The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race

New York: Viking, 2005. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 373, [1] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Minor page discoloration. Minor edge soiling. Priscilla Johnson McMillan is a distinguished author and journalist focusing on U.S. foreign policy, the arms race, and the Cold War. She has published three books: Khrushchev and the Arts, Marina and Lee, and The Ruin of Robert J. Oppenheimer. Priscilla is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard, and is active in civil liberties, arms control, and environmental causes. A narrative based on newly declassified government documents and in-depth interviews describes the years during which scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and a group of scientists worked to prevent rivals from building more dangerous nuclear weapons only to become the victims of a McCarthy-era conspiracy. Only 40,000 in the first printing! During the 1980's, members of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee of New Mexico approached Priscilla McMillan and suggested that she write a new account of the Oppenheimer affair. They offered her no money, but a free hand and access to some of the older scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Priscilla learned a little physics and a lot about the classification system by which the government holds onto its secrets. And she remembered a good deal about her younger days, when Joe McCarthy ran rampant. She hoped that The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer will stand as a warning against a government that excites fear among its people, the better to rob them of their civil liberties.