Robert Oppenheimer Quotes

The Man Who Built the Bomb and Tried to Stop It

After the war, Oppenheimer became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission's General Advisory Committee. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1954, during the Red Scare, the AEC held a security hearing that revoked his clearance, effectively ending his government career. Edward Teller testified against him. Former colleagues watched in silence. In 1963, President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of rehabilitation. Oppenheimer accepted it without comment. He died of throat cancer on February 18, 1967, at age sixty-two.