One day in the spring of 1954, J. Robert Oppenheimer ran into Albert Einstein outside their offices at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Oppenheimer had been the director of the Institute since 1947 and Einstein a faculty member since he fled Germany in 1933. The two men might argue about quantum physics — Einstein grumbled that he just didn’t think that God played dice with the universe — but they were good friends.
1954年春的一天，羅伯特·奧本海默在新澤西州普林斯頓高等研究院的辦公室外偶遇阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦。奧本海默自1947年起擔任該研究院院長，而愛因斯坦自1933年逃離德國以來一直是這裏的教員。兩人會就量子物理學爭論不休——愛因斯坦忿忿不平地說，他就是不相信上帝會擲骰子——但他們是好朋友。
Oppenheimer took the occasion to explain to Einstein that he was going to be absent from the Institute for some weeks. He was being forced to defend himself in Washington, D.C., during a secret hearing against charges that he was a security risk, and perhaps even disloyal. Einstein argued that Oppenheimer “had no obligation to subject himself to the witch-hunt, that he had served his country well, and that if this was the reward she [America] offered he should turn his back on her.” Oppenheimer demurred, saying he could not turn his back on America. “He loved America,” said Verna Hobson, his secretary who was a witness to the conversation, “and this love was as deep as his love of science.”
奧本海默借此機會向愛因斯坦解釋，他要離開研究院幾個星期。他被迫要在華盛頓的一場秘密聽證會上為自己辯護，因為有人指控他構成安全威脅，甚至可能背叛國家。愛因斯坦認為，奧本海默“沒有義務讓自己成為政治迫害的對象，他為國家做出了很好的貢獻，如果這就是她（美國）提供的獎勵，他應該拋棄她”。奧本海默表示反對，說他不能背棄美國。“他愛美國，”他的秘書、目擊了這次談話的維爾納·霍布森說，“這種愛就像他對科學的熱愛一樣深沉。”
“Einstein doesn’t understand,” Oppenheimer told Ms. Hobson. But as Einstein walked back into his office he told his assistant, nodding in the direction of Oppenheimer, “There goes a narr [fool].”
“愛因斯坦不明白，”奧本海默告訴霍布森。但當愛因斯坦走回辦公室的時候，他朝奧本海默的方向示意，對自己的助手說，“那是個傻瓜。”
