The development of Dr. Oppenheimer’s own opinions is perfectly clear. Like many others of liberal outlook he had when young hopes that it might be possible to co-operate with the Soviet Government. These hopes gradually faded and finally died at the time of the Russian rejection of the Baruch Plan. A propos of this, he says: “Openness, friendliness and co-operation did not seem to be what the Soviet Government most prized on this earth. … We came to grips, or began to come to grips, with the massive evidences of Soviet hostility.” From these and many other passages it is clear that Dr. Oppenheimer’s attitude to Russia had become all that the American authorities could wish.

But he has been aware at an earlier date than the leading statesmen of the world that modern weapons have made a great deal of past military thought completely inapplicable. It is no longer useful to possess more bombs than the enemy if each side possesses enough to inflict total disaster. As Dr. Oppenheimer puts it: “Our twenty-thousandth bomb, useful as it may be in filling the vast munitions pipe-lines of a great war, will not in any deep strategic sense offset their two-thousandth.” I think that the Big Four at Geneva understood this situation, but there is still a feeling in many quarters that it is not quite nice to be frank about it.

Dr. Oppenheimer’s opinions on world affairs are temperately expressed and, to my mind at least, are just and wise. He is quite clear that there is only one ultimate solution for our problem, and that is World Government: “Many have said that without World Government there could be no permanent peace, and without peace there would be atomic warfare. I think one must agree with this.” He goes on to say that to outlaw atomic weapons will only be possible if international law can apply to the citizens of nations, and that international control is not compatible with absolute national sovereignty. But he admits, fully and frankly, that there is little hope of international government in any near future. For the near future his hopes are directed mainly towards a diminution of secrecy and suspicion, and an increase of friendly intercourse. But he realizes that it may be a long time before such palliatives bring about any fundamental improvement.

There is an interesting address on the encouragement of science, in which he points out, as many others have done, that it lies within the power of science to abolish poverty everywhere. “Science can provide us,” he says, “for the first time in history, with the means of abating hunger for everyone on earth.” While urging the importance of preserving peace, he refuses to admit that it has become the one absolute final objective of all political decisions. “There are,” he says, “other things in man’s life—his freedom, his decency, his sense of right and wrong—that cannot so lightly be subjected to a single end.” I think the feeling which led him to say this is a right one. Subordination of all other ends to one is the essence of fanaticism and involves a quite undue simplification. But there is something new in our present problem: Freedom and decency and sense of right and wrong will disappear along with all other human values if human life is exterminated. All human values depend upon the continued existence of the human species, and this aim must therefore dominate all others.

In spite of nuclear weapons, Dr. Oppenheimer is a firm believer in the value of science, but he is not certain that science will survive. He says: “It is possible, manifestly, for society so to arrange things that there is no science. The Nazis made a good start in that direction; maybe the Communists will achieve it; and there is not one of us free of the worry that this flourishing tree may someday not be alive any more.” I cannot myself believe that science is likely to decay in a world in which scientific war is possible. Unless all civilization collapses nations will continue to value science so long as, without actual war, the danger of war persists. We must hope that if peace became secure science would again be valued as it used to be for better reasons than the ability to inflict larger-scale slaughter.