How we cite our quotes: Chapter name.(Chapter Number).Paragraph
Quote #7
"[Heisenberg] was worth more to us than ten divisions of Germans," said Groves. "Had he fallen into Russian hands, he would have proven invaluable to them." (Falling Stars.(28).40)
The thing about any competition is that if you're working in teams, you always want to make sure you have the best players. Heisenberg was Germany's top physicist, and he knew more about nuclear weaponry than anyone outside of Los Alamos. So if the Russians had gotten to him first, and he agreed to cooperate, they would have gained themselves a very valuable asset.
Quote #8
Then they began trying to convince themselves they could have built the bomb—if they had really wanted to.
"If we had all wanted Germany to win the war, we would have succeeded," claimed Carl von Weizsacker.
"I don't believe that," said Hahn, "but I am thankful we didn't succeed."
"The Americans could do it better than we could, that's clear," added Horst Korsching. (Reaction Begins.(34).36-39)
It's hard to lose a competition. These German scientists seem to handle it pretty well, but then again, it wasn't their country that got bombed.
Quote #9
"It is our hope that in years to come we may look at this school, and all that it signifies, with pride," Oppenheimer told the crowd. "Today that pride must be tempered with a profound concern," he continued. "If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima.
"The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish." (Father of the Bomb.(36).20-21)
This is the worst part of an arms race: Just because someone won doesn't mean everyone else is going to stop. Unfortunately, in arms races (instead of, say, foot races), instead of medals or trophies, the prize is the ability to inflict massive death and destruction on one's enemies. The more nations that have those tools, the more people will die. Oppenheimer, in those heady days immediately post-Hiroshima, was one of the only people to see atomic bombs as a source of international terror.