Oppenheimer and anti-communist paranoia
dossier on Oppenheimer, including 'eleven years' minute surveillance of the scientist's life'. 11 In the course of this surveillance, Oppenheimer ’ s telephone had been tapped, his mailbox opened, his office and home bugged, and a huge amount of material gathered. 12 Howeve r, despite this letter, which had a detrimental effect on Oppenheimer’s reputation and credibility, the FBI, who had watched Oppenheimer very closely for years, had no concrete evidence of Oppenheimer’s disloyalty. The lack of evidence against Oppenheimer is borne out by the fact that Oppenheimer had passed two security clearances in the years 1943 and 1947 based on the very same evidence that led to his eventual sacking. 13 This shows that, as America became more paranoid about the perceived Soviet threat during the 1950s, the severity of action against suspected communists and those with left-wing tendencies also heightened. Nonetheless, only a very small portion of those who lost their positions were in any way connected to the USSR. However, the collective paranoia and fear of espionage in the US led to many cases being taken that were way out of proportion to the actual risks.
Was Oppenheimer a communist?
In the 1930s Oppenheimer supported many social reforms, like many young intellectuals of the time, and which were later alleged to be communist ideas. Furthermore, Oppenheimer donated funds to many left-wing causes, 14 which, during the McCarthy era, were branded as communist. Although this does not explicitly connect Oppenheimer with the Communist Party, it was apparent that he held left- wing views, as did many scientists then. Although Oppenheimer was not directly or publicly affiliated with the Communist Party, many of his close associates had been members of the Communist Party before the war, including his girlfriend Jean Tatlock, his wife Kitty Peuning and his brother Frank. 15 There is much dispute over whether Oppenheimer was a Communist Party member, both officially and off the record, but it is evident that he had strong left-wing sympathies, which allowed him to become a victim of anti-communist paranoia. This is further evident from one of his security questionnaires when he joined the Manhattan project in 1942 where he wrote ‘I am not a communist, but I have been a member of just about e very Communist Front organization on the West Coast’. 16 He also admitted in a letter to K.D Nichols that he subscribed to People’s World , a newspaper ‘associated with the communist movement’ and that he was ‘on the executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union’ which was a form of communist organization. It seems possible that Oppenheimer was a member of the Communist Party for a few years, although this was kept very secret and no hard evidence was found, and it seems that he had distanced himself from the party before he started work on the Manhattan project. 11 Stern, P.M. & Green, H.P., 1969. The Oppenheimer case : security on trial , New York, New York: Harper & Green. p. 2. 12 Ibid. 13 Hendershot, C., 1999. Paranoia, the bomb and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Bowling Green: Bowling Green State Univ. Popular Press: p.36 (Rachel l. Holloways study of Oppenheimer pg. 36 on the book) 14 Dombey, N., 2013. Oppenheimer, the bomb and beyond. Contemporary Physics, 54(5), pp.252 – 253. 15Oppenheimer,J.R. Nuclear Files. Nuclear Files . Retrieved from. https://web.archive.org/web/20080514020045/http:/www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/op penheimer-robert/corr_oppenheimer_1954-03-04.htm. 16 https://web.archive.org/web/20060901083938/http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles/issue1/scientistx.pdf: pg. 17.
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