A one paragraph synopsis of the key events of this story is perhaps foolish, but for unfamiliar readers, here goes. In 1939, refugee scientists Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein prompt President Roosevelt to authorize research on a nuclear weapon because they fear Nazi Germany is pursuing one. The Manhattan Project (so-called because the first office was in Manhattan) begins in 1941 and leads to creation of several laboratories over the next three years. J. Robert Oppenheimer who has been leading a group of physicists at Berkeley in California studying the logistics of developing an atomic weapon is recruited in October 1942 by General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Corps of Engineers (chosen for the Manhattan Project after completing the Pentagon on time and under budget) to lead the design and fabrication of the device at Los Alamos in New Mexico. Oppenheimer in turn recruits Dorothy McKibbin to lead the Santa Fe office. After 28 months of long work days, seemingly constant technical difficulties, and atrocious working conditions, Oppenheimer’s team of 5000 scientists, technicians, and engineers create an atomic bomb that is exploded in July 1945 at Trinity – the code name for the test site in southern New Mexico. 
Two atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 leading to the Japanese unconditional surrender that ends World War II. After a period of fame and national expressions of gratitude, Oppenheimer is accused of being a communist sympathizer and in 1953 his security clearance with the Atomic Energy Commission is revoked, effectively ending his career as a nuclear physicist.
It seems to me the five themes arising during this story and addressed in Ms. Conant’s book that are relevant to the work of this website (and which will make up the next four posts) fall into the following categories: philosophy, human greatness, evil and repentance, ironies, and the ethical decision to drop the Atomic bomb on Japan.
(continued next post)
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