The atomic bomb was invented by his grandfather. A nuclear conference is now what Charles Oppenheimer desires

Charles Oppenheimer is aware that bearing his family name carries a lot of responsibility.

He’s the grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb and the physicist who oversaw the Manhattan Project. Years before the 2023 movie “Oppenheimer” restored his grandfather’s name and reputation to the American public’s attention, the 50-year-old tech investor entered the armaments control sphere.

The younger Oppenheimer, who lives in San Francisco, wants to fulfill his grandfather’s unfulfilled (and little-known) aim of limiting the weapons his family helped bring into the world in this 80th anniversary year of the atomic bombings and the conclusion of World War II. Prior to the August 15 summit between Russian President Vladimir putin and President Donald Trump, Oppenheimer spoke with USA TODAY.

Although both leaders indicated that nuclear arms limitation was a priority, no publicly recognized advancements on that front were made during the summit in Anchorage, Alaska.

The final arms limitation agreement between the US and Russia, known as the New START deal, is set to expire in February 2026. The agreement specifies verification procedures like inspections and restricts the two nations to maintaining no more than 1,550 strategic (or long-range) nuclear warheads in readiness for launch at any one time.

Some lawmakers and proponents of nuclear risk reduction worry that a new three-way weapons race between China, the US, and Russia may begin as a result of the termination of New START.

The treaty is crucial in helping the two nations comprehend how each other’s nuclear forces are arranged, according to Paul Dean, a former senior U.S. arms control official who was the American commissioner for the New START oversight board, who spoke to USA TODAY. According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative executive, losing that “day-to-day picture” might make it more likely that the United States and Russia will misunderstand or miscalculate nuclear weapons in a “catastrophic” way.

“All international arrangements that are required”

According to Oppenheimer, a seasoned Silicon Valley investor and the creator of the Oppenheimer Project, “I, as an Oppenheimer, often get asked on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 about those symbolic dates,” referring to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought an end to World War II. He stated that August 17, 1945, is the day he is most concerned about.

That day, as a member of a group of civilian scientists assigned to write a study on the future of nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer’s grandfather wrote a top-secret letter to Secretary of War Henry Stimson.

Less than two weeks after the US unleashed atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the letter was sent. Since then, no country has engaged in combat with nuclear weapons.

The Manhattan Project physicists’ committee, which included Nobel Prize winners Arthur Compton, Ernest Lawrence, and Enrico Fermi, as well as Oppenheimer, stated in the letter that they had “been unable to devise… effective military countermeasures for atomic weapons,” and that the development of the hydrogen bomb would only make nuclear weapons more potent. (In November 1952, the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb in history, vaporizing a coral island in the Marshall Islands in an explosion thousands of times bigger than the Hiroshima bomb, according to physicists.)

In their letter, the physicists also contended that the US could not continue to possess nuclear weapons alone.

“We believe that the safety of this nation…. can be based only on making future wars impossible,” the elder Oppenheimer wrote. “It is our unanimous and urgent recommendation to you that … all steps be taken, all necessary international arrangements be made, to this end.”

The “incredible foresight” of the letter was lauded by Oppenheimer’s grandson, who described his predecessor and his associates as “the ones who understood what was at stake, what was going to happen and how to prevent… an arms race.”

Is Trump a nuclear tyrant?

There are currently thousands of nuclear weapons in the world, and if New START expires without a successor agreement or executive agreement in place, the top nuclear powers will have an uncontrolled relationship for the first time since the original Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty between the US and the USSR went into effect in 1972.

In light of the deteriorating nuclear ties between the US and Russia, Oppenheimer believes that Trump has the potential to shift the game. Even if tensions between the US and China or Russia persist, he believes a conversation about nuclear weapons might still take place.

“It doesn’t matter how much we hate each other, (or) how many wars or skirmishes we’re in – you have to talk about the (nuclear) weapons issue, no matter what the circumstances are,” he stated. “And Trump provides a rare potential break in that because he’s saying that we should negotiate with China and Russia.”

Trump’s “best quality as a leader,” Oppenheimer believes, is his well-documented and “genuine belief” that nuclear weapons are dangerous for the world.

Despite the fact that the Biden administration extended the agreement and the Obama administration negotiated New START, many arms control advocates, including Oppenheimer, are cautiously optimistic about their cause due to Trump’s personal views on nuclear weapons, his reputation as a dealmaker, and his desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump’s advantage, according to Oppenheimer, is paradoxical since, although they are simpler to make, agreements between presidents of state only endure as long as their respective political governments. Formal treaties, ratified by each country’s law-making body, are required to make such accords permanent.

Oppenheimer isn’t discouraged, despite the fact that a comprehensive treaty discussion may not be possible before New START’s demise. He views this as a chance for Trump, Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping to improve global security.

He contended, “Let’s at least have the discussion” between leaders. “Let’s at least get together for a dinner or a summit and … at least try to have the kind of human, personal connection between the leaders to see if there’s something they can come up with.”

The IT investor even volunteered to host, chuckling.

“I don’t have the right to invite world leaders to dinner, but I’m doing it anyway … trying to back the idea that there should be trilateral discussions about nuclear threat reduction,” Oppenheimer said.