A lot has happened since American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin was first published in 2005. The book set off ripples after it won a Pulitzer, but created a tidal wave of interest after Christopher Nolan adapted it for his 2023 blockbuster movie Oppenheimer which is dominating this award season. American Prometheus is a nuanced portrait of a scientist ‘whose brilliance was matched only by his internal conflicts’, and by retelling its protagonist’s life and times the book is a call for rationality in the nuclear age to contain the fearful threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and terror.&nbsp; The book took 25 years to research and write and is a sobering reminder that the doomsday clock is closer to midnight today than at any time since the end of the Cold War. It has been ticking ever since the world’s greatest scientific minds got together in Los Alamos in New Mexico in 1943 to build an atom bomb before the Germans did.&nbsp; Germany surrendered, but that did not stop hawks in the US military to use it to kill 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The Americans justified this by saying that a long-drawn assault on the Japanese mainland would have cost a lot more lives. And Oppenheimer himself felt that the first military use of atomic weapons should be so spectacular and destructive that its ferocity would deter future use. The book reminds us that he opposed the detonation of the second bomb over Nagasaki, and the development of the hydrogen bomb. The fact that nuclear weapons have not been used in war for the past 80 years shows the reasoning could have some merit. But it has not stopped nuclear proliferation, and countries like Pakistan, India and North Korea now own atomic warheads as well.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-nuclear-weapons-story-is-not-over">The nuclear weapons story is not over</a>, Nepali Times Speaking with Nepali Times ahead of his session at the Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara on 17 February, Kai Bird emphasised that the nuclear story is not over, and it could still end very badly: Vladimir Putin’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Israel's strategic ambiguity, and Iran's impending nuclear arsenal. Closer to home, Nepal is surrounded by nuclear-armed countries which are not exactly friendly with each other. India has frequent border skirmishes with Pakistan and China, and Nepali soldiers serve in the Indian Army.&nbsp; Amitav Ghosh in his 1999 book Countdown following the Indian nuclear test wrote that even tactical use of nuclear weapons could result in fallout carried by prevailing winds to Himalaya glaciers that could turn Asia’s rivers radioactive and contaminate aquifers. &nbsp; If Middle East tensions escalate into a nuclear confrontation, it will endanger 2 million Nepalis who work there and most will have to return home for safety. Nepali students were killed by Hamas in Israel, and continue to die for Russia in Ukraine.&nbsp; The staunchest critic of nuclear weapons was the architect of the first atomic bomb himself. The book recounts how after the Japanese surrender, Oppenheimer met President Truman and said he felt he had “blood in his hands”. Truman told aides later he never again wanted to see that “son of a bitch … cry-baby scientist”. &nbsp; Oppenheimer used his newfound fame as a celebrity scientist to slow the nuclear arms race. ‘He tried valiantly to divert us from the bomb culture by containing the nuclear threat he helped to set loose,’ the authors write in Prometheus.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-the-movie-oppenheimer-missed">What the movie Oppenheimer missed</a>, Katsuhiro Asagiri But at the height of the anti-Communist McCarthy purges in the 1950s, Oppenheimer was singled out for his peace initiatives in &nbsp;hearings designed to silence and humiliate the scientist.&nbsp; “Oppenheimer became the chief celebrity victim of the McCarthyite witch-hunts. And today around the globe we seem to be experiencing similar xenophobia about immigrants, ethnic and religious minorities and workers disrupted by technology and globalisation,” Bird says in his interview (overleaf).&nbsp; The dense 700-page biography reads like a political thriller that starts with Oppenheimer’s precocious childhood. He is so fascinated by rocks and minerals that the New York Mineralogical Club invites him to deliver a lecture not knowing he is only a 12-year-old boy. He is miserable at Harvard and Cambridge, his mental well-being is put to a test and he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. But he flourishes in Göttingen in Germany where he learns quantum physics. Back in America, his Berkeley department becomes the centre of fundamental research into atomic physics. He supports leftist causes but never joins the Communist Party.&nbsp; Today, there is a theoretical debate about which is worse: all out nuclear war, or climate breakdown. &nbsp;One has more immediate and irreversible implications than the other, but the fact is that both are manmade threats and we have it in our power to remove them.&nbsp; Read : <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/ukraines-lessons-for-sandwiched-nations-like-nepal">Ukraine's lessons for sandwiched nations like Nepal</a>, Bhaskar Koirala Harnessing atomic energy was always a double edged sword. Besides the bomb, many energy planners are pushing for nuclear reactors to be climate-friendly. But atomic reactors have a problem with radioactive waste disposal, and the dangers of Chernobyl or &nbsp;Fukushima type meltdowns.&nbsp; The future may be in fusion reactors, the same physics that drove the thermonuclear bomb that Oppenheimer so staunchly opposed. Fusion is cleaner energy with water as the only by-product.&nbsp; “It is becoming increasingly likely that the problem will not be resolved with renewable energy – which is growing too slowly to make a significant difference – or expensive technologies like carbon capture and sequestration and green hydrogen,” says Nouriel Roubini of New York University’s Stern School of Business. “Instead, we may see a fusion energy revolution, provided that a commercial reactor can be built in the next 15 years.” Oppenheimer said that the only defense against nuclear terrorism was the elimination of nuclear weapons, and in the age of nuclear arms race he was also worried about mankind’s moral survival. His friend, a fellow theoretical physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi said, ‘You drop a bomb and it falls on the just and the unjust.’ In Japan, surviving hibakusha and their descendants continue to suffer genetic defects. In the South Pacific, Kazakhstan and other nuclear test sites, many still suffer devastating health consequences from fallout. The Los Alamos site itself led to inter-generational sickness from radioactive fallout for 15,000 Navajo people living downwind. They were not warned before the test, and they have been forgotten since.&nbsp; American Prometheus reminds us of the urgent need for nuclear arms control in a volatile world. Bird and Sherwin have narrated the moral dilemma and persecution of the inventor of a fearful weapon, coming generations will have to grapple with ways to keep prevent its use. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/year-of-reckoning">Year of reckoning</a>, Editorial  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024021515028_d560d5d86980d0c3493c75fd1e4e7e2bb3a91c490d2641329aea2901d6564482.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2024021515028_d560d5d86980d0c3493c75fd1e4e7e2bb3a91c490d2641329aea2901d6564482" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="669" loading="lazy" alt="American Prometheus NT"> </figure>

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The destroyer of worlds

Kai Bird’s father was a US Foreign Service officer, and spent his childhood in various postings. &nbsp;After boarding school in India, he graduated in journalism and went on to write books, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Color_of_Truth">The Color of Truth</a>: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms (1998), American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005), The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis (2010), The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames (2014), The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter (2021).&nbsp;
Bird has visited Nepal many times, and lived here 2007-2011. He will be speaking at the <a href="https://nepalliteraturefestival.com/">Nepali Literature Festival in Pokhara</a> on 17 February, and spoke to Nepali Times after arriving in Kathmandu this week:
Nepali Times: You went to school in Kodaikanal, started out in journalism in the Subcontinent, and ended up spending a few years in Nepal. What keeps bringing you back to the region?
Kai Bird: I have an affinity for South Asia, and Nepal in particular, because of my youthful experiences here, studying at Kodai, taking third class trains all over India and starting out as a freelance journalist with my wife Susan Goldmark. I love the complexity of the region, the chaos, the uncertainty and the constant surprises. But I also love the food, the colours, the smells and the continuous conversation between the ancient and the modern.&nbsp;
You wrote books about the Bundy brothers, Robert Ames, Jimmy Carter, Oppenheimer. What draws you to biographies and how is it different than researching and writing other non-fiction?
I stumbled into biography by accident when, as a 30-year-old journalist, I decided I wanted to try writing a book. The subject became John J McCloy, a powerful Wall Street lawyer —and while I initially thought it would take me two years, it eventually took me ten years to write this 800 page biography. I fell in love with the archives and the treasure hunt aspect of the research. It’s was much more difficult than weekly magazine journalism — but much more rewarding. Biography is, I believe, the best vehicle to convey complicated history. It is story-telling, almost novelistic — because no one can truly tell the story of another human being’s life. But if it be a novel, it is a novel with hundreds and thousands of footnotes. And because it is a story about another life, it becomes quite personal and accessible. And along the way, you learn much more intimate history than from a history textbook.&nbsp;
Some of your biographies are co-written, how does that work? How do you divide up the work?
Co-authorship is difficult. My first biography started out that way — and after eight years my co-author and I parted ways. Biographers have big egos like any other writer. So actually, when Marty Sherwin invited me to join him on his Oppenheimer project, already 20 years in the making, I hesitated. I initially told Marty that I liked him too much to risk our friendship over a biography. He laughed and eventually persuaded me to join him. It turned out to be a very successful partnership and a lot of fun. He did most of the research — and when I started writing a draft of the childhood years, this stimulated him to finally start writing. We went back and forth, trading edits and rewriting each other’s material. It became pretty seamless.&nbsp;
What was the main reason you chose to co-write about Oppenheimer in American Prometheus?
Oppenheimer is such an essential story to understanding the atomic age — an era we will always be grappling with … Oppenheimer gave us the atomic fire and changed the world forever. I fear that we have become too complacent after so many decades of living with the Bomb. The story is not over and it could still end very badly. But Oppenheimer’s life also resonates with us today because of his role as a scientist who became a public intellectual. Our world is now drenched in science and technology. With AI we are confronting yet another “Oppenheimer moment.” And we need expert scientists, thoughtful, articulate scientists who can explain the choices we face in adapting to all this new technology.
Do you feel that there is a replay of the McCarthyist witch-hunt of the kind that Oppenheimer was subjected in democracies around the world today?
Yes, absolutely. The Oppenheimer story explains the rise of the divisive politics of Donald Trump. Oppenheimer became the chief celebrity victim of the McCarthyite witch-hunts. And today around the globe we seem to be experiencing a similar xenophobia about immigrants, ethnic and religious minorities and workers disrupted by technology and globalisation. It is a politics of paranoia, fueled by insecurities — and it feeds on anti-intellectualism. Maybe the world is changing too fast for most people. And the pace of change makes them retreat into their own narrow-mindedness. Instead of venerating scientific expertise some people want to demonize scientists and intellectuals — and this undermines the notion of a collective humanity. We should recognise that globalisation and science have brought hundreds of millions of people into the middle class.
Oppenheimer's dilemma of balancing a nuclear arms race with the monstrosity of the weapon seems more relevant today than ever before.
It is important to recall that just three months after Hiroshima, Oppenheimer warned everyone that these new weapons were “evil” and were “weapons for aggressors, and weapons of terror”. He also predicted that any nation anywhere, however poor, would be able to develop atomic armaments. So now we have not only America and Britain and France but China, North Korea, and India and Pakistan, and Israel — and perhaps tomorrow Iran — all armed with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/90-seconds-to-midnight">nuclear weapons</a>. Deplorably, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has threatened the use of tactical nuclear weapons in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/ukraines-lessons-for-sandwiched-nations-like-nepal">Ukraine</a>. So we live in a very dangerous world.&nbsp;
Has there been a renewed interest in the theme of your book after the movie especially since its release coincided with conflicts flaring up around the world?
Well, it was only a coincidence that Christopher Nolan began filming Oppenheimer in February 2022 – the same month that Russia invaded Ukraine. But I think the story just resonates with people everywhere, and particularly with the younger generation who have not really been thinking about the danger of nuclear weapons.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-the-movie-oppenheimer-missed">Oppenheimer the movie</a> will finally be released in Japan this year because of its sensitivity. But how was the book itself received in Japan after it was published in 2008?
There was a two volume Japanese edition of American Prometheus (published in 2005 in the US) but it sold modestly, until <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/reel-rendezvous">the film</a> was released worldwide. As you say, the film is being released for the first time in Japan only this month
You lived in Nepal and have returned to speak at the Literature Festival in Pokhara. What are your lingering impressions of the country?&nbsp;
I first visited Nepal in 1969 for a short week as a tourist. I was not even 18 years old — and on my way back to American to attend college. I then came back for several months in 1973, and again in 1976, and again in 1980. And then I returned to live here from 2007-2011 when my wife was posted in Nepal as country director for the World Bank. I also visited Kathmandu for a few weeks in 2015, shortly before the earthquake. And now I am back again for a week. So I have seen a lot of change in Nepal over the decades. It is still a chaotic place, but a beautiful country — and I am astonished at the changes that have taken place in just the last nine years.&nbsp;

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The destroyer of worlds

The nuclear weapons story is not over