Oppenheimer: How Much Einstein Was Really Involved In Making The Atomic Bomb

The 2023 film Oppenheimer followed the man of the same name, the process of making the atomic bomb, and how it affected his life and later career, along with a subplot with famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Einstein ended up playing a big role in Oppenheimer through his work with J. Robert Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss, a member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Though Oppenheimer made some changes to the true story of the Manhattan Project and the scientist’s personal life, Albert Einstein was involved in the making of the atomic bomb, though the extent of it may have been misrepresented.

Oppenheimer doesn’t depict how Einstein and Oppenheimer met, but the pair knew each other through their work, as shown in the film. Both Einstein and Oppenheimer were theoretical physicists, though Einstein is largely celebrated and Oppenheimer has a more complex legacy to grapple with. Oppenheimer and Einstein were colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study when Oppenheimer became its director in 1947, a few years after the completion of the Manhattan Project. They then worked together until Einstein died in 1955. The years after the Manhattan Project are those that Oppenheimer focuses on with Einstein, as Oppenheimer reflected on the impact of the bomb he’d created.

Albert Einstein’s Equations Were The Basis For The Atomic Bomb

Albert Einstein was born in 1897 and is thought to be one of the most influential scientists of all time. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which states that both space and time are relative, and thus all motion must be relative to a frame of reference. Whether the general public understands Einstein’s work, they have likely heard of his name and his equation E=mc2 for his theory of special relativity. In the equation, E stands for energy, m stands for an object’s mass, and c2 is the speed of light multiplied by itself.

This equation was then infamously used to help explain the energy that an atomic bomb releases. Throughout Oppenheimer, the titular scientist works to get everything just right for the atoms to split apart in the fission process where the mass of the original atoms is converted to energy. In 1905, Einstein became the first scientist to mathematically prove the existence of an atom, which became the foundation of atomic theory and eventually led to the work done in the Manhattan Project. Without Einstein’s mathematic contributions, the atomic bomb wouldn’t have been possible, helping to explain his involvement in Oppenheimer.

Einstein’s Letters To Roosevelt Prompted America’s Atomic Bomb Research

Around the World Wars, there was much panic about a possible attack on United States soil, which became founded with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese military. However, two years before this, a month before World War I even began, Albert Einstein signed a letter he helped write with Leo Szilard warning President Roosevelt that Germany might be developing atomic bombs and suggesting that the United States should start a nuclear program of its own. A few years later, this would develop into Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project.

Einstein had also written to Roosevelt on the possibility of an atomic bomb in the first place based on his research. Though Einstein wasn’t American, the Jewish scientist had fled Germany in 1932 along with many other Jewish refugees, making him very familiar with the threat the Nazis posed. Though Einstein himself was not a part of the Manhattan Project and never worked on the bomb directly, he was very influential in its creation, as shown in Oppenheimer.

Albert Einstein Regretted His Role In The Atomic Bomb’s Creation

Like Oppenheimer, he struggled with the effects of the bomb

A major subplot in Oppenheimer was Strauss’s obsession with what Einstein and Oppenheimer had said to each other early on in the film. It was revealed that Oppenheimer told Einstein he was afraid he had destroyed the world by creating the atomic bomb, as it could start a chain reaction in which other nations attempted to outdo each other in a nuclear war. Einstein was already having these thoughts himself by the time they spoke in Oppenheimer.

Einstein spoke out against the Manhattan Project following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Somewhat fortunately, it was discovered that the Germans hadn’t even been close to developing an atomic bomb as he’d believed and shared with the president. Einstein later said that if he’d known that, he never would have helped write and sign that letter. Einstein even went on to refer to the letters to Roosevelt as the “one great mistake in my life.” Though Oppenheimer didn’t include the letters, it did include Einstein and his regrettable involvement in the creation of the atomic bomb.