Was Oppenheimer really the ‘father’ of the atomic bomb?

As Christopher Nolan’s epic is released, other great men and women surely deserve ‘parenthood’ of this moment in history, says Guy Walters

Physicist J Robert Oppenheimer was one of many scientists and administrators responsible for the development of the atomic bomb (AP)

It is always too easy to fall for the great man – or great woman – theory of history. Massive world-changing events, discoveries, inventions, you name it, all can readily be ascribed to a single individual, thereby making historical analysis a complete breeze. The Second World War? Blame Hitler. The theory of gravity? Isaac Newton, nobody else. The collapse of the Soviet Union? Why, that was none other than Gorbachev.

Nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than with the coverage surrounding the release of Christopher Nolan’s new epic, Oppenheimer. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past fortnight – or are solely interested in Barbie – the film is a biopic of American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, who was the director of the laboratory in New Mexico where the first atomic bomb was developed. As a result, Oppenheimer is often labelled the “father of the atomic bomb”.

So firmly has this label stuck, surely to be further cemented by Nolan’s film, that it is gospel the first nuke was essentially the product of one great man. It hasn’t hurt that, because of his mysticism, pacifism, sexual liberation and left-wing politics, a cult of personality has built up around Oppenheimer. This has increased that sense of individualism, because the notion that the atomic bomb was singly fathered by a quirky genius is incredibly seductive.