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J. Robert Oppenheimer (view source)

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'''Julius<ref>Although Oppenheimer always insisted that the initial J. in his name stood for "nothing" (Jeremy Bernstein, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=kajvAAAAMAAJ Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma]'' [Ivan R. Dee, 2004] ISBN 1566635691, p. x), his birth certificate identifies him as "Julius Robert Oppenheimer." [[#refPK|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 355</ref> Robert Oppenheimer''' (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and director of the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]], one of four laboratories<ref>The others were the [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/fermi.html Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago], under [http://www.aip.org/history/gap/Compton/Compton.html Arthur Compton];[https://web.archive.org/web/20130906064529/http://www.ornl.gov/ornl/news/communications/graphite-reactor Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tennessee], under [http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter1.shtml Martin Whitaker]; and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20111023190523/http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/WorldWarIIEra Hanford Engineer Works] in Hanford, Washington, under Crawford Greenewalt. S. L. Sanger, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=tgjuoe2W4BoC Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford]'' (Continuing Education Press, 1995) ISBN 0876781156, p. 3. Cf. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100527133244/http://www.energy.gov/media/Manhattan_Project_Map.pdf Manhattan Project Map], United States Department of Energy</ref> involved in the [[Manhattan Project]] to develop the first [[atomic bomb]]. He was also a secret member of the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, tr. Philip Redko, Yellow notebook #1 (Cold War International History Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Yellow_Notebook_No._1_Original.pdf orig.], PDF p. 6; [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Yellow_Notebook_No.1_Translated.pdf trans.], p. 10. Cf. [[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 120; [[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 49</ref>

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'''Julius<ref>Although Oppenheimer always insisted that the initial J. in his name stood for "nothing" (Jeremy Bernstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=kajvAAAAMAAJ Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma]'' [Ivan R. Dee, 2004] ISBN 1566635691, p. x), his birth certificate identifies him as "Julius Robert Oppenheimer." [[#refPK|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 355</ref> Robert Oppenheimer''' (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and director of the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]], one of four laboratories<ref>The others were the [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/fermi.html Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago], under [http://www.aip.org/history/gap/Compton/Compton.html Arthur Compton];[https://web.archive.org/web/20130906064529/http://www.ornl.gov/ornl/news/communications/graphite-reactor Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tennessee], under [http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter1.shtml Martin Whitaker]; and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20111023190523/http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/WorldWarIIEra Hanford Engineer Works] in Hanford, Washington, under Crawford Greenewalt. S. L. Sanger, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tgjuoe2W4BoC Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford]'' (Continuing Education Press, 1995) ISBN 0876781156, p. 3. Cf. [http://web.archive.org/web/20100527133244/http://www.energy.gov/media/Manhattan_Project_Map.pdf Manhattan Project Map], United States Department of Energy</ref> involved in the [[Manhattan Project]] to develop the first [[atomic bomb]]. He was also a secret member of the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, tr. Philip Redko, Yellow notebook #1 (Cold War International History Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Yellow_Notebook_No._1_Original.pdf orig.], PDF p. 6; [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Yellow_Notebook_No.1_Translated.pdf trans.], p. 10. Cf. [[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 120; [[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 49</ref>

Like other [[liberal]]s, Oppenheimer was not as smart as he wanted to be: he was rejected by [[Ernest Rutherford]] as a student, and was not at the high level of [[Enrico Fermi]], [[John von Neumann]], or [[Robert Dicke]]. Like a fellow communist later on, former [[CIA]] director [[John Brennan]], Oppenheimer's security clearance was permanently revoked by presidential directive for [[colluding]] with the [[KGB]] and sparking the [[Cold War]] nuclear arms race.

== Early life ==

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Oppenheimer was born in [[New York]] in 1904,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 7 (PDF 17)</ref> the eldest son of Julius and Ella (née Freedman) Oppenheimer. His father was a wealthy textile importer who had immigrated from [[Germany]] in 1895, his mother a scion of [[Philadelphia]] society who had studied painting in Paris.<ref>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/oppenheimer.shtml The Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945], Los Alamos National Laboratory</ref> They collected original art, including a Renoir and three Van Goghs; they also owned a 40-foot yacht,<ref>[[#refPK06|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 4</ref> and his father gave him his own 27-foot sloop.<ref>[[#refRhodes86|Rhodes 1986]]: 123</ref> Precocious but socially backward, Oppenheimer began collecting minerals at age five, was elected to the New York Minerological Club at eleven,<ref>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/oppenheimer.shtml The Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945], Los Alamos National Laboratory</ref> and delivered his first paper there at age 12.<ref>Peter Goodchild, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=A4MgAQAAIAAJ J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds]'' (Fromm International Pub. Corp., 1985) ISBN 0880640219, p. 11</ref> His shy awkwardness earned him the nickname "Booby" Oppenheimer among his peers; he was bullied, culminating in being locked naked in an icehouse overnight as retribution for alleged tattling.<ref>[[#refSW95|Smith, Weiner 1995]]: 4</ref>

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Oppenheimer was born in [[New York]] in 1904,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 7 (PDF 17)</ref> the eldest son of Julius and Ella (née Freedman) Oppenheimer. His father was a wealthy textile importer who had immigrated from [[Germany]] in 1895, his mother a scion of [[Philadelphia]] society who had studied painting in Paris.<ref>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/oppenheimer.shtml The Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945], Los Alamos National Laboratory</ref> They collected original art, including a Renoir and three Van Goghs; they also owned a 40-foot yacht,<ref>[[#refPK06|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 4</ref> and his father gave him his own 27-foot sloop.<ref>[[#refRhodes86|Rhodes 1986]]: 123</ref> Precocious but socially backward, Oppenheimer began collecting minerals at age five, was elected to the New York Minerological Club at eleven,<ref>[http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/oppenheimer.shtml The Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945], Los Alamos National Laboratory</ref> and delivered his first paper there at age 12.<ref>Peter Goodchild, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=A4MgAQAAIAAJ J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds]'' (Fromm International Pub. Corp., 1985) ISBN 0880640219, p. 11</ref> His shy awkwardness earned him the nickname "Booby" Oppenheimer among his peers; he was bullied, culminating in being locked naked in an icehouse overnight as retribution for alleged tattling.<ref>[[#refSW95|Smith, Weiner 1995]]: 4</ref>

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Oppenheimer's parents were of [[Jewish]] descent, but did not observe religious traditions, sending him (via limousine)<ref>Jonathan Beard, "[http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18424793.500 Biographies: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Patrick Blackett]," ''New Scientist'', December 25, 2004</ref> to New York's elite<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 431</ref> Ethical Culture<ref>Sean McManus, "[http://nymag.com/news/features/46214/ If God Is Dead, Who Gets His House?]" ''New York'', April 21, 2008</ref> Society School.<ref>[http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967)], atomicarchive.com</ref> Ethical Culture, a [[Secular Humanism|secular humanist]] religion,<ref>[http://openjurist.org/249/f2d/127 Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia], 101 U.S. App. D.C. 371, 249 F.2d 127. Cf. Jone Johnson Lewis, [http://aeuleaders.net/web/content/ethical-culture-religion Ethical Culture as Religion], American Ethical Union Library, 2003; Tom Flynn, [http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=sh_defined2 Secular Humanism Defined], Council for Secular Humanism; [http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II Humanist Manifesto II], American Humanist Association</ref> is indifferent to the existence of [[God]], replacing the [[Ten Commandments]]<ref>[http://www.ethicalsociety.org/article.php?id=30 Is Ethical Culture based on Judaism and the Ten Commandments?], Washington Ethical Society</ref> with a commitment to "social justice."<ref>Joseph Chuman, [http://www.ethicalfocus.org/dr-joe-chuman/chuman-platforms/113-ethical-culture-and-the-ongoing-quest-for-social-justice Ethical Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Social Justice], The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County</ref> Such an education conditions students to yield to "the totalitarian temptation,"<ref>An "unacknowledged desire to live under Stalinism, not in spite of what it is, but because of what it is." Jean François Revel, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=HTqFAAAAMAAJ The Totalitarian Temptation]'' (Doubleday, 1977) ISBN 0385122748, p. 25</ref> as [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1974/hayek.html Nobel Prize-winning] economist [[Friedrich Hayek]] observed:

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Oppenheimer's parents were of [[Jewish]] descent, but did not observe religious traditions, sending him (via limousine)<ref>Jonathan Beard, "[http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18424793.500 Biographies: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Patrick Blackett]," ''New Scientist'', December 25, 2004</ref> to New York's elite<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 431</ref> Ethical Culture<ref>Sean McManus, "[http://nymag.com/news/features/46214/ If God Is Dead, Who Gets His House?]" ''New York'', April 21, 2008</ref> Society School.<ref>[http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967)], atomicarchive.com</ref> Ethical Culture, a [[Secular Humanism|secular humanist]] religion,<ref>[http://openjurist.org/249/f2d/127 Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia], 101 U.S. App. D.C. 371, 249 F.2d 127. Cf. Jone Johnson Lewis, [http://aeuleaders.net/web/content/ethical-culture-religion Ethical Culture as Religion], American Ethical Union Library, 2003; Tom Flynn, [http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=sh_defined2 Secular Humanism Defined], Council for Secular Humanism; [http://www.americanhumanist.org/Who_We_Are/About_Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II Humanist Manifesto II], American Humanist Association</ref> is indifferent to the existence of [[God]], replacing the [[Ten Commandments]]<ref>[http://www.ethicalsociety.org/article.php?id=30 Is Ethical Culture based on Judaism and the Ten Commandments?], Washington Ethical Society</ref> with a commitment to "social justice."<ref>Joseph Chuman, [http://www.ethicalfocus.org/dr-joe-chuman/chuman-platforms/113-ethical-culture-and-the-ongoing-quest-for-social-justice Ethical Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Social Justice], The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County</ref> Such an education conditions students to yield to "the totalitarian temptation,"<ref>An "unacknowledged desire to live under Stalinism, not in spite of what it is, but because of what it is." Jean François Revel, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HTqFAAAAMAAJ The Totalitarian Temptation]'' (Doubleday, 1977) ISBN 0385122748, p. 25</ref> as [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1974/hayek.html Nobel Prize-winning] economist [[Friedrich Hayek]] observed:

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{{cquote|'Social justice' can be given a meaning only in a directed or 'command' economy (such as an army) in which the individuals are ordered what to do; and any particular conception of 'social justice' could be realized only in such a centrally-directed system.<ref>Friedrich August Hayek, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=qq6p11NPdOoC Law, Legislation and Liberty: The Mirage of Social Justice]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1978) ISBN 0226320839, p. 69</ref>}}

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{{cquote|'Social justice' can be given a meaning only in a directed or 'command' economy (such as an army) in which the individuals are ordered what to do; and any particular conception of 'social justice' could be realized only in such a centrally-directed system.<ref>Friedrich August Hayek, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qq6p11NPdOoC Law, Legislation and Liberty: The Mirage of Social Justice]'' (University of Chicago Press, 1978) ISBN 0226320839, p. 69</ref>}}

Oppenheimer never did embrace [[Judaism]], turning instead to philosophical [[Hinduism]]. He apparently never studied [[Hebrew]] but learned [[Sanskrit]] and read the Bhavagad Gita in the original language; he would later list it as one of the ten books that did most to shape his “philosophy of life.”<ref>''[http://www.christiancentury.org/ Christian Century]'', May 15, 1963, p. 647, cited in James A. Hijiya, "[http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/Hijiya.pdf The Gita of Robert Oppenheimer]," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,'' Vol. 144, No. 2 (June 2000), p. 130 (PDF p. 8)</ref> What flashed through his mind upon witnessing the [[Trinity explosion]], he said, was a line from this Hindu scripture:

{{cquote|I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,853367,00.html The Eternal Apprentice]," ''Time'', November 8, 1948</ref><ref>Temperton, James (August 9, 2017). [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'. The story of Oppenheimer's infamous quote]. ''Wired''. Retrieved August 1, 2018.</ref>}}

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At Cambridge, Oppenheimer became deeply depressed and jealous of the success of some of the people around him, particularly of his tutor, the future [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1948/blackett-bio.html Nobel laureate] Patrick Blackett, three years his senior. According to Oppenheimer's friend John Edsall:

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{{cquote|Oppenheimer's feeling toward Blackett was one of intense admiration, combined perhaps with an intense jealousy—jealousy because of his feeling that Blackett was brilliant and handsome and a man of great social charm, and combining all this with great brilliance as a scientist—and I think he had a sense of his own comparative awkwardness and perhaps a sense of being physically unattractive compared to Blackett and so on.<ref>Charles Thorpe, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 39</ref>}}

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{{cquote|Oppenheimer's feeling toward Blackett was one of intense admiration, combined perhaps with an intense jealousy—jealousy because of his feeling that Blackett was brilliant and handsome and a man of great social charm, and combining all this with great brilliance as a scientist—and I think he had a sense of his own comparative awkwardness and perhaps a sense of being physically unattractive compared to Blackett and so on.<ref>Charles Thorpe, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 39</ref>}}

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In the fall of 1925, Oppenheimer left a "poisoned apple" laced with chemicals (possibly cyanide) from the laboratory on Blackett's desk.<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Mpgs6qqNERwC Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius]'' (Harvard University Press, 2008) ISBN 0674028287, p. 142</ref> University authorities immediately informed Oppenheimer's parents (who were visiting Cambridge at the time) what had happened. According to a Pulitzer Prize-winning<ref>[http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2006-Biography-or-Autobiography The 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners, Biography or Autobiography]</ref> biography of Oppenheimer:

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In the fall of 1925, Oppenheimer left a "poisoned apple" laced with chemicals (possibly cyanide) from the laboratory on Blackett's desk.<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Mpgs6qqNERwC Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius]'' (Harvard University Press, 2008) ISBN 0674028287, p. 142</ref> University authorities immediately informed Oppenheimer's parents (who were visiting Cambridge at the time) what had happened. According to a Pulitzer Prize-winning<ref>[http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2006-Biography-or-Autobiography The 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners, Biography or Autobiography]</ref> biography of Oppenheimer:

{{cquote|His father frantically—and successfully—lobbied the university not to press criminal charges. After protracted negotiations, it was agreed that Robert would be put on probation and have regular sessions with a prominent Harley Street psychiatrist in London. This Freudian analyst diagnosed dementia praecox, a now archaic label for symptoms associated with schizophrenia. He concluded that Oppenheimer was a hopeless case and that "further analysis would do more harm than good".<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 46</ref>}}

Oppenheimer went to Paris for a rest. His boyhood friend Francis Fergusson visited him there, and mentioned that he had become engaged. For the second time, Oppenheimer committed an apparent attempted murder:

{{cquote|"I leaned over to pick up a book," Fergusson recalled, "and he jumped on me from behind with a trunk strap and wound it around my neck. I was quite scared for a little while. We must have made some noise. And then I managed to pull aside and he fell on the ground weeping."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 47</ref>}}

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In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge for the University of Göttingen in Germany. He developed a reputation for obnoxiousness, once chiding a graduate student couple for what he called their "peasant" ways in not being able to afford a baby-sitter.<ref>David Bodanis, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=MmjreCHCq_gC E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation]'' (Random House, Inc., 2001) ISBN 0385258917, p. 147</ref> He had a habit of interrupting others (including his professor) and commandeering the blackboard; the future [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/mayer.html Nobel Prize-winner] Maria Göppart once presented Oppenheimer's faculty adviser, Max Born, with a petition threatening a boycott of his seminar unless the "child prodigy" were reigned in.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 60</ref> Oppenheimer obtained a Ph.D. in physics in 1927, then obtained a National Research Council fellowship funded by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 68</ref> He did post-doctoral work at Harvard, then the California Institute of Technology, finally taking a position as an associate professor of physics at the [[University of California at Berkeley]].

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In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge for the University of Göttingen in Germany. He developed a reputation for obnoxiousness, once chiding a graduate student couple for what he called their "peasant" ways in not being able to afford a baby-sitter.<ref>David Bodanis, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=MmjreCHCq_gC E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation]'' (Random House, Inc., 2001) ISBN 0385258917, p. 147</ref> He had a habit of interrupting others (including his professor) and commandeering the blackboard; the future [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/mayer.html Nobel Prize-winner] Maria Göppart once presented Oppenheimer's faculty adviser, Max Born, with a petition threatening a boycott of his seminar unless the "child prodigy" were reigned in.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 60</ref> Oppenheimer obtained a Ph.D. in physics in 1927, then obtained a National Research Council fellowship funded by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 68</ref> He did post-doctoral work at Harvard, then the California Institute of Technology, finally taking a position as an associate professor of physics at the [[University of California at Berkeley]].

== Scientific contributions ==

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== Personal life and Communist affiliation ==

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At Caltech, Oppenheimer had befriended Linus Pauling, and wrote him poems Pauling found "troubling," which included allusions to pederasty. Pauling broke off the friendship after Oppenheimer made a pass at his wife, Ava Helen Pauling, who told her husband, "I think he was in love with you."<ref>Thomas Hager, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=FNXaAAAAMAAJ Force of nature: the life of Linus Pauling]'' (Simon & Schuster, 1995) ISBN 0684809095, pp. 150-152</ref> At Berkeley, rumors circulated of an affair between Oppenheimer and a homosexual student who lived with him,<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the shadow of the bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the moral responsibility of the scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 203, n. 69. Oppenheimer's colleague Abrahaim Pais wrote that "I was convinced that strong latent homosexuality was an important ingredient in Robert's emotional makeup." (Abraham Pais, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=XrYrAAAAYAAJ A tale of two continents: a physicist's life in a turbulent world]'' [Oxford University Press, 1997] ISBN 0198501994, p. 241) One biographer comments, "it seems fairly likely that sexual ambivalence was one aspect of Oppenheimer's youthful problems of identity." Charles Thorpe, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 51</ref> but in 1936 he began an affair with Jean Tatlock, a medical student at Stanford<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 236</ref> and daughter of Oppenheimer's fellow Berkeley professor John S.P. Tatlock,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 109</ref> a contributor to ''[[Nation (magazine)|The Nation]]''.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/authors/john-s-p-tatlock Author Bios: John S.P. Tatlock, thenation.com]</ref> Then, In 1939, Oppenheimer began an affair with [http://foia.fbi.gov/oppenheimer_katherine/oppenheimer_katherine_part01.pdf Katherine "Kitty" Puening Dallet Harrison]. After moving in with Oppenheimer and becoming pregnant,<ref>David Cassidy, ''J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century'' (Pi Press: 2004) ISBN 0-13-147996-2, pp. 186-187</ref> Kitty abandoned her third husband,<ref>Richard Rhodes, "[~~http~~://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/review/15RHODESL.html Nuclear Options]," ''The New York Times'', May 15, 2005</ref> a cancer researcher at Caltech,<ref>[[#refSW95|Smith, Weiner 1995]]: 214</ref> to marry Oppenheimer in 1940, though he continued his affair with Tatlock until at least June 1943. During [[World War II]], while married to Kitty, Oppenheimer began an affair with another married woman, Ruth Tolman, the wife of Caltech physicist Richard Tolman, whom Oppenheimer testified was "a very close and dear friend of mine."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 363</ref> The affair "devastated Richard Tolman,"<ref>C. Mott Woolley, "[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE10Aa02.html The tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer]," ''Asia Times'', May 10, 2006</ref> who died, according to [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1939/lawrence.html Nobel Prize-winning] physicist Ernest Lawrence, "of a broken heart."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 365</ref> Kitty took to drinking.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 407-409</ref>

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At Caltech, Oppenheimer had befriended Linus Pauling, and wrote him poems Pauling found "troubling," which included allusions to pederasty. Pauling broke off the friendship after Oppenheimer made a pass at his wife, Ava Helen Pauling, who told her husband, "I think he was in love with you."<ref>Thomas Hager, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FNXaAAAAMAAJ Force of nature: the life of Linus Pauling]'' (Simon & Schuster, 1995) ISBN 0684809095, pp. 150-152</ref> At Berkeley, rumors circulated of an affair between Oppenheimer and a homosexual student who lived with him,<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the shadow of the bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the moral responsibility of the scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 203, n. 69. Oppenheimer's colleague Abrahaim Pais wrote that "I was convinced that strong latent homosexuality was an important ingredient in Robert's emotional makeup." (Abraham Pais, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XrYrAAAAYAAJ A tale of two continents: a physicist's life in a turbulent world]'' [Oxford University Press, 1997] ISBN 0198501994, p. 241) One biographer comments, "it seems fairly likely that sexual ambivalence was one aspect of Oppenheimer's youthful problems of identity." Charles Thorpe, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 51</ref> but in 1936 he began an affair with Jean Tatlock, a medical student at Stanford<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 236</ref> and daughter of Oppenheimer's fellow Berkeley professor John S.P. Tatlock,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 109</ref> a contributor to ''[[Nation (magazine)|The Nation]]''.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/authors/john-s-p-tatlock Author Bios: John S.P. Tatlock, thenation.com]</ref> Then, In 1939, Oppenheimer began an affair with [http://foia.fbi.gov/oppenheimer_katherine/oppenheimer_katherine_part01.pdf Katherine "Kitty" Puening Dallet Harrison]. After moving in with Oppenheimer and becoming pregnant,<ref>David Cassidy, ''J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century'' (Pi Press: 2004) ISBN 0-13-147996-2, pp. 186-187</ref> Kitty abandoned her third husband,<ref>Richard Rhodes, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/books/review/15RHODESL.html Nuclear Options]," ''The New York Times'', May 15, 2005</ref> a cancer researcher at Caltech,<ref>[[#refSW95|Smith, Weiner 1995]]: 214</ref> to marry Oppenheimer in 1940, though he continued his affair with Tatlock until at least June 1943. During [[World War II]], while married to Kitty, Oppenheimer began an affair with another married woman, Ruth Tolman, the wife of Caltech physicist Richard Tolman, whom Oppenheimer testified was "a very close and dear friend of mine."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 363</ref> The affair "devastated Richard Tolman,"<ref>C. Mott Woolley, "[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HE10Aa02.html The tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer]," ''Asia Times'', May 10, 2006</ref> who died, according to [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1939/lawrence.html Nobel Prize-winning] physicist Ernest Lawrence, "of a broken heart."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 365</ref> Kitty took to drinking.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 407-409</ref>

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Oppenheimer had a history of pro-Communist associations, starting at Caltech with Pauling, a "long-serving [[USSR|Soviet]] tool."<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=23794 Communists and Islamic Extremists - Then and Now]," FrontPageMagazine.com, July 8, 2002. A 1951 investigation by HUAC, then chaired by Democrat John Stephens Wood, concluded that Pauling was "primarily engrossed in placing his scientific attainments at the service of a host of organizations which have in common their complete subservience to the Communist Party, USA, and the Soviet Union. Professor Pauling has not deviated a hair's breadth from this pattern of loyalty to the Communist cause since 1946." (House Committee on Un-American Activities, ''[http://ia700404.us.archive.org/14/items/reportoncommunis00unit/reportoncommunis00unit_bw.pdf Report on the Communist "Peace" Offensive, the Attempt to Disarm and Defeat America]'' [Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1951], p. 86) In 1970, the Soviet government would reward Pauling for his long service [http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/peace/newsclips/1970n.13.html with the Lenin prize].</ref> Later, at Berkeley, Oppenheimer's mistress Tatlock was a [[Communist]],<ref>[[#refPK06|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 36</ref> as was his wife Kitty,<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 122. Cf. [[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 270</ref> [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/alba_032/bioghist.html widow of Communist political commissar Joe Dallet], killed in the [[Spanish Civil War]]<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/oppenheimer_katherine/oppenheimer_katherine_part01.pdf Hoover to Lansdale], May 23, 1944 (FBI file: Katherine Oppenheimer, PDF p. 2)</ref> (perhaps by his Soviet superiors, or fragged by his own men, according to various rumors).<ref>William Herrick, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=vKWZ9Vo69GwC Jumping the Line: The Adventures and Misadventures of an American Radical]'' (AK Press, 2001) ISBN 1902593421, p. 237</ref> In January 1944, Tatlock would be found drowned in her bathtub, in circumstances termed "suspicious."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 232, 253.</ref> Some writers suspect Soviet involvement in Tatlock's death. Stephen Schwartz mentions "Khyron"—the Cyrillic transliteration of Chyron, ferryman of the dead in ancient Greek mythology<ref>Stephen Schwartz, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=PvoUAAAAYAAJ From West To East: California and the Making of the American Mind]'' (Free Press, 1998) ISBN 0684831341, p. 380. Cf. Cornell Simpson, ''[http://www.amazon.com/death-James-Forrestal-Cornell-Simpson/dp/B0006BOU86 The Death of James Forrestal]'' (Western Islands, 1966) ASIN B0006BOU86)</ref>—which was also [[Grigory Kheifets|Kheifets]]' [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Venona-San%20Francisco-KGB.pdf code name].

+

Oppenheimer had a history of pro-Communist associations, starting at Caltech with Pauling, a "long-serving [[USSR|Soviet]] tool."<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=23794 Communists and Islamic Extremists - Then and Now]," FrontPageMagazine.com, July 8, 2002. A 1951 investigation by HUAC, then chaired by Democrat John Stephens Wood, concluded that Pauling was "primarily engrossed in placing his scientific attainments at the service of a host of organizations which have in common their complete subservience to the Communist Party, USA, and the Soviet Union. Professor Pauling has not deviated a hair's breadth from this pattern of loyalty to the Communist cause since 1946." (House Committee on Un-American Activities, ''[http://ia700404.us.archive.org/14/items/reportoncommunis00unit/reportoncommunis00unit_bw.pdf Report on the Communist "Peace" Offensive, the Attempt to Disarm and Defeat America]'' [Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1951], p. 86) In 1970, the Soviet government would reward Pauling for his long service [http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/peace/newsclips/1970n.13.html with the Lenin prize].</ref> Later, at Berkeley, Oppenheimer's mistress Tatlock was a [[Communist]],<ref>[[#refPK06|Pais, Crease 2006]]: 36</ref> as was his wife Kitty,<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 122. Cf. [[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 270</ref> [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/alba_032/bioghist.html widow of Communist political commissar Joe Dallet], killed in the [[Spanish Civil War]]<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/oppenheimer_katherine/oppenheimer_katherine_part01.pdf Hoover to Lansdale], May 23, 1944 (FBI file: Katherine Oppenheimer, PDF p. 2)</ref> (perhaps by his Soviet superiors, or fragged by his own men, according to various rumors).<ref>William Herrick, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vKWZ9Vo69GwC Jumping the Line: The Adventures and Misadventures of an American Radical]'' (AK Press, 2001) ISBN 1902593421, p. 237</ref> In January 1944, Tatlock would be found drowned in her bathtub, in circumstances termed "suspicious."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 232, 253.</ref> Some writers suspect Soviet involvement in Tatlock's death. Stephen Schwartz mentions "Khyron"—the Cyrillic transliteration of Chyron, ferryman of the dead in ancient Greek mythology<ref>Stephen Schwartz, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PvoUAAAAYAAJ From West To East: California and the Making of the American Mind]'' (Free Press, 1998) ISBN 0684831341, p. 380. Cf. Cornell Simpson, ''[http://www.amazon.com/death-James-Forrestal-Cornell-Simpson/dp/B0006BOU86 The Death of James Forrestal]'' (Western Islands, 1966) ASIN B0006BOU86)</ref>—which was also [[Grigory Kheifets|Kheifets]]' [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Venona-San%20Francisco-KGB.pdf code name].

Oppenheimer’s brother Frank, and Frank’s wife Jackie, were also active members of the [[Communist Party]],<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800436,00.html The Brothers],” ''Time'', June 27, 1949</ref> as was even Oppenheimer's landlady; in addition, several of Oppenheimer’s closest friends and protégés among his graduate students at Berkeley, including [[Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz]], Joe Weinberg, David Bohm, Philip Morrison and Bernard Peters were Communist Party members.<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 147</ref>

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During the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]] (August 1939-June 1941), the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] expanded its surveillance of suspected Nazis to include [[Communist Party]] leaders.<ref>As soon as Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, FDR's Secretary of State Cordell Hull told the FBI to investigate German Nazi groups [http://web.archive.org/web/20031128111253/http://www.uvm.edu/~apreston/Taken_Into_Custody.html in the United States]; the following year Roosevelt ordered the Bureau to investigate "the activity of the Nazi movement [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0200a.htm in this country]." During the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], when the [[Soviet Union]] was a [[Nazi]] ally in the invasion of Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania (and Nazi collaborator in the conquest of France and [[Battle of Britain]]), this investigation was expanded to include the [[CPUSA]]. Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=mcHJCCUcm-oC The Secret World of American Communism]'' (Yale University Press, 1995) ISBN 0300061838, p. 11</ref> In 1940, William Schneiderman, the California state chairman of the Communist Party, met with [[Isaac Folkoff]],<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 185 (PDF 195)</ref> West Coast liaison between the Communist Party and [[NKVD|Soviet intelligence]],<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 357</ref> at the home of then-secret (later confessed) Communist<ref>[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document1.html Chevalier to Oppenheimer, July 23, 1964] (Robert Oppenheimer papers, Library of Congress)</ref> [[Haakon Chevalier]]. Also present at this meeting, according to FBI surveillance, was J. Robert Oppenheimer.<ref>FBI Report: J. Robert Oppenheimer, March 28, 1941, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated). Cf. [[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 228 (PDF 237)</ref> The following year, Oppenheimer was added to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s Custodial Detention Index,<ref>On September 6, 1939, in the wake of the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], [[Franklin Roosevelt|FDR]] directed the FBI "to take charge of investigative work in matters relating to espionage..." (Frank J. Rafalko, ed., ''[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/ A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium]'' (Office of National Counterintelligence Executive), [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol1/Vol1Chap4.pdf Vol. 1, Ch. 4], p. 177) Three days later, FDR created the Emergency Detention Program (EDP), giving the Justice Department the power to “arrest and detain those persons deemed dangerous in the event of war, invasion, or insurrection in and of a foreign enemy.” (Athan Theoharis, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=hguHAAAAMAAJ Spying on Americans: political surveillance from Hoover to the Huston plan]'' [Temple University Press, 1978] ISBN 0877221413, p. 40) (The EDP would provide the basis for Roosevelt's wartime internment of Japanese, Germans and Italians in the United States during World War II.) That month, in a reference to the [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/redscare.html Red Scare] of 1919, Attorney General Cullen Murphy stated, “There will be no repetition of the confusion and laxity and indifference of [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0206a.htm twenty years ago].” The CDI originated the following year in the Justice Department's [http://www.gaic.info/lps/LP%201%20Overview.pdf Special Defense Unit] (previously known as the Neutrality Laws Unit), later renamed the [http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-60.html War Division]. During the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], the list was expanded to include Communists.</ref> listed as “Nationalistic Tendency: Communist.”<ref>Custodial Detention Memorandum, May 27, 1941, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated)</ref>

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During the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]] (August 1939-June 1941), the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] expanded its surveillance of suspected Nazis to include [[Communist Party]] leaders.<ref>As soon as Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, FDR's Secretary of State Cordell Hull told the FBI to investigate German Nazi groups [http://web.archive.org/web/20031128111253/http://www.uvm.edu/~apreston/Taken_Into_Custody.html in the United States]; the following year Roosevelt ordered the Bureau to investigate "the activity of the Nazi movement [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0200a.htm in this country]." During the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], when the [[Soviet Union]] was a [[Nazi]] ally in the invasion of Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania (and Nazi collaborator in the conquest of France and [[Battle of Britain]]), this investigation was expanded to include the [[CPUSA]]. Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mcHJCCUcm-oC The Secret World of American Communism]'' (Yale University Press, 1995) ISBN 0300061838, p. 11</ref> In 1940, William Schneiderman, the California state chairman of the Communist Party, met with [[Isaac Folkoff]],<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 185 (PDF 195)</ref> West Coast liaison between the Communist Party and [[NKVD|Soviet intelligence]],<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 357</ref> at the home of then-secret (later confessed) Communist<ref>[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document1.html Chevalier to Oppenheimer, July 23, 1964] (Robert Oppenheimer papers, Library of Congress)</ref> [[Haakon Chevalier]]. Also present at this meeting, according to FBI surveillance, was J. Robert Oppenheimer.<ref>FBI Report: J. Robert Oppenheimer, March 28, 1941, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated). Cf. [[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 228 (PDF 237)</ref> The following year, Oppenheimer was added to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s Custodial Detention Index,<ref>On September 6, 1939, in the wake of the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], [[Franklin Roosevelt|FDR]] directed the FBI "to take charge of investigative work in matters relating to espionage..." (Frank J. Rafalko, ed., ''[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/ A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium]'' (Office of National Counterintelligence Executive), [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol1/Vol1Chap4.pdf Vol. 1, Ch. 4], p. 177) Three days later, FDR created the Emergency Detention Program (EDP), giving the Justice Department the power to “arrest and detain those persons deemed dangerous in the event of war, invasion, or insurrection in and of a foreign enemy.” (Athan Theoharis, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=hguHAAAAMAAJ Spying on Americans: political surveillance from Hoover to the Huston plan]'' [Temple University Press, 1978] ISBN 0877221413, p. 40) (The EDP would provide the basis for Roosevelt's wartime internment of Japanese, Germans and Italians in the United States during World War II.) That month, in a reference to the [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/redscare.html Red Scare] of 1919, Attorney General Cullen Murphy stated, “There will be no repetition of the confusion and laxity and indifference of [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0206a.htm twenty years ago].” The CDI originated the following year in the Justice Department's [http://www.gaic.info/lps/LP%201%20Overview.pdf Special Defense Unit] (previously known as the Neutrality Laws Unit), later renamed the [http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-60.html War Division]. During the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], the list was expanded to include Communists.</ref> listed as “Nationalistic Tendency: Communist.”<ref>Custodial Detention Memorandum, May 27, 1941, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated)</ref>

=== Communist front activity ===

Upon his father's death in 1937, Oppenheimer inherited more than $300,000<ref>“[http://ohst.berkeley.edu/oppenheimer/exhibit/text/ch2page2.html Oppenheimer: A Life],” Office for History of Science and Technology, University of California, Berkeley</ref> (equivalent to more than $4.5 million today),<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> and began contributing approximately $150 a month<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 185 (PDF 195)</ref> (equivalent to more than $2,000 a month today),<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> at first via [[Communist front]]s<ref>Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House Report 1311 on the CIO Political Action Committee, March 29, 1944, pp. 82, 140, and 180; Attorney General Tom Clark, letter to Loyalty Review Board, released April 27, 1949; both cited in 85th Congress, 1st Session House Document No. 226, [http://ia360641.us.archive.org/2/items/guidetosubversiv1957unit/guidetosubversiv1957unit_bw.pdf Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications] (Washington: US GPO, 1957), p. 69 (PDF p. 85)</ref> such as the Spanish Aid Committee<ref>[[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 227 (PDF 236)</ref> (aiding the [[Soviet]]-armed forces in the [[Spanish Civil War]]), then directly to [[Isaac Folkoff|Folkoff]] or Communist Party official Thomas Addis.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 123. Cf. [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 352</ref>

−

When he joined the [[Manhattan Project]] in 1942,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 9 (PDF 19)</ref> Oppenheimer wrote on his personal security questionnaire that he had been "a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast."<ref>"Filling in a security questionnaire, Oppie had lately admitted that he had been 'a member of just about every Communist-front organization on the West Coast'..." Peter Wyden, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=IlZ6AAAAIAAJ Day One: Before Hiroshima and After]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1984) ISBN 0671461427, p. 49. Cf. "As Oppenheimer was to write on a 1942 security questionnaire... : '...I have been a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast.'" Rachel Teukolsky, "[http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles/issue1/scientistx.pdf Regarding Scientist X]," ''Berkeley Science Review,'' Issue 1 (Spring 2001), p. 17; "When he joined the atomic bomb project he admitted in his security questionnaire that he had been 'a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast.'" [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX65.html J. Robert Oppenheimer, (1904 - 1967)], "Race for the Superbomb," ''American Experience'', PBS</ref> In September 1943, he repeated to Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, that he had "probably belonged to every Communist-front organization on the west coast."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 159 (PDF 169). Cf. Philip M. Stern with Harold P. Green, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=i_tBAAAAIAAJ The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial]'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) ISBN 0246640359, p. 15</ref> Later that month, Lt. Col. John Lansdale, Jr., head of Security and Intelligence for the Manhattan Project, interviewed Oppenheimer, stating: "You've probably belonged to every front organization on the coast"; Oppenheimer reiterated: "Just about."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 204 (PDF 214)</ref>

+

When he joined the [[Manhattan Project]] in 1942,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 9 (PDF 19)</ref> Oppenheimer wrote on his personal security questionnaire that he had been "a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast."<ref>"Filling in a security questionnaire, Oppie had lately admitted that he had been 'a member of just about every Communist-front organization on the West Coast'..." Peter Wyden, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IlZ6AAAAIAAJ Day One: Before Hiroshima and After]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1984) ISBN 0671461427, p. 49. Cf. "As Oppenheimer was to write on a 1942 security questionnaire... : '...I have been a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast.'" Rachel Teukolsky, "[http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles/issue1/scientistx.pdf Regarding Scientist X]," ''Berkeley Science Review,'' Issue 1 (Spring 2001), p. 17; "When he joined the atomic bomb project he admitted in his security questionnaire that he had been 'a member of just about every Communist Front organization on the West Coast.'" [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX65.html J. Robert Oppenheimer, (1904 - 1967)], "Race for the Superbomb," ''American Experience'', PBS</ref> In September 1943, he repeated to Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, that he had "probably belonged to every Communist-front organization on the west coast."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 159 (PDF 169). Cf. Philip M. Stern with Harold P. Green, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i_tBAAAAIAAJ The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial]'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) ISBN 0246640359, p. 15</ref> Later that month, Lt. Col. John Lansdale, Jr., head of Security and Intelligence for the Manhattan Project, interviewed Oppenheimer, stating: "You've probably belonged to every front organization on the coast"; Oppenheimer reiterated: "Just about."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 204 (PDF 214)</ref>

More than a decade later, when the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was considering whether to renew his security clearance, Oppenheimer would change his story, writing that he did not remember saying this, that it was not true, and that if he had said anything along those lines, it was “a half-jocular overstatement.”<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 9 (PDF 19)</ref> Yet less than four months after writing this, when the AEC got Oppenheimer on the witness stand, he would again change his story: Asked, “If you said that to Colonel Lansdale, were you jocular?” Oppenheimer would admit under oath, “I don’t think I could have been jocular during this interview.”<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 204 (PDF 214)</ref>

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====Berkeley cell====

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During 1938-42, throughout the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], Oppenheimer was a member at Berkeley of what he called a "discussion group,"<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> which was later identified by fellow members [[Haakon Chevalier|Chevalier]]<ref>[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document1.html Chevalier to Oppenheimer, July 23, 1964] (Robert Oppenheimer papers, Library of Congress); Barbara Chevalier, "[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/new_evidence_2.html Robert Oppenheimer and Haakon Chevalier: From the Memoirs of Barbara Chevalier]," excerpts (brotherhoodofthebomb.com)</ref> and Gordon Griffiths<ref>Gordon Griffiths, "[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/new_evidence_3.html Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower: The Political Autobiography of a College Professor]," excerpts</ref> as a “closed” (secret)<ref>Jessica Mitford, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=8KUEAQAAIAAJ A fine old conflict]'' (Knopf, 1977) ISBN 0394499956, p. 67</ref> unit of the Communist Party for Berkeley faculty. If Oppenheimer was not a Communist, he was the only member of this group who was not.<ref>S. S. Schweber, “[http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/a-puzzle-of-a-man A Puzzle of a Man],” ''American Scientist'', Vol. 2, No. 5 (September–October 2004)</ref>

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During 1938-42, throughout the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], Oppenheimer was a member at Berkeley of what he called a "discussion group,"<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> which was later identified by fellow members [[Haakon Chevalier|Chevalier]]<ref>[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document1.html Chevalier to Oppenheimer, July 23, 1964] (Robert Oppenheimer papers, Library of Congress); Barbara Chevalier, "[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/new_evidence_2.html Robert Oppenheimer and Haakon Chevalier: From the Memoirs of Barbara Chevalier]," excerpts (brotherhoodofthebomb.com)</ref> and Gordon Griffiths<ref>Gordon Griffiths, "[http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/new_evidence_3.html Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower: The Political Autobiography of a College Professor]," excerpts</ref> as a “closed” (secret)<ref>Jessica Mitford, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=8KUEAQAAIAAJ A fine old conflict]'' (Knopf, 1977) ISBN 0394499956, p. 67</ref> unit of the Communist Party for Berkeley faculty. If Oppenheimer was not a Communist, he was the only member of this group who was not.<ref>S. S. Schweber, “[http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/a-puzzle-of-a-man A Puzzle of a Man],” ''American Scientist'', Vol. 2, No. 5 (September–October 2004)</ref>

In addition, if he was not a Communist, Oppenheimer fooled his close friends in this small, secretive group into thinking he was. According to Chevalier, “O. had been, from 1937 to 1943, a CP member, which I knew directly.”<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 431</ref> He added that he and Oppenheimer belonged to “the same unit of the CP from 1938 to 1942.”<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 341, n. 35</ref> Griffiths, who served as the Communist Party's “liaison with the Faculty group at the University of California,” confirmed that among the “members of the communist group” at Berkeley were “[[Haakon Chevalier]] of the French Department and Robert Oppenheimer of Physics.”<ref>Gordon Griffiths' ''[http://brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/new_evidence_3.html Venturing Outside the Ivory Tower: The Political Autobiography of a College Professor]'' (excerpts), Brotherhood of the Bomb</ref>

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Oppenheimer was the primary author of a report signed “College Faculties Committee, Communist Party of California,” which he also paid to have printed, said Chevalier.<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> It defended the Soviet invasion of Finland (during the Nazi-Soviet pact), calling [[President]] [[Roosevelt]] a "counter-revolutionary war-monger."<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 31-32</ref> The report contains unusual wording characteristic of Oppenheimer’s writing, suggesting that Oppenheimer might at least have "had a hand in editing a draft," according to [http://www.tufts.edu/home/feature/?p=sherwin historian] Martin J. Sherwin.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 144-145</ref> [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] physics professor emeritus (and former Oppenheimer pupil) Philip Morrison, an ex-Communist,<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 82d Cong., 2d sess., ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=SB65AAAAIAAJ Subversive Influence in the Educational Process'', Parts 7-14] (Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1955), p. 899</ref> confirmed that in 1939 (during the Pact) he delivered to the printers a pamphlet Oppenheimer wrote (and paid for) taking “the strict Party line in defending the Soviet invasion of Finland.”<ref>Gregg Herken, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17008 The Oppenheimer Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 51, No. 5 (March 25, 2004)</ref>

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Oppenheimer was the primary author of a report signed “College Faculties Committee, Communist Party of California,” which he also paid to have printed, said Chevalier.<ref>Ted Morgan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> It defended the Soviet invasion of Finland (during the Nazi-Soviet pact), calling [[President]] [[Roosevelt]] a "counter-revolutionary war-monger."<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 31-32</ref> The report contains unusual wording characteristic of Oppenheimer’s writing, suggesting that Oppenheimer might at least have "had a hand in editing a draft," according to [http://www.tufts.edu/home/feature/?p=sherwin historian] Martin J. Sherwin.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 144-145</ref> [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] physics professor emeritus (and former Oppenheimer pupil) Philip Morrison, an ex-Communist,<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 82d Cong., 2d sess., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SB65AAAAIAAJ Subversive Influence in the Educational Process'', Parts 7-14] (Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1955), p. 899</ref> confirmed that in 1939 (during the Pact) he delivered to the printers a pamphlet Oppenheimer wrote (and paid for) taking “the strict Party line in defending the Soviet invasion of Finland.”<ref>Gregg Herken, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17008 The Oppenheimer Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 51, No. 5 (March 25, 2004)</ref>

====Alameda County Communist Party====

If Oppenheimer was not a Communist, he also fooled Communist Party officials into thinking he was. Paul Crouch, Communist Party organizer for Alameda County in 1941, testified that Oppenheimer had been a Communist at that time, and even described the interior layout of his home:<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 440</ref>

{{cquote|Chairman: Is there any doubt in your mind that Oppenheimer was a member of the Communist Party?

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Crouch: No, sir, none whatever. I met him in a closed meeting of the Communist Party in a house which was subsequently found to have been his residence at the time... and following that I met him at quite a number of Communist Party affairs in Alameda County.<ref>Crouch, Paul (1953-09-15). United States Senate, "[~~http~~://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume3.pdf Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol. 3], 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, pp. 1837 (PDF p. 37)</ref>}}

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Crouch: No, sir, none whatever. I met him in a closed meeting of the Communist Party in a house which was subsequently found to have been his residence at the time... and following that I met him at quite a number of Communist Party affairs in Alameda County.<ref>Crouch, Paul (1953-09-15). United States Senate, "[https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume3.pdf Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol. 3], 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, pp. 1837 (PDF p. 37)</ref>}}

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In 1945, in an Executive Committee meeting of the Communist Party branch for Alameda County,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 46</ref> both the Communist Jack Manley and his wife, Communist Party functionary Katrina Sandow (alias “Katherine Sanders”),<ref>Testimony of Dickson P. Hill, Committee on Un-American Activities, [http://ia341012.us.archive.org/2/items/investigationofcsf195402unit/investigationofcsf195402unit_bw.pdf Hearings on Communist Activities in the San Francisco Area—Part 2] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 3193-3196 (PDF pp. 45-48)</ref> according to FBI surveillance, “stated that Oppenheimer was a Communist Party member.”<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 318, fn.; [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 46</ref>

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In 1945, in an Executive Committee meeting of the Communist Party branch for Alameda County,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 46</ref> both the Communist Jack Manley and his wife, Communist Party functionary Katrina Sandow (alias “Katherine Sanders”),<ref>Testimony of Dickson P. Hill, Committee on Un-American Activities, [http://ia341012.us.archive.org/2/items/investigationofcsf195402unit/investigationofcsf195402unit_bw.pdf Hearings on Communist Activities in the San Francisco Area—Part 2] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 3193-3196 (PDF pp. 45-48)</ref> according to FBI surveillance, “stated that Oppenheimer was a Communist Party member.”<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 318, fn.; [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 46</ref>

====Soviet intelligence====

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If Oppenheimer was not a Communist, he not only convinced the Communist Party he was, he convinced Soviet intelligence itself. A 1944 report by [[NKVD]] [[San Francisco]] ''[[rezident]]'' (station chief) [[Grigory Kheifetz]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story]'' (Fort George G. Meade, Md.: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History, 2001), p. 41</ref> states: “According to 'Uncle' ([[Isaac Folkoff]]),<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 56</ref> both brothers [Robert and Frank Oppenheimer] were associated with the fellowcountrymen,"<ref>Alexandr Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.1_Translated1.pdf White Notebook #1] (tr. Steve Shabad), p. 138</ref> [[NKVD]] code name for the Communist Party.<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 36</ref> That year, NKVD agents [[Gaik Ovakimian]] and Andrei Graur reported to NKVD chief Boris Merkulov, identifying the code name "Chester" as "Robert Oppenheimer, b. 1906, an Amer. Jew, secret member of the fellowcountryman org., a professor at the U. of California, works on ‘En-s’,"<ref>Vassiliev Yellow Notebook #1 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No._1_Original.pdf Orig.]), PDF p. 6; ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.1_Translated.pdf Trans].), p. 10. Cf. [[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 45</ref> i.e., 'Enormoz,' Soviet code name for the Manhattan Project.<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 87</ref> Merkulov, reporting in turn to Soviet Commissar for Internal Affairs [[Lavrenty Beria]], identified “one of the leaders of scientific work on uranium in the USA, Professor R. Oppenheimer,” as “an unlisted [''nglastny'']<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 50</ref> member of the apparatus of Comrade [[Earl Browder|Browder]],” General Secretary of the [[CPUSA]].<ref>[http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111512 Merkulov to Beria, 2 October 1944], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref> Oppenheimer is also mentioned as an unlisted member of the CPUSA in a January 7, 1946, Soviet intelligence document from the Russian Presidential Archives and Ministry of Atomic Energy.<ref>"The State of Work in the Utilization of Atomic Energy in Capitalist Countries," in "Atomic Project in the USSR, Volume II, 1938-54" (Moscow: Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia, 2000). See Jerrold and Leona Schechter, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0210&week=c&msg=VJUrY5l1Cc7MVWpd5C6O1g&user=&pw= Clarification of Steven Aftergood's posting of August 30, 2002]," H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, October 14, 2002</ref>

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If Oppenheimer was not a Communist, he not only convinced the Communist Party he was, he convinced Soviet intelligence itself. A 1944 report by [[NKVD]] [[San Francisco]] ''[[rezident]]'' (station chief) [[Grigory Kheifetz]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story]'' (Fort George G. Meade, Md.: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History, 2001), p. 41</ref> states: “According to 'Uncle' ([[Isaac Folkoff]]),<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 56</ref> both brothers [Robert and Frank Oppenheimer] were associated with the fellowcountrymen,"<ref>Alexandr Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.1_Translated1.pdf White Notebook #1] (tr. Steve Shabad), p. 138</ref> [[NKVD]] code name for the Communist Party.<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 36</ref> That year, NKVD agents [[Gaik Ovakimian]] and Andrei Graur reported to NKVD chief Boris Merkulov, identifying the code name "Chester" as "Robert Oppenheimer, b. 1906, an Amer. Jew, secret member of the fellowcountryman org., a professor at the U. of California, works on ‘En-s’,"<ref>Vassiliev Yellow Notebook #1 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No._1_Original.pdf Orig.]), PDF p. 6; ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.1_Translated.pdf Trans].), p. 10. Cf. [[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 45</ref> i.e., 'Enormoz,' Soviet code name for the Manhattan Project.<ref>[[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 87</ref> Merkulov, reporting in turn to Soviet Commissar for Internal Affairs [[Lavrenty Beria]], identified “one of the leaders of scientific work on uranium in the USA, Professor R. Oppenheimer,” as “an unlisted [''nglastny'']<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 50</ref> member of the apparatus of Comrade [[Earl Browder|Browder]],” General Secretary of the [[CPUSA]].<ref>[http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111512 Merkulov to Beria, 2 October 1944], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref> Oppenheimer is also mentioned as an unlisted member of the CPUSA in a January 7, 1946, Soviet intelligence document from the Russian Presidential Archives and Ministry of Atomic Energy.<ref>"The State of Work in the Utilization of Atomic Energy in Capitalist Countries," in "Atomic Project in the USSR, Volume II, 1938-54" (Moscow: Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia, 2000). See Jerrold and Leona Schechter, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0210&week=c&msg=VJUrY5l1Cc7MVWpd5C6O1g&user=&pw= Clarification of Steven Aftergood's posting of August 30, 2002]," H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, October 14, 2002</ref>

====Cover-up====

In April 1942 Oppenheimer's name was formally submitted for security clearance for the Manhattan Project; the following month, observed William L. Borden, executive director of the congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE), Oppenheimer "either stopped contributing funds to the Communist Party or else made his contributions through a new channel not yet discovered."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 837 (PDF 849)</ref> Oppenheimer "appears to have dropped out of the party in early 1942,” write Haynes, Klehr and Vassiliev.<ref>[[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 58</ref> According to Jerrold L. Schecter, spokesman for the National Security Administration in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, "Robert Oppenheimer’s long time membership in the Communist Party of the United States was made secret in 1942."<ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.publications&doc_id=43900&group_id=13349 Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion with Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Gregg Herken and Hayden Peake], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref>

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FBI surveillance in 1942-43 reported that Alameda County Communist Party Secretary Bernadette Doyle told John Murra, a “suspected intelligence agent of the USSR,” that “OPPENHEIMER was a party member but that his name should be removed from any mailing lists in John Murra’s possession and he should not mention it in any way,” and told [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/e-dossier-no-11-was-oppenheimer-soviet-spy-roundtable-discussion Comintern agent] "[[Steve Nelson]]" (Stjepan Mesaros), according to a telephone intercept,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 234</ref> “that she believes the matter should be taken up with the state committee regarding the two OPPIES, inasmuch as they were regularly registered [as members of the Communist Party] and everyone in the county knew they were Communists."<ref>The FBI report adds: "It is believed that the two OPPIES mentioned above had reference to subject J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER and his brother FRANK OPPENHEIMER." FBI report: J. Robert Oppenheimer, December 2, 1943, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated). Cf. [[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 229 (PDF 238); M. Stanton Evans, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 316-318</ref>

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FBI surveillance in 1942-43 reported that Alameda County Communist Party Secretary Bernadette Doyle told John Murra, a “suspected intelligence agent of the USSR,” that “OPPENHEIMER was a party member but that his name should be removed from any mailing lists in John Murra’s possession and he should not mention it in any way,” and told [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/e-dossier-no-11-was-oppenheimer-soviet-spy-roundtable-discussion Comintern agent] "[[Steve Nelson]]" (Stjepan Mesaros), according to a telephone intercept,<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 234</ref> “that she believes the matter should be taken up with the state committee regarding the two OPPIES, inasmuch as they were regularly registered [as members of the Communist Party] and everyone in the county knew they were Communists."<ref>The FBI report adds: "It is believed that the two OPPIES mentioned above had reference to subject J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER and his brother FRANK OPPENHEIMER." FBI report: J. Robert Oppenheimer, December 2, 1943, FBI file: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Internal Security - C, Sec. 1 (not paginated). Cf. [[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 229 (PDF 238); M. Stanton Evans, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 316-318</ref>

According to [[Grigory Kheifetz|Kheifetz]], "due to their special military work, the connection with them [Robert and Frank Oppenheimer] was suspended.”<ref>Alexandr Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.1_Translated1.pdf White Notebook #1] (tr. Steve Shabad), p. 138</ref> Ovakimian and Graur reported to Merkulov: “In view of the special significance and importance of the work he does... the fellowcountryman organization received orders from its center to break off relations with ‘Ch.’ [i.e., "Chester," Oppenheimer's code name] to avoid his exposure.”<ref>[[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 45</ref> Merkulov summarized:

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{{cquote|Due to complications of the operational situation in the USA, dissolution of the [[Comintern]]<ref>In 1943, Stalin officially dissolved the [[Comintern]] ([http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/dissolution.htm Dissolution of the Communist International], Marxists Internet Archive), forcing Soviet intelligence to reorganize its espionage channels in the United States. ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.publications&doc_id=43900&group_id=13349 Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion with Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Gregg Herken and Hayden Peake], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars). The International Department of the [[CPSU]] Central Committee was created that year essentially to carry out functions previously performed by the Comintern ([http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0271%29 Departments of the Central Committee], Soviet Union, Country Studies, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1989), which included “control over the CPUSA,” (Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), ISBN 0300071507, p. 48)—gradually transferring Comintern assets and networks to direct NKVD control. [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Preface], Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/venona.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response, 1939-1957]'' (NSA/CIA, 1996)</ref> and explanations of Comrades Zarubin and Kheifets on the Mironov affair<ref>In 1943, Lt. Col. Vasili Mironov, an NKVD officer in the Washington, DC ''rezidentura'', sent an [http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2005/august/history_082605 unsigned letter] to [[J. Edgar Hoover]], exposing the intelligence activities of the [[Vasily Zarubin|Zarubin]]s and [[Grigory Kheifets|Kheifets]].</ref> it is expedient to immediately sever contacts of leaders and activists of the American Communist Party with scientists and specialists engaged in work on uranium.<ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.document&identifier=5034E2FB-96B6-175C-967BCF8290DD3AD9&sort=Collection&item=Intelligence%20Operations%20in%20the%20Cold%20War Merkulov to Beria, 2 October 1944], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref>}}

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{{cquote|Due to complications of the operational situation in the USA, dissolution of the [[Comintern]]<ref>In 1943, Stalin officially dissolved the [[Comintern]] ([http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/dissolution.htm Dissolution of the Communist International], Marxists Internet Archive), forcing Soviet intelligence to reorganize its espionage channels in the United States. ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.publications&doc_id=43900&group_id=13349 Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion with Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Gregg Herken and Hayden Peake], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars). The International Department of the [[CPSU]] Central Committee was created that year essentially to carry out functions previously performed by the Comintern ([http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0271%29 Departments of the Central Committee], Soviet Union, Country Studies, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1989), which included “control over the CPUSA,” (Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), ISBN 0300071507, p. 48)—gradually transferring Comintern assets and networks to direct NKVD control. [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Preface], Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/venona.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response, 1939-1957]'' (NSA/CIA, 1996)</ref> and explanations of Comrades Zarubin and Kheifets on the Mironov affair<ref>In 1943, Lt. Col. Vasili Mironov, an NKVD officer in the Washington, DC ''rezidentura'', sent an [http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2005/august/history_082605 unsigned letter] to [[J. Edgar Hoover]], exposing the intelligence activities of the [[Vasily Zarubin|Zarubin]]s and [[Grigory Kheifets|Kheifets]].</ref> it is expedient to immediately sever contacts of leaders and activists of the American Communist Party with scientists and specialists engaged in work on uranium.<ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.document&identifier=5034E2FB-96B6-175C-967BCF8290DD3AD9&sort=Collection&item=Intelligence%20Operations%20in%20the%20Cold%20War Merkulov to Beria, 2 October 1944], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref>}}

According to Sudoplatov, "My deputy, Leonid Eitingon, and I also instructed Kheifetz and Semyonov to turn over to our old moles all their confidential contacts with friendly sources around Oppenheimer in California."<ref>George J. Church, "[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980756,00.html Did Oppenheimer Really Help Moscow?]" ''Time'', Vol. 143, No. 21 (May 23, 1994), p. 68</ref> A 1945 Soviet code-message refers to instructions to “send GURON [‘Huron’]<ref>Huron was identified in the [[Gorsky memo]] in 1948 by [[Anatoly Gorsky]] (NKVD ''rezident'' in Washington in 1945) as Byron T. Darling, who would be fired from a post as associate professor of physics at Ohio State University in 1953 when he refused to answer a question about his Communist Party ties before HUAC.</ref> to CHICAGO to re-establish contact with VEKSEL….” The National Security Agency’s [[Venona project]] analysts identified VEKSEL as “Probably Dr. Julius Robert Oppenheimer.”<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/21_Mar_1945_R1_p2.gif Venona 256 Moscow to New York], 21 March 1945</ref>

Line 99: Line 99:

The CHAIRMAN. And naturally they would be interested in any atomic information he had?

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Mr. CROUCH. Yes, sir. Just as a matter of fact, the Communist Party might have chosen to direct him to turn over the information; they might have chosen to direct him to appoint other Communists to key positions who would in turn, turn over the information. It is a matter of record that Dr. Oppenheimer has appointed many Communists to key positions to the atomic energy program..."<ref>[~~http~~://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume3.pdf Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol. 3], 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, pp. 1840-41 (PDF pp. 40-41)</ref>}}

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Mr. CROUCH. Yes, sir. Just as a matter of fact, the Communist Party might have chosen to direct him to turn over the information; they might have chosen to direct him to appoint other Communists to key positions who would in turn, turn over the information. It is a matter of record that Dr. Oppenheimer has appointed many Communists to key positions to the atomic energy program..."<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume3.pdf Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, Vol. 3], 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, pp. 1840-41 (PDF pp. 40-41)</ref>}}

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According to Sudoplatov, "Oppenheimer, together with Fermi and Szilard, helped us place moles in Tennessee, Los Alamos and Chicago as assistants in those three labs."<ref>Nigel West, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=AcUIAQAAMAAJ Venona: the greatest secret of the Cold War]'' (HarperCollins, 1999) ISBN 0006530710, p. 186</ref> Among those Oppenheimer brought into Los Alamos were his former grad students Bohm, Peters and [[Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz|Lomanitz]]; his brother Frank; and David Hawkins—all of whom were well known to him to be “members of the Communist Party or closely associated with activities of the Communist Party.”<ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/opp06.asp Decision and Opinions of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer], Washington, D.C., June 29, 1954 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)</ref> Frank testified that he was a member (under the cover name "Frank Fulsome") from 1937 until 1940 or '41;<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 359. Cf. [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 402</ref> Hawkins testified that he was a member at Berkeley from 1938 to 1943;<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 81st Congr., 2d sess., [http://ia341025.us.archive.org/3/items/hearingsregardin194903unit/hearingsregardin194903unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atom Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif., Vol. 3] (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 3418 (PDF p. 9)</ref> Bohm officially joined the Communist Party in 1942<ref>F. David Peat, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pobZMUmZbAEC Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm]'' (Basic Books, 1997) ISBN 0201328208, p. 58</ref> and later testified that he was a member at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory during [[World War II]].<ref>[[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 122</ref>

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According to Sudoplatov, "Oppenheimer, together with Fermi and Szilard, helped us place moles in Tennessee, Los Alamos and Chicago as assistants in those three labs."<ref>Nigel West, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=AcUIAQAAMAAJ Venona: the greatest secret of the Cold War]'' (HarperCollins, 1999) ISBN 0006530710, p. 186</ref> Among those Oppenheimer brought into Los Alamos were his former grad students Bohm, Peters and [[Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz|Lomanitz]]; his brother Frank; and David Hawkins—all of whom were well known to him to be “members of the Communist Party or closely associated with activities of the Communist Party.”<ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/opp06.asp Decision and Opinions of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer], Washington, D.C., June 29, 1954 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)</ref> Frank testified that he was a member (under the cover name "Frank Fulsome") from 1937 until 1940 or '41;<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 359. Cf. [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 402</ref> Hawkins testified that he was a member at Berkeley from 1938 to 1943;<ref>Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 81st Congr., 2d sess., [http://ia341025.us.archive.org/3/items/hearingsregardin194903unit/hearingsregardin194903unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory and Atom Bomb Project at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif., Vol. 3] (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 3418 (PDF p. 9)</ref> Bohm officially joined the Communist Party in 1942<ref>F. David Peat, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pobZMUmZbAEC Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm]'' (Basic Books, 1997) ISBN 0201328208, p. 58</ref> and later testified that he was a member at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory during [[World War II]].<ref>[[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 122</ref>

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In 1942, FBI surveillance recorded Lomanitz telling Nelson he was working on a highly secret weapon; Nelson advised Lomanitz to keep his Party activity quiet<ref>Katherine A. S. Sibley, "[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713757446 Soviet Military-Industrial Espionage in the United States and the Emergence of an Espionage Paradigm in US-Soviet Relations, 1941-45]," ''American Communist History'', Vol. 2, Iss. 1 (June 2003), pp. 21-51</ref> as he was now considered a member of the underground.<ref>San Francisco FBI report 15 March 1947, COMRAP file. Cf. [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 325; Ted Morgan, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> Oppenheimer said he knew "for a fact" by August 1943 that Lomanitz was a Communist Party member.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 875 (PDF 887). Cf. [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 245; [[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 111</ref> Yet when, following an espionage investigation,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 128 (PDF 138)</ref> the Army released Lomanitz from Berkeley, causing him to lose his draft deferment, Oppenheimer sent an "urgent request" by telegram, urging Lomanitz' "continued availability to project,"<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 123 (PDF 133)</ref> and subsequently attempted to get the Army to release Lomanitz to return to the Radiation Laboratory.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 124 (PDF 134)</ref>

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In 1942, FBI surveillance recorded Lomanitz telling Nelson he was working on a highly secret weapon; Nelson advised Lomanitz to keep his Party activity quiet<ref>Katherine A. S. Sibley, "[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713757446 Soviet Military-Industrial Espionage in the United States and the Emergence of an Espionage Paradigm in US-Soviet Relations, 1941-45]," ''American Communist History'', Vol. 2, Iss. 1 (June 2003), pp. 21-51</ref> as he was now considered a member of the underground.<ref>San Francisco FBI report 15 March 1947, COMRAP file. Cf. [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 325; Ted Morgan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]'' (Random House, Inc., 2004) ISBN 081297302X, p. 267</ref> Oppenheimer said he knew "for a fact" by August 1943 that Lomanitz was a Communist Party member.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 875 (PDF 887). Cf. [[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 245; [[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 111</ref> Yet when, following an espionage investigation,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 128 (PDF 138)</ref> the Army released Lomanitz from Berkeley, causing him to lose his draft deferment, Oppenheimer sent an "urgent request" by telegram, urging Lomanitz' "continued availability to project,"<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 123 (PDF 133)</ref> and subsequently attempted to get the Army to release Lomanitz to return to the Radiation Laboratory.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 124 (PDF 134)</ref>

In 1949, just before Lomanitz was to testify before HUAC, Oppenheimer met him on a sidewalk in Princeton, N.J., (where presumably "the FBI found it difficult to monitor his conversations"),<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,935123,00.html THE ATOM: A Matter of Character]," ''Time'', June 14, 1954</ref> and discussed what he would say to the committee. Oppenheimer testified that the meeting was by chance, and that he only advised Lomanitz to tell the truth. But when he testified, Lomanitz refused on grounds of potential self-incrimination to answer whether or not he had been a Communist.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 151 (PDF 161)</ref>

Line 112: Line 112:

===Allegations against Oppenheimer===

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"The secrets in KGB memoirs, Soviet archival records and translations, and NSA decrpytions of Soviet war time cable traffic, codenamed VENONA, reveal: The cooperation of J. Robert Oppenheimer in atomic espionage from 1942 to 1944...." writes Schecter.<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. xxvi</ref> Herbert Romerstein, former chief of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>[http://0-www.gpo.gov.library.colby.edu/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-10-21/html/CREC-1996-10-21-pt1-PgS12411.htm ''Congressional Record'', Vol. 142, Iss. 143 (Monday, October 21, 1996), p. S12415]</ref> agrees: "Atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer performed work on behalf of the Soviet Union."<ref>[[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 449</ref> Oppenheimer supplied the Soviets with classified reports on atom bomb development—in part via Elizabeth Zarubina (wife of [[Vasily Zarubin]]), who was in direct contact with Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty—according to Pavel Sudoplatov, Moscow-based overseer of Soviet atom-bomb espionage. In his 1994 memoir, Sudoplatov wrote:

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"The secrets in KGB memoirs, Soviet archival records and translations, and NSA decrpytions of Soviet war time cable traffic, codenamed VENONA, reveal: The cooperation of J. Robert Oppenheimer in atomic espionage from 1942 to 1944...." writes Schecter.<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. xxvi</ref> Herbert Romerstein, former chief of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>[http://0-www.gpo.gov.library.colby.edu/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-10-21/html/CREC-1996-10-21-pt1-PgS12411.htm ''Congressional Record'', Vol. 142, Iss. 143 (Monday, October 21, 1996), p. S12415]</ref> agrees: "Atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer performed work on behalf of the Soviet Union."<ref>[[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 449</ref> Oppenheimer supplied the Soviets with classified reports on atom bomb development—in part via Elizabeth Zarubina (wife of [[Vasily Zarubin]]), who was in direct contact with Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty—according to Pavel Sudoplatov, Moscow-based overseer of Soviet atom-bomb espionage. In his 1994 memoir, Sudoplatov wrote:

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{{cquote|I set up a network of illegals who convinced Robert Oppenheimer, [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Leo Szilard]], [[Bruno Pontecorvo]], Alan Nunn May, [[Klaus Fuchs]] and other scientists in America and Great Britain to share atomic secrets with us..... We received reports on the progress of the Manhattan Project from Oppenheimer and his friends in oral form, through comments and asides, and from documents transferred through clandestine methods with their full knowledge that the information they were sharing would be passed on. One agent cited Oppenheimer's stressing that information should be leaked so as not to be traceable to those who worked in Los Alamos. In all, there were five classified reports made available by Oppenheimer describing the progress of work on the atomic bomb.<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, pp. 192, 196, 206-207</ref>}}

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{{cquote|I set up a network of illegals who convinced Robert Oppenheimer, [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Leo Szilard]], [[Bruno Pontecorvo]], Alan Nunn May, [[Klaus Fuchs]] and other scientists in America and Great Britain to share atomic secrets with us..... We received reports on the progress of the Manhattan Project from Oppenheimer and his friends in oral form, through comments and asides, and from documents transferred through clandestine methods with their full knowledge that the information they were sharing would be passed on. One agent cited Oppenheimer's stressing that information should be leaked so as not to be traceable to those who worked in Los Alamos. In all, there were five classified reports made available by Oppenheimer describing the progress of work on the atomic bomb.<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, pp. 192, 196, 206-207</ref>}}

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Sudoplatov's allegations are corroborated by a 1982 letter he wrote to then-Soviet Premier [[Yuri Andropov]], stating: "Department S [Sudoplatov's department] rendered considerable help to our scientists by giving them the latest materials on atom bomb research, obtained from such sources as the famous nuclear physicists R. Oppenheimer, E. Fermi, [[Klaus Fuchs|K. Fuchs]] and others."<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, Appendix.</ref> Romerstein and Breindel comment: "It would have made no sense for Sudoplatov to lie to Andropov, the former head of KGB and dictator of the Soviet Union, who would have easily found him out."<ref>[[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 275</ref>

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Sudoplatov's allegations are corroborated by a 1982 letter he wrote to then-Soviet Premier [[Yuri Andropov]], stating: "Department S [Sudoplatov's department] rendered considerable help to our scientists by giving them the latest materials on atom bomb research, obtained from such sources as the famous nuclear physicists R. Oppenheimer, E. Fermi, [[Klaus Fuchs|K. Fuchs]] and others."<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, Appendix.</ref> Romerstein and Breindel comment: "It would have made no sense for Sudoplatov to lie to Andropov, the former head of KGB and dictator of the Soviet Union, who would have easily found him out."<ref>[[#refHB2000|Romerstein, Breindel 2000]]: 275</ref>

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According to FBI surveillance in 1943, Nelson (who often visited Oppenheimer's wife in Berkeley)<ref>Rachel Teukolsky, "[http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles/issue1/scientistx.pdf Regarding Scientist X: Big Science, the War Effort, and Communist Activity at Berkeley Radiation Lab (1929-1949)]," ''Berkeley Science Review'' Issue 1 (Spring 2001), p. 18</ref> advised Weinberg "that OPPENHEIMER had indicated to him the basic idea of the project";<ref>[[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 26 (PDF 28)</ref> in 1945, Jack Manley would state that “Oppenheimer told Steven Nelson several years ago that the Army was working on the atomic bomb.”<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 318, fn.</ref>

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According to FBI surveillance in 1943, Nelson (who often visited Oppenheimer's wife in Berkeley)<ref>Rachel Teukolsky, "[http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles/issue1/scientistx.pdf Regarding Scientist X: Big Science, the War Effort, and Communist Activity at Berkeley Radiation Lab (1929-1949)]," ''Berkeley Science Review'' Issue 1 (Spring 2001), p. 18</ref> advised Weinberg "that OPPENHEIMER had indicated to him the basic idea of the project";<ref>[[#refCINRAD|CINRAD]]: 26 (PDF 28)</ref> in 1945, Jack Manley would state that “Oppenheimer told Steven Nelson several years ago that the Army was working on the atomic bomb.”<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 318, fn.</ref>

Merkulov reported to [[Lavrenty Beria|Beria]], "In 1942 one of the leaders of scientific work on uranium in the USA, Professor R. Oppenheimer... informed us about the beginning of work. On the request of Comrade Kheifitz,<ref>NKVD ''[[rezident]]'' (station chief), San Francisco. Robert L. Benson, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story]'' (Fort George G. Meade, Md.: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History, 2001), p. 41</ref> confirmed by [[Earl Browder|Comrade Browder]], he provided cooperation in access to research for several of our tested sources including a relative of Comrade Browder."<ref>[http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111512 Merkulov to Beria, 2 October 1944], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref> (Browder's niece, [[Helen Lowry]], was a Soviet agent married to [[Iskhak Akhmerov]],<ref>[[#refHKV09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 234, 218, 239, 486, 503</ref> the leading NKVD "illegal" in the United States.)<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 154</ref> Schecter concludes that Oppenheimer “was being used as a Soviet intelligence asset by the Communist Underground to help obtain atomic secrets.”<ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.publications&doc_id=43900&group_id=13349 Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion with Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Gregg Herken and Hayden Peake], Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</ref>

Sergei Leskov, science correspondent for ''Izvestia'', a Moscow newspaper in which the Russian government holds a controlling stake, reported in 1994 that Russian government officials informed him

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{{cquote|that as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was imprisoned for espionage in Britain for 14 years, and "Perseus," an unidentified agent who has been mentioned frequently in recent years, there were 10 agents of similar caliber working in the West. Six worked in the United States, four in Britain. They were significant figures who remain unknown to the FBI to this day.<ref>Sergey Leskov, "An Unreliable Witness," ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=VAwAAAAAMBAJ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]'', July/August, 1994, p. 36</ref>}}

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{{cquote|that as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was imprisoned for espionage in Britain for 14 years, and "Perseus," an unidentified agent who has been mentioned frequently in recent years, there were 10 agents of similar caliber working in the West. Six worked in the United States, four in Britain. They were significant figures who remain unknown to the FBI to this day.<ref>Sergey Leskov, "An Unreliable Witness," ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=VAwAAAAAMBAJ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]'', July/August, 1994, p. 36</ref>}}

====The Chevalier incident====

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In 1943, the Soviets tried to establish direct contact with Oppenheimer. Ivanov instructed George Eltenton (a British-born Soviet intelligence source code-named “Dorin”)<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 48</ref> to feel Oppenheimer out about covertly leaking American nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, according to Eltenton’s statement to the FBI.<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 548</ref> Eltenton said he asked Chevalier to pitch the idea to Oppenheimer.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 200. Cf. [[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 92</ref> Chevalier approached Oppenheimer in February or March 1943, but Oppenheimer failed to report the incident for some eight months.<ref>Jennet Conant, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=DkXvYAzoobYC 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos],'' (Simon and Schuster, 2005) ISBN 0743250079, p. 175</ref>

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In 1943, the Soviets tried to establish direct contact with Oppenheimer. Ivanov instructed George Eltenton (a British-born Soviet intelligence source code-named “Dorin”)<ref>[[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 48</ref> to feel Oppenheimer out about covertly leaking American nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, according to Eltenton’s statement to the FBI.<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 548</ref> Eltenton said he asked Chevalier to pitch the idea to Oppenheimer.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 200. Cf. [[#refHerken|Herken 2003]]: 92</ref> Chevalier approached Oppenheimer in February or March 1943, but Oppenheimer failed to report the incident for some eight months.<ref>Jennet Conant, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DkXvYAzoobYC 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos],'' (Simon and Schuster, 2005) ISBN 0743250079, p. 175</ref>

Overruling the objections of security officers, according to Groves, on July 20 he issued written orders that:

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{{cquote|In accordance with my verbal directions of July 15, it is desired that clearance be issued to Julius Robert Oppenheimer without delay irrespective of the information which you have concerning Mr Oppenheimer. He is absolutely essential to the project.<ref>Leslie R. Groves, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=uBIIAQAAIAAJ Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project]'' (Harper & Row, 1962), p. 63</ref>}}

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{{cquote|In accordance with my verbal directions of July 15, it is desired that clearance be issued to Julius Robert Oppenheimer without delay irrespective of the information which you have concerning Mr Oppenheimer. He is absolutely essential to the project.<ref>Leslie R. Groves, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uBIIAQAAIAAJ Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project]'' (Harper & Row, 1962), p. 63</ref>}}

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The following month, after Oppenheimer's security clearance had come through, Lieutenant Lyall Johnson, the security officer at Berkeley, questioned Oppenheimer about [[Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz|Lomanitz]], whom Oppenheimer had tried to keep on the Manhattan Project, even though he had supplied highly sensitive information to the Soviets.<ref>Charles Thorpe, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 75</ref> Oppenheimer stated that he had heard that Eltenton, too, had offered to supply technical data to the Soviets.<ref>Jennet Conant, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=DkXvYAzoobYC 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos],'' (Simon and Schuster, 2005) ISBN 0743250079, p. 175</ref> Johnson immediately called Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash, Chief of Counter-Intelligence for the Ninth Army Corps on the West Coast.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 190</ref> The following day, Pash and Johnson interrogated Oppenheimer about Eltenton. Oppenheimer stated:

+

The following month, after Oppenheimer's security clearance had come through, Lieutenant Lyall Johnson, the security officer at Berkeley, questioned Oppenheimer about [[Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz|Lomanitz]], whom Oppenheimer had tried to keep on the Manhattan Project, even though he had supplied highly sensitive information to the Soviets.<ref>Charles Thorpe, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BWek8zJ-U7IC Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect]'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0226798453, p. 75</ref> Oppenheimer stated that he had heard that Eltenton, too, had offered to supply technical data to the Soviets.<ref>Jennet Conant, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DkXvYAzoobYC 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos],'' (Simon and Schuster, 2005) ISBN 0743250079, p. 175</ref> Johnson immediately called Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash, Chief of Counter-Intelligence for the Ninth Army Corps on the West Coast.<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 190</ref> The following day, Pash and Johnson interrogated Oppenheimer about Eltenton. Oppenheimer stated:

{{cquote|I think it is true that a man, whose name I never heard, who was attached to the Soviet consul, has indicated indirectly through intermediary people concerned in this project that he was in a position to transmit, without any danger of a leak, or scandal, or anything of that kind, information, which they might supply.}}

Oppenheimer then named Eltenton, stating:

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===Policy influence===

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The successful development of the atomic bomb gave the [[United States]] an enormous advantage over the [[Soviet Union]]. Following the bombing of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], NKVD Chief [[Lavrenty Beria]] "said we should think how to use Oppenheimer, [[Leo Szilard|Szilard]] and others around them in the peace campaign against nuclear armament," according to Sudoplatov. "Disarmament and the inability to impose nuclear blackmail would deprive the United States of its advantage."<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, pp. 207-208</ref> On October 3, 1945, [[President]] [[Harry Truman|Truman]] read an address to [[United States Congress|Congress]] stating that "atomic energy constitutes a new force too revolutionary to consider in the framework of old ideas."<ref>Michael Mandelbaum, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=VcUS4f736wgC The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima]'' (Cambridge University Press, 1981) ISBN 052128239X, p. 1</ref> The speech advocated "the renunciation of the use"<ref>Paul Vorbeck Lettow, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=36pYekyje-kC Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2006) ISBN 0812973267, p. 4</ref> of the atom bomb, and proposed "international collaboration and exchange of scientific information"<ref>Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, United States Congress, [~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=XcMLN8sUQCYC Mobilization of Civilian Manpower (Hearings)] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. 3</ref> about it. On October 19, wrote [[Henry Wallace]],<ref>Three years later, Wallace would run for President as the candidate of the [[Progressive]] Party—a [http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11398 creation of the Communist Party], growing out of CPUSA General Secretary Eugene Dennis' February 12, 1946 order "to establish in time for the 1948 elections a national third party." (Arthur Schlesinger, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=LLyNX6hMDCIC A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950]'' [New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000] ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456) Wallace once said if he were to become President, he would appoint [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] [[Laurence Duggan]] as [[Secretary of State]]; had [[FDR]] died a few months earlier, Wallace would indeed have become President. (Ethan Bronner, "[~~http~~://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/18/weekinreview/witching-hour-rethinking-mccarthyism-if-not-mccarthy.html?pagewanted=all Witching Hour; Rethinking McCarthyism, if Not McCarthy]," ''The New York Times'', October 18, 1998) Wallace would finally recant [~~http~~://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html his support] for the [[Soviet Union]] in 1952. (Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952) Three years later, the [[SISS|Jenner subcommittee]] would cite the Progressive Party on its list of subversive organizations, identified as [http://www.joincalifornia.com/party/Independent%20Progressive a Communist front].</ref> Oppenheimer "told me that the President’s statement to Congress had been written by [[Dean Acheson]]’s assistant, a Mr. Herbert Marks,<ref>The following year, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, would accuse Marks (along with [[Alger Hiss]] and others) of being part of “an enormous [[espionage]] ring in [[Washington]]” seeking to make information about the use of “atomic energy... as an instrument of war... available to the Soviet Union” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: the American Experience]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999] ISBN 0300080794, p. 69); at his confirmation hearing to become an AEC commissioner in 1947, a witness would testify that she had attended Communist Party meetings with Marks. Senate Section, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, United States Congress, [~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=B32lOQAACAAJ Hearings on Confirmation of Atomic Energy Commission and General Manager] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 165</ref> and that he [Oppenheimer] had had something to do with helping Marks on the message."<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, p. 494</ref>

+

The successful development of the atomic bomb gave the [[United States]] an enormous advantage over the [[Soviet Union]]. Following the bombing of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], NKVD Chief [[Lavrenty Beria]] "said we should think how to use Oppenheimer, [[Leo Szilard|Szilard]] and others around them in the peace campaign against nuclear armament," according to Sudoplatov. "Disarmament and the inability to impose nuclear blackmail would deprive the United States of its advantage."<ref>Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_uExfHdLb8UC Special Tasks]'' (London: Little Brown and Company, 1994) ISBN 0316821152, pp. 207-208</ref> On October 3, 1945, [[President]] [[Harry Truman|Truman]] read an address to [[United States Congress|Congress]] stating that "atomic energy constitutes a new force too revolutionary to consider in the framework of old ideas."<ref>Michael Mandelbaum, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=VcUS4f736wgC The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima]'' (Cambridge University Press, 1981) ISBN 052128239X, p. 1</ref> The speech advocated "the renunciation of the use"<ref>Paul Vorbeck Lettow, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=36pYekyje-kC Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2006) ISBN 0812973267, p. 4</ref> of the atom bomb, and proposed "international collaboration and exchange of scientific information"<ref>Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, United States Congress, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XcMLN8sUQCYC Mobilization of Civilian Manpower (Hearings)] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. 3</ref> about it. On October 19, wrote [[Henry Wallace]],<ref>Three years later, Wallace would run for President as the candidate of the [[Progressive]] Party—a [http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11398 creation of the Communist Party], growing out of CPUSA General Secretary Eugene Dennis' February 12, 1946 order "to establish in time for the 1948 elections a national third party." (Arthur Schlesinger, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LLyNX6hMDCIC A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950]'' [New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000] ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456) Wallace once said if he were to become President, he would appoint [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] [[Laurence Duggan]] as [[Secretary of State]]; had [[FDR]] died a few months earlier, Wallace would indeed have become President. (Ethan Bronner, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/18/weekinreview/witching-hour-rethinking-mccarthyism-if-not-mccarthy.html?pagewanted=all Witching Hour; Rethinking McCarthyism, if Not McCarthy]," ''The New York Times'', October 18, 1998) Wallace would finally recant [https://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html his support] for the [[Soviet Union]] in 1952. (Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952) Three years later, the [[SISS|Jenner subcommittee]] would cite the Progressive Party on its list of subversive organizations, identified as [http://www.joincalifornia.com/party/Independent%20Progressive a Communist front].</ref> Oppenheimer "told me that the President’s statement to Congress had been written by [[Dean Acheson]]’s assistant, a Mr. Herbert Marks,<ref>The following year, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, would accuse Marks (along with [[Alger Hiss]] and others) of being part of “an enormous [[espionage]] ring in [[Washington]]” seeking to make information about the use of “atomic energy... as an instrument of war... available to the Soviet Union” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: the American Experience]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999] ISBN 0300080794, p. 69); at his confirmation hearing to become an AEC commissioner in 1947, a witness would testify that she had attended Communist Party meetings with Marks. Senate Section, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, United States Congress, [https://books.google.com/books?id=B32lOQAACAAJ Hearings on Confirmation of Atomic Energy Commission and General Manager] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 165</ref> and that he [Oppenheimer] had had something to do with helping Marks on the message."<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, p. 494</ref>

====Peace offensive====

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Two days previously, Wallace and Oppenheimer had attended a meeting at [[Washington, DC|Washington]]'s Statler Hotel<ref>Less than four months before, this very hotel was the scene of FBI surveillance recording [[State Department]] official [[John Stewart Service]] handing off "a document which dealt with matters the Chinese had furnished to the United States government in confidence" (Report of the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, 1950, Vol. 2, appendix, p. 2051) to the secret [[Communist]] [[Philip Jaffe]]. Philip Jaffe, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=YTUPGQAACAAJ The Amerasia Case from 1945 to the Present]'' (New York: Philip J. Jaffe, 1979), p. 1</ref> with [[Leo Szilard|Szilard]], Fermi, Edward U. Condon,<ref>Condon, a classmate of Oppenheimer's at Göttingen, was among those (along with [[Alger Hiss]]) who would be named by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, the following year as part of “an enormous espionage ring in Washington” seeking to make information about the use of “atomic energy... as an instrument of war... available to the Soviet Union” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: the American Experience [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999] ISBN 0300080794, pp. 68-69). Condon was such a blatant security risk that Gen. [[Leslie Groves]]—who considered Oppenheimer an acceptable risk—would kick him out of the Manhattan Project after just six weeks. M. Stanton Evans, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, pp. 325-326</ref> Harlow Shapley,<ref>Shapely, a member of at least 20 Communist fronts (Louis Francis Budenz, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' [New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977] ISBN 0405099428, p. 239), was the object of praise from no less an authority than CPUSA General Secretary [[William Z. Foster]]. William Z. Foster, "The Communist Party and the Professionals," ''The Communist'', No. 17 (September 1938), pp. 805-809</ref> and others. "The scientists presented in very vigorous terms the peril in which the United States now finds herself... chiefly... the threat to peace," wrote Wallace. "Oppenheimer said he very much wanted to see me and I made arrangements..."<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, pp. 493-494</ref> At their meeting two days later, wrote Wallace:

+

Two days previously, Wallace and Oppenheimer had attended a meeting at [[Washington, DC|Washington]]'s Statler Hotel<ref>Less than four months before, this very hotel was the scene of FBI surveillance recording [[State Department]] official [[John Stewart Service]] handing off "a document which dealt with matters the Chinese had furnished to the United States government in confidence" (Report of the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees, 1950, Vol. 2, appendix, p. 2051) to the secret [[Communist]] [[Philip Jaffe]]. Philip Jaffe, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YTUPGQAACAAJ The Amerasia Case from 1945 to the Present]'' (New York: Philip J. Jaffe, 1979), p. 1</ref> with [[Leo Szilard|Szilard]], Fermi, Edward U. Condon,<ref>Condon, a classmate of Oppenheimer's at Göttingen, was among those (along with [[Alger Hiss]]) who would be named by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, the following year as part of “an enormous espionage ring in Washington” seeking to make information about the use of “atomic energy... as an instrument of war... available to the Soviet Union” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: the American Experience [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999] ISBN 0300080794, pp. 68-69). Condon was such a blatant security risk that Gen. [[Leslie Groves]]—who considered Oppenheimer an acceptable risk—would kick him out of the Manhattan Project after just six weeks. M. Stanton Evans, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, pp. 325-326</ref> Harlow Shapley,<ref>Shapely, a member of at least 20 Communist fronts (Louis Francis Budenz, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' [New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977] ISBN 0405099428, p. 239), was the object of praise from no less an authority than CPUSA General Secretary [[William Z. Foster]]. William Z. Foster, "The Communist Party and the Professionals," ''The Communist'', No. 17 (September 1938), pp. 805-809</ref> and others. "The scientists presented in very vigorous terms the peril in which the United States now finds herself... chiefly... the threat to peace," wrote Wallace. "Oppenheimer said he very much wanted to see me and I made arrangements..."<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, pp. 493-494</ref> At their meeting two days later, wrote Wallace:

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{{cquote|I never saw a man in such an extremely nervous state as Oppenheimer. He seemed to feel that the destruction of the entire human race was imminent... He has been in charge of the scientists in New Mexico and says... that all they think about now are the social and economic implications of the bomb... He wanted to know if I thought it would do any good for him to see the President. I said yes, and he is going to try to get either Secretary Patterson<ref>Robert P. Patterson was then Secretary of War.</ref> or Senator Kilgore<ref>Senator Harley M. Kilgore (D-WV) accused U.S. "military government officials" in occupied Germany of putting "our national security and the security of our allies... in jeopardy" for "private and selfish ends," due to "their connections with industrial and financial enterprises which had close pre-war ties with the Nazis." Howard Watson Armbruster, ''[http://ia600404.us.archive.org/10/items/treasonspeaceger00ambrrich/treasonspeaceger00ambrrich.pdf Treason's Peace: German Dyes & American Dupes]'' (New York: Beechhurst Press, 1947), p. 401</ref> to make an appointment for him.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, pp. 496-497</ref>}}

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{{cquote|I never saw a man in such an extremely nervous state as Oppenheimer. He seemed to feel that the destruction of the entire human race was imminent... He has been in charge of the scientists in New Mexico and says... that all they think about now are the social and economic implications of the bomb... He wanted to know if I thought it would do any good for him to see the President. I said yes, and he is going to try to get either Secretary Patterson<ref>Robert P. Patterson was then Secretary of War.</ref> or Senator Kilgore<ref>Senator Harley M. Kilgore (D-WV) accused U.S. "military government officials" in occupied Germany of putting "our national security and the security of our allies... in jeopardy" for "private and selfish ends," due to "their connections with industrial and financial enterprises which had close pre-war ties with the Nazis." Howard Watson Armbruster, ''[http://ia600404.us.archive.org/10/items/treasonspeaceger00ambrrich/treasonspeaceger00ambrrich.pdf Treason's Peace: German Dyes & American Dupes]'' (New York: Beechhurst Press, 1947), p. 401</ref> to make an appointment for him.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace (John Morton Blum, ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua2sAAAAIAAJ The Price of Vision: The Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942-1946]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) ISBN 0395171210, pp. 496-497</ref>}}

Within a week, Oppenheimer met with Truman at the [[White House]]. Oppenheimer urged the President to surrender the U.S. nuclear monopoly to international control. Truman was outraged, telling [[Secretary of State]] [[Dean Acheson]], "I don't want to see that son-of-a-bitch in this office ever again."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 331-332</ref>

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Nevertheless, Truman later appealed to Oppenheimer for help in "giving the army permanent control over atomic energy."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 331</ref> Oppenheimer did just the opposite, using his influence to turn the army's control of nuclear power over to the civilian AEC in 1946.<ref>[http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/civilian_control.htm Civilian Control of Atomic Energy, 1945-1946], The Manhattan Project, An Interactive History (Department of Energy)</ref> That year, Oppenheimer was one of the primary architects of the [http://www.learnworld.com/ZNW/LWText.Acheson-Lilienthal.html Acheson-Lillienthal Report], which proposed turning control of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over to the [[United Nations]].<ref>Jessica Wang, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Ok_A5UV1mdoC American science in an age of anxiety: scientists, anticommunism, and the cold war]'' (Phoenix: UNC Press Books, 1999) ISBN 0807847496, p. 15</ref>

+

Nevertheless, Truman later appealed to Oppenheimer for help in "giving the army permanent control over atomic energy."<ref>[[#refBird-Sherwin|Bird, Sherwin 2006]]: 331</ref> Oppenheimer did just the opposite, using his influence to turn the army's control of nuclear power over to the civilian AEC in 1946.<ref>[http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/civilian_control.htm Civilian Control of Atomic Energy, 1945-1946], The Manhattan Project, An Interactive History (Department of Energy)</ref> That year, Oppenheimer was one of the primary architects of the [http://www.learnworld.com/ZNW/LWText.Acheson-Lilienthal.html Acheson-Lillienthal Report], which proposed turning control of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over to the [[United Nations]].<ref>Jessica Wang, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ok_A5UV1mdoC American science in an age of anxiety: scientists, anticommunism, and the cold war]'' (Phoenix: UNC Press Books, 1999) ISBN 0807847496, p. 15</ref>

During their June 2000 meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB agent, told U.S. President Bill Clinton a story concerning "Joseph Stalin's decision to put his secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria, in charge of ferreting out the secrets of the American crash program to develop the atomic bomb during World War II."

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{{cquote|Putin had words of praise for the American scientists who willingly helped the USSR develop its own A-bomb. They were not traitors to their country, he said. Rather, they were serving the cause of international peace.<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. xix</ref>}}

+

{{cquote|Putin had words of praise for the American scientists who willingly helped the USSR develop its own A-bomb. They were not traitors to their country, he said. Rather, they were serving the cause of international peace.<ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ftFoAAAAMAAJ Sacred secrets: how Soviet intelligence operations changed American history]'' (Brassey's, 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. xix</ref>}}

In 2012, according to Russia's government news agency Itar-Tass, Putin amplified these remarks:

{{cquote|You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels ... They were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases! ... It was the cream of the scientific world that was gathered in America, and I personally have gotten the impression that they consciously gave us information on the atom bomb ... They did this consciously because the atom bomb had been used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and scientists from mankind’s intellectual elite at the time understood what unilateral possession of such a weapon might lead to.<ref>"[http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/putin-praises-cold-war-spies.aspx?pageID=238&nID=14477&NewsCatID=353 Putin praises Cold War spies], ''Hurriyet Daily News'' (Turkey), February 22, 2012</ref>}}

====The H-bomb====

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In 1947, Oppenheimer became Chairman of the AEC's General Advisory Committee (GAC) on Science.<ref>"[~~http~~://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0422.html J. Robert Oppenheimer, Atom Bomb Pioneer, Dies]," ''The New York Times'', February 19, 1967</ref> On September 23, 1949, Truman announced that the Soviets had exploded their own atomic bomb.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1234&st=&st1= Statement by the President on Announcing the First Atomic Explosion in the U.S.S.R.], September 23, 1949, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum</ref> (Within a month of breaking the U.S. nuclear monopoly, Soviet-backed Communist rebels would seize control of [[China]], inaugurating a regime that would eventually murder some 70 million Chinese;<ref>Courtois et al. estimate Communist China's murders at 65 million (Stephane Courtois, Jean-Louis Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek, Jean-Louis Margolin [Mark Kramer, ed.; Jonathan Murphy, trans.], ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674076082 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]'' [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999] ISBN 9780674076082, p. 4); Jung and Halladay estimate "well over 70 million" (Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=3EZwAAAAMAAJ Mao: The Unknown Story]'' [London: Jonathan Cape, 2005] ISBN 0224071262, pp. 3, 560, 651); Rummel estimates 77 million. R.J. Rummel, "[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/RummelDemocide.php Death by Government: Stalin Beat Hitler but Mao Surpassed Both]," ''Orthodoxy Today'', December 4, 2005</ref> within a year, Soviet and Communist Chinese-backed [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|North Korea]] would invade its neighbor to the south, launching a war that would claim more than 30,000 American lives.)<ref>John W. Chambers, II, ed. in chief, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=O7hmQgAACAAJ The Oxford Companion to American Military History]'' (Oxford University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-19-507198-0, p. 849</ref> AEC Commissioner Lewis Strauss, president of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (where Oppenheimer was director), responded with a proposal that the U.S. make it "highest priority" to build a hydrogen bomb (then called the "super bomb").<ref>[http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/strauss-lewis/corr_strauss_1949-11-25.htm Letter on the development of the Thermonuclear Bomb], From: Lewis L Strauss, To: Harry S Truman, President of the United States of America, Date: November 25, 1949</ref>

+

In 1947, Oppenheimer became Chairman of the AEC's General Advisory Committee (GAC) on Science.<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0422.html J. Robert Oppenheimer, Atom Bomb Pioneer, Dies]," ''The New York Times'', February 19, 1967</ref> On September 23, 1949, Truman announced that the Soviets had exploded their own atomic bomb.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1234&st=&st1= Statement by the President on Announcing the First Atomic Explosion in the U.S.S.R.], September 23, 1949, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum</ref> (Within a month of breaking the U.S. nuclear monopoly, Soviet-backed Communist rebels would seize control of [[China]], inaugurating a regime that would eventually murder some 70 million Chinese;<ref>Courtois et al. estimate Communist China's murders at 65 million (Stephane Courtois, Jean-Louis Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek, Jean-Louis Margolin [Mark Kramer, ed.; Jonathan Murphy, trans.], ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674076082 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]'' [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999] ISBN 9780674076082, p. 4); Jung and Halladay estimate "well over 70 million" (Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3EZwAAAAMAAJ Mao: The Unknown Story]'' [London: Jonathan Cape, 2005] ISBN 0224071262, pp. 3, 560, 651); Rummel estimates 77 million. R.J. Rummel, "[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/RummelDemocide.php Death by Government: Stalin Beat Hitler but Mao Surpassed Both]," ''Orthodoxy Today'', December 4, 2005</ref> within a year, Soviet and Communist Chinese-backed [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|North Korea]] would invade its neighbor to the south, launching a war that would claim more than 30,000 American lives.)<ref>John W. Chambers, II, ed. in chief, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=O7hmQgAACAAJ The Oxford Companion to American Military History]'' (Oxford University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-19-507198-0, p. 849</ref> AEC Commissioner Lewis Strauss, president of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (where Oppenheimer was director), responded with a proposal that the U.S. make it "highest priority" to build a hydrogen bomb (then called the "super bomb").<ref>[http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/strauss-lewis/corr_strauss_1949-11-25.htm Letter on the development of the Thermonuclear Bomb], From: Lewis L Strauss, To: Harry S Truman, President of the United States of America, Date: November 25, 1949</ref>

On October 14, 1949, one GAC member, Glenn Seaborg, then a future [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1951/seaborg.html Nobel Laureate] (and future AEC Chairman), wrote to Oppenheimer, “I have been unable to come to the conclusion that we should not” proceed with this crash program to develop an H-bomb. “I would have to hear some good arguments before I could take on sufficient courage to recommend not going toward such a program."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearings]]: 238 (PDF 248)</ref>

Yet, ten days later, Oppenheimer told the AEC that among GAC members there was “a surprising unanimity—to me very surprising—that the United States ought not to take the initiative... in an all out program for the development of thermonuclear weapons.”<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearings]]: 77 (PDF 87)</ref> He claimed that didn't know how Seaborg felt about it, as he “was in Sweden, and there was no communication with him.”<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearings]]: 233 (PDF 243)</ref> Oppenheimer later confessed that he had received Seaborg's letter before he made these claims, yet he repeated them three months later, before the JCAE.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearings]]: 239 (PDF 249)</ref>

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When nuclear physicist [[Edward Teller]], a [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[Jewish]] refugee from [[Nazi Germany]]<ref>"[~~http~~://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/obituaries/10TELL.html Edward Teller Is Dead at 95; Fierce Architect of H-Bomb,]" ''The New York Times'', September 10, 2003</ref> known as the "father of the H-bomb,"<ref>Francie Grace, "[~~http~~://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/10/tech/main572437.shtml 'Father Of The H-Bomb' Dies At 95]," CBS News, September 10, 2003</ref> had sought Oppenheimer's support to build an H-bomb at Los Alamos in 1945, Oppenheimer had refused. Now, argued Teller, the need for an H-bomb had become urgent. Oppenheimer disagreed, signing his name to an official statement that "a super bomb should never be produced."<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 401</ref> With Fermi and others, he lobbied Henry Wallace to stop H-bomb development; Wallace complied, issuing a statement that “we should prefer defeat in war to victory obtained at the expense of the enormous human disaster that would be caused by its determined use.”<ref>Andrew Jon Rotter, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=4_KOtRIZEDMC Hiroshima: the world's bomb]'' (Oxford University Press, 2008) ISBN 0192804375, p. 256</ref> As Teller would later testify:

+

When nuclear physicist [[Edward Teller]], a [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[Jewish]] refugee from [[Nazi Germany]]<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/obituaries/10TELL.html Edward Teller Is Dead at 95; Fierce Architect of H-Bomb,]" ''The New York Times'', September 10, 2003</ref> known as the "father of the H-bomb,"<ref>Francie Grace, "[https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/10/tech/main572437.shtml 'Father Of The H-Bomb' Dies At 95]," CBS News, September 10, 2003</ref> had sought Oppenheimer's support to build an H-bomb at Los Alamos in 1945, Oppenheimer had refused. Now, argued Teller, the need for an H-bomb had become urgent. Oppenheimer disagreed, signing his name to an official statement that "a super bomb should never be produced."<ref>[[#refRhodes96|Rhodes 1996]]: 401</ref> With Fermi and others, he lobbied Henry Wallace to stop H-bomb development; Wallace complied, issuing a statement that “we should prefer defeat in war to victory obtained at the expense of the enormous human disaster that would be caused by its determined use.”<ref>Andrew Jon Rotter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4_KOtRIZEDMC Hiroshima: the world's bomb]'' (Oxford University Press, 2008) ISBN 0192804375, p. 256</ref> As Teller would later testify:

{{cquote|In a great number of cases I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer act... in a way which for me was exceedingly hard to understand. I thoroughly disagreed with him in numerous issues and his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated. To this extent I feel that I would like to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more... If it is a question of wisdom and judgment, as demonstrated by actions since 1945, then I would say one would be wiser [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/tellertestimony.html not to grant clearance].<ref>Although he made no accusations, Teller's testimony against Oppenheimer made him [http://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/september24/tellerobit-924.html a pariah]. The left accused him of smearing an innocent man and [http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tel0bio-1 blamed him] for ending Oppenheimer's career. The hearing transcript contradicts that conclusion, but to some, Teller’s anticommunist views alone [http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/edward-teller-rip were enough] to justify bitter feelings against him. Many [http://whyfiles.org/186ed_teller/4.html never forgave] him.</ref>}}

Although he made no accusations, his testimony regarding Oppenheimer made Teller [http://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/september24/tellerobit-924.html a pariah]. The left accused him of smearing an innocent man and [http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tel0bio-1 blamed him] for ending Oppenheimer's career. The hearing transcript contradicts that conclusion, but to some, Teller’s anticommunist views alone [http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/edward-teller-rip were enough] to justify bitter feelings against him. Many [http://whyfiles.org/186ed_teller/4.html never forgave] him.

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Q. If you did, Doctor, would it mean that you were ducking the question?

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A. I would think so.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 201 (PDF 215)</ref>}}Although Oppenheimer has long been presented as a "martyr to McCarthyism," it has been suggested that had Oppenheimer not been stripped of his clearance, he might be disrespected (like Elia Kazan)<ref>In 1999, when Kazan received an honorary Academy Award, many Hollywood liberals present, including Warren Beatty, Helen Hunt, Meryl Streep, Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Ian McKellen and Amy Madigan, petulantly [http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/22/news/mn-19738 refused to applaud].</ref> for "naming names"<ref>Kai Bird, quoted in [~~http~~://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43634-2005Apr11.html Transcript: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, authors, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer], Book World Live, ''Washington Post'', April 12, 2005</ref> to save his own skin.<ref>Carrie Rossenfeld, [http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/hbomb/page_15.shtml The Red Scare], The Race for the Hydrogen Bomb, atomicarchive.com</ref> Oppenheimer testified that he thought one of his graduate students, Bernard Peters (husband of Communist Party official Hannah Peters),<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 589, 825, 877 (PDF 599, 837, 889)</ref> told him circa 1938 that he [Peters] had been a member of the Communist Party.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 122 (PDF 132)</ref> Yet in 1942 or '43 Oppenheimer invited Peters to join him at Los Alamos.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 120 (PDF 130)</ref> A few months later, during a background interview to obtain his security clearance, Oppenheimer identified Peters "as a Communist."<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 121</ref> The following year, Major Peer De Silva, chief of security at Los Alamos, interviewed Oppenheimer. Among his former students, Oppenheimer named Bohm and Peters as "truly dangerous,"<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 150 (PDF 160)</ref> according to De Silva's report, singling out Peters in particular as a "crazy person" who was "quite a red."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 877 (PDF 889). Cf. Louisa Gilder, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=5i4isqpu-I8C The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn]'' (Random House, Inc., 2009) ISBN 1400095263, pp. 189-190; F. David Peat, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pobZMUmZbAEC Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm]'' (Basic Books, 1997) ISBN 0201328208, p. 90</ref> Oppenheimer also testified before HUAC that Peters told him that he had been "a member of the German National Communist Party."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 211 (PDF 221)</ref>

+

A. I would think so.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 201 (PDF 215)</ref>}}Although Oppenheimer has long been presented as a "martyr to McCarthyism," it has been suggested that had Oppenheimer not been stripped of his clearance, he might be disrespected (like Elia Kazan)<ref>In 1999, when Kazan received an honorary Academy Award, many Hollywood liberals present, including Warren Beatty, Helen Hunt, Meryl Streep, Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Ian McKellen and Amy Madigan, petulantly [http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/22/news/mn-19738 refused to applaud].</ref> for "naming names"<ref>Kai Bird, quoted in [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43634-2005Apr11.html Transcript: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, authors, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer], Book World Live, ''Washington Post'', April 12, 2005</ref> to save his own skin.<ref>Carrie Rossenfeld, [http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/hbomb/page_15.shtml The Red Scare], The Race for the Hydrogen Bomb, atomicarchive.com</ref> Oppenheimer testified that he thought one of his graduate students, Bernard Peters (husband of Communist Party official Hannah Peters),<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 589, 825, 877 (PDF 599, 837, 889)</ref> told him circa 1938 that he [Peters] had been a member of the Communist Party.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 122 (PDF 132)</ref> Yet in 1942 or '43 Oppenheimer invited Peters to join him at Los Alamos.<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 120 (PDF 130)</ref> A few months later, during a background interview to obtain his security clearance, Oppenheimer identified Peters "as a Communist."<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 121</ref> The following year, Major Peer De Silva, chief of security at Los Alamos, interviewed Oppenheimer. Among his former students, Oppenheimer named Bohm and Peters as "truly dangerous,"<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 150 (PDF 160)</ref> according to De Silva's report, singling out Peters in particular as a "crazy person" who was "quite a red."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 877 (PDF 889). Cf. Louisa Gilder, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5i4isqpu-I8C The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn]'' (Random House, Inc., 2009) ISBN 1400095263, pp. 189-190; F. David Peat, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pobZMUmZbAEC Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm]'' (Basic Books, 1997) ISBN 0201328208, p. 90</ref> Oppenheimer also testified before HUAC that Peters told him that he had been "a member of the German National Communist Party."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 211 (PDF 221)</ref>

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After this testimony was leaked to the press,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 210 (PDF 220)</ref> Condon, then Director of the Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards (dealing with classified data on nuclear weapons, radar, and guided missiles), wrote a letter to the editor containing “a severe attack on Dr. Oppenheimer”<ref>U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=3foX8lGuXz4C In the matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: transcript of hearing before Personnel Security Board and texts of principal documents and letters]'' (MIT Press, 1971) ISBN 0262710021, p. 1018</ref> and tried to start various rumors alleging that Oppenheimer was either losing his mind or converting to the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,935123,00.html THE ATOM: A Matter of Character]," ''Time'', June 14, 1954</ref> He also wrote Oppenheimer a letter accusing him of trying to "buy immunity for yourself by turning informer"<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 125</ref> and demanding that he "try to make restitution," threatening that if Oppenheimer's own "file were ever made public, it would be a much bigger flap":<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 212 (PDF 222)</ref> "You know very well that once these people decide to go into your own dossier and make it public that it will make the 'revelations' that you have made so far look pretty tame."<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 125</ref>

+

After this testimony was leaked to the press,<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 210 (PDF 220)</ref> Condon, then Director of the Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards (dealing with classified data on nuclear weapons, radar, and guided missiles), wrote a letter to the editor containing “a severe attack on Dr. Oppenheimer”<ref>U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3foX8lGuXz4C In the matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: transcript of hearing before Personnel Security Board and texts of principal documents and letters]'' (MIT Press, 1971) ISBN 0262710021, p. 1018</ref> and tried to start various rumors alleging that Oppenheimer was either losing his mind or converting to the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,935123,00.html THE ATOM: A Matter of Character]," ''Time'', June 14, 1954</ref> He also wrote Oppenheimer a letter accusing him of trying to "buy immunity for yourself by turning informer"<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 125</ref> and demanding that he "try to make restitution," threatening that if Oppenheimer's own "file were ever made public, it would be a much bigger flap":<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 212 (PDF 222)</ref> "You know very well that once these people decide to go into your own dossier and make it public that it will make the 'revelations' that you have made so far look pretty tame."<ref>Silvan S. Schweber, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBNpeh2BaG4C In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer, and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist]'' (Princeton University Press, 2000) ISBN 0691049890, p. 125</ref>

Under pressure from Condon and others, Oppenheimer wrote a letter to the editor that "retracted some of the testimony," stating that "Dr. Peters has recently informed me... that I was wrong in believing... that he had ever held a membership in the Communist Party."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 213 (PDF 223)</ref>

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Pursuant to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Dwight Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]'s Executive Order 10450 of April 27, 1953, new security standards were applied to all federal officials, including Oppenheimer. On May 15, Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] (R-WI), Chairman of the [[Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|PSI]], asked FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] if the Bureau would object to the PSI holding hearings on Oppenheimer. Hoover told him that the FBI had no objections. Syndicated columnist Joseph Alsop, a blood relative of both Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt (and a friend of Oppenheimer's) delivered a seven-page letter to the White House asking Ike to block the investigation.<ref>Barton J. Bernstein, "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1229016 The Oppenheimer Loyalty-Security Case Reconsidered]," ''Stanford Law Review'', Vol. 42, No. 6 (Jul., 1990), pp. 1383-1484</ref>

−

The prospect of a McCarthy hearing spooked the administration into finally taking action: on June 22, Strauss asked Hoover to get McCarthy to hold off until the AEC could conduct its own hearings. In November, Borden wrote to Hoover, stating in his “exhaustively considered opinion, based upon years of study, of the available classified evidence, that more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 837 (PDF 849)</ref> The following month (the same month Oppenheimer met with Chevalier in Paris), after reviewing material brought to his attention by the Department of Justice, Eisenhower, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization and the AEC Chairman, ordered that, pending a security review, “a blank wall be placed between Dr. Oppenheimer and any secret data,”<ref>“AEC Statement,” ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=Hw4AAAAAMBAJ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' (Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.), May 1954], p. 187</ref> and the AEC notified Oppenheimer that his clearance was under review, sending him a letter laying out charges against him.

+

The prospect of a McCarthy hearing spooked the administration into finally taking action: on June 22, Strauss asked Hoover to get McCarthy to hold off until the AEC could conduct its own hearings. In November, Borden wrote to Hoover, stating in his “exhaustively considered opinion, based upon years of study, of the available classified evidence, that more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union."<ref>[[#refAECH|AEC Hearing]]: 837 (PDF 849)</ref> The following month (the same month Oppenheimer met with Chevalier in Paris), after reviewing material brought to his attention by the Department of Justice, Eisenhower, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization and the AEC Chairman, ordered that, pending a security review, “a blank wall be placed between Dr. Oppenheimer and any secret data,”<ref>“AEC Statement,” ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Hw4AAAAAMBAJ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' (Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.), May 1954], p. 187</ref> and the AEC notified Oppenheimer that his clearance was under review, sending him a letter laying out charges against him.

On March 4, 1954, Oppenheimer sent a written response to AEC General Manager K.D. Nichols. The following month, Oppenheimer released the text of the administration's charges to the press, along with his response.

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On April 12, the AEC's Personnel Security Board (PSB) opened hearings on the charges. The PSB was a three-member panel headed by former Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray, President of the University of North Carolina (after whom it is sometimes referred to as the “Gray board”). Also on the PSB were Ward V. Evans, professor emeritus of chemistry at Loyola University of Chicago; and Thomas Morgan, 66, a retired businessman.

−

Oppenheimer was represented ''pro bono'' by the white shoe firm<ref>{{cite book |title=Greenspan: The Man Behind Money |last=Martin |first=Justin |authorlink= |year=2001 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=0738205249 |page=191 |url=~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=JKjZujJgwYMC |accessdate=8 August 2010}}</ref> of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, joined by former AEC general counsel Herbert Marks, the former Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] who, with Oppenheimer's help, had written Truman's 1945 address proposing international sharing of nuclear secrets.

+

Oppenheimer was represented ''pro bono'' by the white shoe firm<ref>{{cite book |title=Greenspan: The Man Behind Money |last=Martin |first=Justin |authorlink= |year=2001 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=0738205249 |page=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JKjZujJgwYMC |accessdate=8 August 2010}}</ref> of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, joined by former AEC general counsel Herbert Marks, the former Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] who, with Oppenheimer's help, had written Truman's 1945 address proposing international sharing of nuclear secrets.

After eight weeks of testimony and cross-examination, and exhibits including transcripts and FBI reports, the panel voted 2-1 to strip Oppenheimer of his “Q clearance” access to atomic secrets. Gray and Morgan carried the majority, with Evans dissenting. Joseph and Stewart Alsop, "long-standing Oppenheimer partisans," used their influential syndicated columns to put forward a conspiracy theory: the Gray board's findings, alleged the Alsops, were part of a conspiracy by AEC Chairman Strauss to even an old personal grudge against Oppenheimer. Despite the fact that it "conveniently overlooked the matter of Gray's record and integrity,"<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,935123,00.html THE ATOM: A Matter of Character]," ''Time'', June 14, 1954</ref> the left adopted the Alsops' conspiracy theory as the dogmatic explanation of Oppenheimer's security problems.

===Appeal===

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Oppenheimer appealed the PSB's decision to the full Atomic Energy Commission. Joining his legal team was former Democratic Party presidential candidate John W. Davis,<ref>Alan Simpson, "[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=2AsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA387#v=onepage&q&f=false The Re-Trial of the Oppenheimer Case]," ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' (Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.), Vol. 10, No. 10 (December 1954), p. 387</ref> fresh from his defeated defense of segregation in ''[[Brown vs. Board of Education|Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref>Judge Arnette R. Hubbard, "[http://www.illinoisbrownvboard.org/article/bvbarnettehubbardarticle.htm Brown, et al v. Board of Education]," Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education</ref> Davis had previously testified as a character witness for Soviet agent [[Alger Hiss]].<ref>Doug Linder (2003), "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50, Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref>

+

Oppenheimer appealed the PSB's decision to the full Atomic Energy Commission. Joining his legal team was former Democratic Party presidential candidate John W. Davis,<ref>Alan Simpson, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=2AsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA387#v=onepage&q&f=false The Re-Trial of the Oppenheimer Case]," ''The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' (Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.), Vol. 10, No. 10 (December 1954), p. 387</ref> fresh from his defeated defense of segregation in ''[[Brown vs. Board of Education|Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref>Judge Arnette R. Hubbard, "[http://www.illinoisbrownvboard.org/article/bvbarnettehubbardarticle.htm Brown, et al v. Board of Education]," Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education</ref> Davis had previously testified as a character witness for Soviet agent [[Alger Hiss]].<ref>Doug Linder (2003), "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50, Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref>

Citing “proof of fundamental defects in his ‘character’,” to wit, “his associations with persons known to him to be Communists,” which associations, said the AEC, “have extended far beyond the tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint which are to be expected of one holding the high positions that the Government has continuously entrusted to him since 1942,” the commission upheld the decision stripping the former chairman of its own GAC<ref>From 1947 to 1952, Oppenheimer had served as chairman of the GAC. [[#refSW95|Smith, Weiner 1995]]: 328</ref> of his security clearance.<ref>[http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Oppenheimer/OppyAEC2.shtml Decision and Opinions of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer], Washington, D.C., June 29, 1954</ref>

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== Sources ==

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*<cite id=refAECH>United States Atomic Energy Commission, [~~http~~://archive.org/details/unitedstatesatom007206mbp In the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1954)</cite>

+

*<cite id=refAECH>United States Atomic Energy Commission, [https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesatom007206mbp In the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1954)</cite>

*<cite id=refCINRAD>FBI report: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/CINRAD%20REPORT.pdf Communist Infiltration of Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, California] (CINRAD), January 31, 1947</cite>

*<cite id=refHaynes08>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev_Notebooks_Concordance1.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology] (Washington: Cold War International History Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2008)</cite>

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*<cite id=refHKV09>John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), ISBN 0300123906</cite>

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*<cite id=refHKV09>John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), ISBN 0300123906</cite>

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*<cite id=refHK99>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=dIsmm_ZLHcIC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), ISBN 0300077718</cite>

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*<cite id=refHK99>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=dIsmm_ZLHcIC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), ISBN 0300077718</cite>

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*<cite id=refHK06>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=pNwEyL1b6XQC Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics]'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521674077</cite>

+

*<cite id=refHK06>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pNwEyL1b6XQC Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics]'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521674077</cite>

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*<cite id=refHerken>Gregg Herken ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=lV8ipprn61sC Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller]'' (Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 080506589X</cite>

+

*<cite id=refHerken>Gregg Herken ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lV8ipprn61sC Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller]'' (Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 080506589X</cite>

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*<cite id=refBird-Sherwin>Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=v9uS0wysYoUC American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer]'' (Random House, Inc., 2006) ISBN 0375726268</cite>

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*<cite id=refBird-Sherwin>Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=v9uS0wysYoUC American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer]'' (Random House, Inc., 2006) ISBN 0375726268</cite>

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*<cite id=refRhodes86>Richard Rhodes, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=aSgFMMNQ6G4C The Making of the Atomic Bomb]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1986) ISBN 0684813785</cite>

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*<cite id=refRhodes86>Richard Rhodes, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgFMMNQ6G4C The Making of the Atomic Bomb]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1986) ISBN 0684813785</cite>

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*<cite id=refRhodes96>Richard Rhodes, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=f113iCcn87wC Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1996) ISBN 0684824140</cite>

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*<cite id=refRhodes96>Richard Rhodes, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=f113iCcn87wC Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb]'' (Simon and Schuster, 1996) ISBN 0684824140</cite>

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*<cite id=refPK06>Abraham Pais and Robert P. Crease, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=KCo2gG5fRaQC J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life]'' (Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195166736</cite>

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*<cite id=refPK06>Abraham Pais and Robert P. Crease, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=KCo2gG5fRaQC J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life]'' (Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195166736</cite>

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*<cite id=refSW95>Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner, eds., ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=jwH4X5htJaYC Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections]'' (Stanford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0804726205</cite>

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*<cite id=refSW95>Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner, eds., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jwH4X5htJaYC Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections]'' (Stanford University Press, 1995) ISBN 0804726205</cite>

*{{Harvard reference

| Surname1 = Andrew

Line 266: Line 266:

| Publisher = Basic Books

| ID = ISBN 0-465-00310-9

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| URL = ~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C

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| URL = https://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C

}}

*{{Harvard reference

Line 284: Line 284:

| Title = Theory of Fielding - Set O - Oppenheimer

| Publisher = HB Laes (Self published) }} Reproduced [http://web.archive.org/web/20050204173143/http://www.tof.blogspot.com/#SO here]. Retrieved on 05-18-2007

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*<cite id=refHB2000>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''[~~http~~://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors]'' (Washington: Regnery, 2000) ISBN 0895262754</cite>

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*<cite id=refHB2000>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors]'' (Washington: Regnery, 2000) ISBN 0895262754</cite>

==External links==

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