Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Do you think Truman really saved thousands of American lives by dropping the bomb? Does it make his decision better or worse knowing what we know now about how terrible the bomb's effects were? And is it fair to justify using such a horrible weapon at such a terrible cost?
- If you were Harry Gold, would you have tried harder to get out of being a spy? Would you have chosen to not tell your fiancé about your second life like he did, or would you be more of a Ted Hall and have full disclosure?
- Oppenheimer must have known that visiting Jean Tatlock while working on something super-duper secret would be a bad idea. Why do you think he risked it?
- Toward the end of the book, Truman seems to thirst for more and more bombs against many experts' advice. Do you think he was compensating for feeling guilty about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? When he yells at Oppenheimer for feeling like he has "blood on his hands," is he so angry because he feels the same way?
- Did Lewis Strauss have another reason for wanting Oppenheimer out of the way? Why lead such a horrific witch-hunt against a man who so obviously just wanted the best for his country?
- Does the theory of nuclear deterrence really work? Or have we just gotten lucky so far?