>> Joshua Levy: J. Robert
Oppenheimer was the Director
of the Los Alamos Laboratory
during World War II.
He was a brilliant, charismatic
leader. Without whose efforts,
the atomic bomb probably
would not have been ready
at the time that it was.
The Oppenheimer Papers
are incredibly rich resource.
It's over 300 boxes.
Near the end of his life,
Oppenheimer called the
collection hideously complete.
This is a long letter that
Robert Oppenheimer received
around Christmas time of 1953.
It specifies the charges the
Atomic Energy Commission
was leveling against him.
They came from unauthorized
illegal wiretaps that the FBI
had placed on his phones
over many years.
You come to see that many of
the charges have to do with
Oppenheimer's opposition
to a hydrogen bomb,
not his communist sympathies.
There's been enduring
interest in Oppenheimer,
and part of it is because
Oppenheimer himself is
such a conflicted,
charismatic, unusual figure.
And part of it is because
the atomic bomb is such a
transformative technology.
It changes the world.
It brings about the arms race,
it creates fear.
It creates a potential for
destruction that hasn't
completely gone away.
So the Oppenheimer Papers
reveal the complexity of
Oppenheimer as a character.
It reveals the complexity of
the time that he lived in.
And there are lessons in the
collection for researchers today
and going forward
into future generations.