Most people know Oppenheimer as the leader of the Manhattan Project – the organization that developed the atomic bomb for the United States in World War II. Some also recognize the name Heisenberg. Not the Walter White character from Breaking Bad, but Nazi Germany’s top theoretical physicist. In 1928 these two were friends working on co-authoring research together. In the years that followed both learned to read Sanskrit because they wanted to make sure they didn’t misunderstand anything in India’s ancient texts.  They soon gave the world their best work, with new concepts like quantum physics, black holes, and uncertainty.  In 1939 Heisenberg was in the United States, when Oppenheimer said Hitler was a menace and they should work together against the Nazis.  Heisenberg disagreed; he felt that Hitler and the Nazis were a passing fad that wouldn’t last long – and that Germany needed him.  Heisenberg returned home, and by 1942 they were on opposite sides of an atomic arms race. 

One man almost helped the Nazis achieve an atomic victory. Fortunately others steered events in another direction; making sure Hitler was unable to nuke New York and Moscow to win the war. There is also a third nuclear scientist central to this story, one who is almost unknown – but he was just as important as Oppenheimer or Heisenberg. You might be surprised by the details, because the truth is not as simple as the lies which have been substituted as history. If you want to learn why the race to use the first atomic bombs was much closer than we were taught, you’ve got the right book.

Oppenheimer and Heisenberg: Friends, Enemies, and Architects of Destiny