Who was Lewis Strauss, Oppenheimer’s enemy, and how did he die?

Warning: this note contains spoilers for the Oppenheimer film.

With seven prizes Oscar Awards , Oppenheimer Has become the movie of the year. And the way Christopher Nolan and his team recounted the life of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, brought ovations, applause and recognition that, without a doubt, will go down in cinema history.

Besides the scientist, One of the characters that has captured the public’s attention is Lewis Strauss, the politician who initially captivates us with his good intentions but who turns into a clever villain who attempts to destroy Oppenheimer’s reputation.

Portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., who won the award for Best Supporting Actor— Strauss was a real-life character who, as we see in the story, had a lot of power and influence in the political world in which the father of the atomic bomb operated, although he never studied at the university.

It was his life and the moment when, for better or worse, he met the scientist who changed his life.

According to BBC , Lewis Strauss and J. Robert Oppenheimer always had ideological differences which were later extrapolated to their views on science and nuclear energy.

But before crossing paths, Strauss had a life very different from that of his enemy, born with several privileges. In its place, He grew up in a Jewish family in West Virginia, and although he always wanted to become a physicist, his financial situation did not allow it.

That is why I couldn’t go to college and, for several years, he had to sell shoes to help his family.

However, He got his first job en route to promotion by offering Republican politician Herbert Hoover to be his assistant without expecting any compensation in return. This is how the man became his mentor and over the years he managed to become an investment banker and become a millionaire.

“Strauss rose to the top through talent, ambition, choosing the right company and the right wife, and the chance to start in prosperous times.” said his biographer Richard Pfau, according to the BBC.

Balancing between his career at the bank, the help he provided to Jewish families and his political life, Strauss became a member of the Ordnance Bureau where he gained reputation and privilege through his intelligence. During World War II, his knowledge was essential to the United States.

However, the death of his parents had a huge impact on him. They died of cancer, so he wanted to invest some of his money in developing new treatments. This is where it meets nuclear energy.

Strauss was not involved in the Manhattan Project seen in the film.

But After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonations, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the Atomic Energy Commission. and successfully promoted a surveillance system that detected the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb test.

At this moment, With the United States no longer the only country to possess nuclear bombs, Strauss proposed and defended the development of the hydrogen bomb. But It is a weapon much more powerful than the atomic bomb, and it was there that he had his first meeting with Oppenheimer.

The father of the atomic bomb enjoyed great credibility and reputation through his work at Los Alamos, and his opinion mattered greatly in the nuclear weapons debate. He has always been an opponent of hydrogen bombs. and defended that the country should have a policy of transparency regarding which nuclear weapons it possessed and how many.

This, To Strauss, this indicated that Oppenheimer wanted to benefit the Soviets and could maintain relations with them. His suspicions grow when he learns that his brother and his wife belong to the Communist Party.

Eventually, the U.S. government was convinced to build the hydrogen bomb, and Strauss ended up heading the Atomic Energy Commission.

Once, They tested thermonuclear weapons which contaminated part of the Pacific Ocean, which had consequences for the inhabitants of the neighboring islands, but Strauss tried to cover up the effects and downplay the problem. Thus, he gave free rein to nuclear testing.

As for Oppenheimer, Strauss took his position on the sole condition that J. Robert not be authorized to access classified information on nuclear matters. Additionally, he tasked the FBI with “monitoring” his movements.

It is at this moment in the story that the scenes seen in the film take place: Oppenheimer is subject to a hearing to revoke his security clearance before members and an attorney appointed by Strauss.

It was concluded that Oppenheimer could pose a risk to national security. The publicity ended his career and his credibility. And we will have to wait until 2022 for the US Department of Energy to question the procedure to which the scientist was subjected.

However, after the hearingStrauss’s life did not follow a good course either: President Eisenhower, in 1958, wanted to give Strauss the position of White House Commerce Secretary which had to be ratified by the Senate, however, the politicians voted ” No ” .

With this humiliation, Strauss’s career ended.

The man died at the age of 77 (in 1974) from lymphoma.

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