AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer Preview (Season 23)

J. Robert Oppenheimer was brilliant, arrogant, proud, charismatic — and a national hero. Under his leadership during World War II, the United States succeeded in becoming the first nation to harness the power of nuclear energy to create the ultimate weapon of mass destruction — the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him, humiliated him, and cast him aside. The question this film asks is, “Why?” Watch the broadcast of THE TRIALS OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER on Monday, May 23 at 9/8c on PBS (check your local listings).