Dr. Robert Oppenheimer

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer—scientific director of the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb that was later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during World War II, Oppenheimer later came to believe that he had sinned and was remorseful for his actions. Sagan mentions him as a scientist who developed a conscience, one of the "good guys" among nucloear phyisicists. After witnessing the devastation caused by the weapons he developed, Oppenheimer became chairman of the general advisory committee to the post-war Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). When Dr. Edward Teller, the so-called father of the hydrogen bomb, came before the AEC to argue that the United States should develop an arsenal of the newer, more powerful weapons because the Soviet Union was developing the same weaponry. Teller audaciously challenged Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States when he opposed Teller's plan, although Oppenheimer's patriotism was never...