Oppenheimer publicly humiliated him during a 1949 hearing on selling radioisotopes to foreign nations. Strauss was not the only one who raised concerns about Oppenheimer's communist affiliations - during the Manhattan Project, staff and leaders also questioned Oppenheimer's loyalties over the years, as the famed scientist had a long history of associating with communists, including an affair with psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh in Nolan's film. He also began his campaign against Oppenheimer, who he accused of being a communist. While Oppenheimer wanted to stop development at atomic weapons and share data about US weapons with the general public, Strauss wanted an even more powerful bomb and thought the US should keep its weapon developments private.įollowing his appointment by President Eisenhower as the chair of the AEC in 1953, Strauss continued to advocate for the development and testing of the H-bomb. The debate over the construction of thermodynamic weapons put Oppenheimer at odds with Strauss. Thermodynamic bombs can be as many as hundreds or even thousands of times as strong as an atomic bomb, according to Brittanica. In 1946, after Strauss worked in weapon production with the US Navy, then-president Harry Truman appointed him to the Atomic Energy Commission, where he strongly advocated for developing thermonuclear weapons like hydrogen bombs. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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