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The chess master and the checkers players: the curious case of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Article Excerpt
A film review of the Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by David Grubin, as part of the American Experience for PBS in association with the BBC. January 26, 2009.

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DURING THE RUN LIP TO THE 2004 presidential election between John Kerry and George W. Bush, I appeared as a guest on the comedian and social commentator Dennis Miller's television talk show on CNBC, in which he made the following comparison: John Kerry is like a wickedly smart chess player, capable of looking ahead many moves, anticipating what his opponent might do, and carefully weighing all his options before arriving at a rational decision. By contrast, George W. Bush is more like a checkers player, moving by instinct and glancing around the board for an easy way to king his men. In this world of good and evil, Miller explained, simple black and white thinking based on unwavering principles of absolute right and wrong trumps the drawn-out consideration of the nuanced thinker. In other words, with evil empires and malevolent terrorists on the loose, Miller prefered a checkers player to a chess master.

I thought about this comparison of cognitive styles while previewing the documentary film The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, produced by David Grubin which aired January 26, 2009 on PBS. The film includes archival footage and photographs with voice over commentary, along with a reenactment of the government's security hearing of Oppenheimer for alleged security breeches, in which the actor David Strathairn plays Oppenheimer...

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