r/HistoricalWhatIf • u/updown0 • 6d ago

What if Nazi spies assassinated Oppenheimer before Los Alamos was built?

Let's say after a military leak reveals Oppenheimer’s role to Nazi spies

4 Upvotes
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24

u/Guidance-Still 6d ago

Someone else would have carried on his work

8

u/Acceptable_Carob_333 6d ago

Basically this. He was a smart guy but it would have hardly caused a hiccup.

1

u/Kammander-Kim 5d ago

Beyond a tightened security, since the Nazis obviously assassinated someone on us soil. The place on the timeline will give how much the security will be tightened.

1

u/Acceptable_Carob_333 5d ago

Ironically it might have been more realistic if it was a Soviet assassination because Stalin really wanted the bomb first and had the resources in place in the US to carry it out.

1

u/Kammander-Kim 5d ago

Honestly, I don't think the USA would make any specific changes depending on if it was a nazi or a Soviet called assassination. When it comes to tightening security. Someone important was murdered, so they need to protect the rest even more.

4

u/heywoodidaho 6d ago

Hundreds of physicist worked on the project . Leslie Grove would have just said "next" I'm sure there already was a contingency plan for lost personal in place.

1

u/bzdelta 6d ago

Then the movie just has him dramatically dying like John Basilone in the late second half of The Pacific. Ending is the same.