VIII: Ivy
How Operation Ivy fulfilled Oppenheimer's fears.
Good morning. Today is octidi, the 18th of Frimaire, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate le lierre, a plant that's synonymous with climbing.
Ivy was the end of the road for J. Robert Oppenheimer. The "father of the atomic bomb," who famously had severe misgivings about his work after witnessing the Manhattan Project tests in New Mexico – not to mention seeing the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – lobbied President Harry Truman to develop an international consortium that would oversee all nuclear weapons.
Not only did Truman disagree (he was fearful of the Soviet Union developing the same weapons, which, of course, they did), but he threw Oppenheimer out of the Oval Office and ordered the creation of then-theoretical hydrogen bombs, 500 to 1,000 times more powerful than the weapons dropped on Japan.
While Oppenheimer initially reviewed the plans and confirmed they were scientifically possible, he also used his government clearance and status to do anything he could to delay the tests and, if possible, cancel them. This led to trials regarding his loyalty and his eventual exile from government and academic circles.
The name of the tests he so vigorously opposed? Operation Ivy, and the effects of that test are still wreaking havoc in the Pacific Ocean to this day.
