This is a follow-up question to this question. I thought that it was better to post this as a second, related question though to avoid the original question from being too broad.
Wikipedia describes Dr. Robert Stadler from Atlas Shrugged as follows:
A former professor at Patrick Henry University, and along with colleague Hugh Akston, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He has since become a sell-out, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval, to the detriment of the free. He works at the State Science Institute where all his inventions are perverted for use by the military, including the instrument of his demise: Project X (Xylophone). The character was, in part, modeled on J. Robert Oppenheimer, whom Rand had interviewed for an earlier project, and his part in the creation of nuclear weapons. To his former student Galt, Stadler represents the epitome of human evil, as the "man who knew better" but chose not to act for the good.
Is this accurate? Did such an interview take place? If so, what was the subject of the interview, and what did they talk about?
Did Ayn Rand use the material from the interview? If so, how, and on which project?
Did Rand believe Oppenheimer to be evil at the time that she interviewed him, or did she only come to that opinion later? If she believed him to be evil at the time, why did she interview him? Was Oppenheimer aware of her opinion of him? If so, why did he consent to the interview?
