--- title: Oppenheimer's Lessons for Nuclear Threats Today description: Charles Oppenheimer and Rachel Bronson on what J. Robert Oppenheimer's warnings say about today's nuclear arms race. canonical: https://time.com/6899692/oppenheimer-nuclear-threat-lessons-essay/ author: Charles Oppenheimer article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-11T14:53:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:42.742Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Oppenheimer's Lessons for Nuclear Threats Today og:description: Charles Oppenheimer and Rachel Bronson on what J. Robert Oppenheimer's warnings say about today's nuclear arms race. og:url: https://time.com/6899692/oppenheimer-nuclear-threat-lessons-essay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7223d394b12f73b2/698a494d09208fd86a41ba8d/oppenheimer-lessons.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: oppenheimer-lessons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oppenheimer's Lessons for Nuclear Threats Today twitter:description: Charles Oppenheimer and Rachel Bronson on what J. Robert Oppenheimer's warnings say about today's nuclear arms race. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7223d394b12f73b2/698a494d09208fd86a41ba8d/oppenheimer-lessons.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oppenheimer's Lessons for Nuclear Threats Today > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=efc3daf3-bd46-4f58-ad7a-57010abf7304&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Real Oppenheimer - A Nuclear Historian's Perspective [Watch (HLS stream): The Real Oppenheimer - A Nuclear Historian's Perspective](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/I2oPNLYU.m3u8) (4:43)  _Published 2023-07-21. As the movie "Oppenheimer" opens across America, Alex Wellerstein - Historian of Nuclear Weapons at Stevens Institute of Technology - gives his perspective on a man he has studied his entire career._ by [Charles Oppenheimer](https://time.com/author/charles-oppenheimer/) and [Rachel Bronson](https://time.com/author/rachel-bronson/) Mar 11, 2024 2:53 PM UTC  (Original Caption) Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), American physicist, Director of the Manhattan project. Undated photograph, standing before blackboard, holding pipe. (Original Caption) Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), American physicist, Director of the Manhattan project. Undated photograph, standing before blackboard, holding pipe. Bettmann Archive—Getty Images by [Charles Oppenheimer](https://time.com/author/charles-oppenheimer/) and [Rachel Bronson](https://time.com/author/rachel-bronson/) Mar 11, 2024 2:53 PM UTC [Christopher Nolan](https://time.com/collection/time100-leadership-series/6589108/christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-oscars-interview/)’s biopic of the father of the atomic bomb has been a cultural triumph. Besides its artistic achievements—it has racked up awards and [shined again](https://time.com/6899435/christopher-nolan-wins-best-director-oscar/) at last night’s Oscars—the film touched a deep nerve in society and reignited public conversations around nuclear risks that we’ve not seen since the end of the Cold War. People who saw the film were rightly shaken by its [vivid depiction](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/oppenheimer-inside-the-horrifying-atomic-bomb-test-launch-scene) of the bomb’s awesome destructive power. Many have commented on the [existential dread](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/oppenheimer-ending-explained) the film induced. But what’s been largely overlooked in discourse around the film are the urgent, powerful, and specific lessons the film—and its protagonist J. Robert Oppenheimer—have for the world today. As inheritors of Oppenheimer’s legacy, we feel an urgent need to speak out in face of surging nuclear risks. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes made by politicians at the start of the atomic age to ignore Oppenheimer’s warnings and dive headlong into another [dangerous and futile nuclear arms race](https://www.economist.com/international/2023/08/29/a-new-nuclear-arms-race-looms). As the U.S. prepares to spend [close to $2 trillion](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inside-the-1-5-trillion-nuclear-weapons-program-youve-never-heard-of/) on remaking its nuclear arsenal, we must draw on Oppenheimer’s wisdom and take bold action now to protect humanity from the existential threat of nuclear weapons. ### More From TIME The Oval Office scene from the film between Oppenheimer, Truman, and Secretary of State James Byrnes carries profound meaning. It reflects a real meeting that perfectly encapsulates the conflict between two starkly different visions of not only how to manage the atom, but also of how nations should fundamentally relate to each other in a new world rising from the ashes of the old. On one side, Oppenheimer, joined by other Manhattan Project scientists and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, understood that other advanced nations were bound to soon discover the so-called “secrets” of the atomic bomb. They knew that, unless the U.S. gave up its nuclear monopoly and established a cooperative international body to make sure that the atom would only be used peacefully, others—chiefly the Soviet Union—would feel compelled to develop their own bomb to restore the balance of power. A free-for-all arms race between powerful industrial nations over the most destructive weapon in human history would make the world exponentially more dangerous and ultimately be a dead end. Only mutual accommodation and good-faith cooperation could guarantee peace and advance the common interests of humanity. On the other side, however, figures like Byrnes held that the U.S. can and should hold onto its monopoly over the bomb. Fruitful wartime partnership notwithstanding, they fundamentally distrusted the Soviet Union, believing that the Soviets only understood raw power, of which the bomb was the highest representation. Peace could only be achieved through military strength, and relations between rivals must be zero-sum. **_Read More:_** [_Here’s How Faithfully 'Oppenheimer' Captures Its Subject’s Real Life_](https://time.com/6295760/oppenheimer-true-story/) Initially, Truman entertained Oppenheimer’s disarmament proposal conceived on the principles of mutuality, openness, and bold U.S. leadership. Known as the [Acheson-Lilienthal Plan](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/baruch-plans), it called for the U.S. to give up its nuclear monopoly, reveal what it knew to the Soviets, and establish an international regime that would control all fissile materials and forbid any additional nuclear weapons development. While mindful of the danger of nuclear weapons, Truman was ultimately more sympathetic to Byrnes’ views, dismissing Oppenheimer’s pleas for speedy nuclear disarmament. His eventual offer to the Soviets, known as the Baruch Plan, insisted on unilaterally retaining U.S. nukes until the U.S. was satisfied with other nations’ compliance with nonproliferation, as well as unrestricted ability to inspect and punish the Soviet Union for any perceived or real violations. Though the Soviets committed to nuclear disarmament in principle, they felt that Truman’s plan was too one-sided and feared that it was a cover for the U.S. to maintain its nuclear monopoly. As expected, they ultimately rejected the Baruch Plan and developed their own bomb. Thus began the Cold War arms race—conceived on naive and false hopes instead of science that the U.S. could keep nuclear weapons a secret, and that producing more of them faster would make Americans safer—that saw, at its peak, almost [70,000 nuclear weapons](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2968/066004008). After the many crises and [terrifying near misses](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200807-the-nuclear-mistakes-that-could-have-ended-civilisation) that followed—and numerous [unheralded casualties](https://thebulletin.org/2024/02/the-fallout-never-ended/) from nuclear weapons construction and testing—leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union eventually stepped back from the brink and made concerted efforts to de-escalate tensions. Successive [arms control breakthroughs](https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-russia-nuclear-arms-control#:~:text=The%20nuclear%20arms%20race%20was,the%20risk%20of%20nuclear%20war.) saw dramatic mutual reductions of stockpiles, elimination of whole classes of weapons, banning of nuclear testing, and promises to eventually abolish nuclear weapons. Yet today, that hard-won arms control consensus has [all but collapsed](https://time.com/6334258/putin-nuclear-arms-control/). From Ukraine to the Korean Peninsula to the Taiwan Strait, the horrific prospect of nuclear use has once more reared its ugly head. Leaders have seemingly forgotten about the terrifying consequences of the Cold War, while citizens—many of whom came of age in a world where nuclear risks became an afterthought—have largely given their governments free reign to launch a [new nuclear arms race](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/07/opinion/nuclear-weapons-nytimes.html). While there are [immediate steps](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/07/opinion/nuclear-war-prevention.html) the President can and should take to restart arms control diplomacy, we believe that any lasting solution to today’s nuclear perils requires reimagining our foundational assumptions around global security. Oppenheimer correctly understood that, to secure the Soviet Union’s buy-in on disarmament, the U.S. must lead by example and offer a plan that addresses its rival’s insecurity. He believed in diplomacy, mutual accommodation, and the potential for even rivals to come together around shared interests. Those ideas were as difficult to swallow then as they are today, but he was and remains right. Initially dismissed as naive, he was ironically vindicated by the concrete outcomes of later U.S.-Soviet arms control cooperation. We must take his insights to heart and apply them to today’s volatile tripolar nuclear rivalry between the U.S., Russia, and [increasingly China](https://url.avanan.click/v2/%5F%5F%5Fhttps://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/chinas-misunderstood-nuclear-expansion%5F%5F%5F.YXAzOnJ0bTphOmc6ZDU5OGI4NzhmZWZiOGRmYjAzMWFiZjJkMGZiNjM5MTY6NjpjNWRkOmZkMzFlZGE0ZGI5NTBlNmYzNzIxZGNiNzgzYjhjMWZjZGEwYTVhNGFmY2QwMzY4MGQ5Y2EyMDk1MDBhMjgxNDA6cDpU). While some urge “strategic competition” between the three powers, declaring that geopolitical flashpoints like Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine preclude any potential for deal-making, we believe that now, as at the height of the Cold War, is precisely the time for the three countries to come to the table. Their mutual self-interests, and the collective survival of humanity and the planet demand it. **_Read More:_**[_Nuclear Energy’s Moment Has Come_](https://time.com/6278789/nuclear-energy-moment-has-come/) Our political leaders must marshal the courage and vision to overcome their differences, build a new global security architecture fit for our increasingly multipolar world, and move quickly to halt the new nuclear arms race and build a new consensus on arms control and disarmament. The alternative is sliding back down the abyss of nuclear brinkmanship and existential terror of the darkest days of the Cold War. The start of the atomic age was defined by a costly, dangerous, and ultimately futile nuclear arms race that repeatedly brought the world to the brink of destruction. But it did not have to be that way. Oppenheimer and others offered an alternative path that holds important lessons for us today as global nuclear risks rebound. We must learn those lessons, avoid repeating the mistakes from the Cold War, and stop the budding new nuclear arms race before it’s too late. ## Transcript I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon, but we have no choice. Robert Oppenheimer was a key figure in the making of the atomic bomb during World War II, and a key figure in shaping early American nuclear policy after the war as well. That latter part of his work I think is less well known to most people. Most people know him as the father of the atomic bomb. A lot fewer people know that he was deeply involved with many discussions about maybe even the abolition of nuclear weapons, but also how you use nuclear weapons in a modern Cold War. I have been asked whether in the years to come it will be possible to kill 40 million American people in the 20 largest American towns by the use of atomic bombs in a single night. I'm afraid that the answer to that question is yes. The most interesting thing about Oppenheimer is that by any measure he is not who you would have picked to be the scientific director of the Manhattan Project. And people around were surprised that he was picked. He had no administrative experience. He had never led any group of people larger than a seminar room. His reputation was as a scientist-scientist. He is a head in the clouds, lots of equations. He was a terrible teacher. He would chain smoke while writing equations over other equations he had already written. This is a sort of famous tactic of his. The first thing that Oppenheimer does is he gets together some of the top theorists at a conference in Berkeley, and they sit around and they sort of plot out what is the problem to be solved in designing a nuclear weapon and sort of making this thing happen. And that's what it starts off as being. But the role expands dramatically because it turns out to be much harder to make nuclear weapons than they thought. They went into the Manhattan Project thinking it would be difficult but sort of modestly achievable and ended up being by some measures There may be five times harder than they expected. He was afraid that if the first bombs were not sufficiently spectacular that you would end up in a world with nuclear arms races and then the next war would be fatal for civilization. For him it was important that the first bombing be really awful so that the world gets its act together and realizes we can't continue down this path. The same path that led to World War I and World War II, World War III is not going to be tenable. That was his goal from all of this. For him, the worst things are in Japan, in some sense, the better. If there is another world war, this civilization may go under. We need to ask ourselves whether we're doing all we can to avert that. Easy to try and make Oppenheimer into a parable. And of course, all parables are a parable of our time. And so it'll be interesting to see what the parable of Oppenheimer is for us now, as opposed to what it was in the 50s or 60s when also fictional media were being made about him, or even the 80s. But he himself hated being cast as a parable. He was very bitterly resistant to any of these things in his time. He saw all of these things as being just sort of tawdry and not the right issue to be focusing on. Science has profoundly altered the conditions of man's life, both materially and in ways of the Spirit as well. It has extended the range of questions in which man has a choice. It has extended man's freedom to make significant decisions. No one can predict what vast new continents of knowledge the future of science will discover. But we know that as long as men are free to ask what they will, free to say what they think, free to think what they must, science will never regress, and freedom itself will never be wholly lost. [MUSIC PLAYING] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6899692/oppenheimer-nuclear-threat-lessons-essay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6899692/oppenheimer-nuclear-threat-lessons-essay/"},"headline":"Oppenheimer's Lessons for Nuclear Threats Today","datePublished":"2024-03-11T14:53:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:44:42.742Z","description":"Charles Oppenheimer and Rachel Bronson on what J. 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