#215: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves (The General and the Genius)

The partnership between General Leslie Groves and the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the great stories of the Second World War. And it was as unexpected as it was successful. There was little in either man's life before nineteen forty two to suggest that the general and the physicist would ever meet. Much less form a close working association to develop an atomic bomb. They came from very different cultural and economic backgrounds.

Their careers alone would have kept them apart. Had not the war thrown them together? And change their lives utterly. In Robert Oppenheimer, Leslie Groves found the man to help him achieve fame and success through the creation of a secret weapon that could end America's greatest war. Oppenheimer did that by recruiting scientists and engineers.

Inspiring them. And under Grove's supervision, leading them in creating the new bomb. In Groves, Robert Oppenheimer found the man who would reinvigorate his career and give direction to his life. Groves did that by giving him an unimaginably grand scientific and engineering task. Along with virtually unlimited resources.

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