The Oppenheimer security hearing (1954) of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) explored the background, actions and associations of J. Robert Oppenheimer. He had headed the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, where he played a key part in the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. Doubts about Oppenheimer's loyalty dated back to the 1930s, when he was associated with Communist Party USA members, including his wife and his brother. At Los Alamos and in the AEC, he was involved in bureaucratic conflict between the Army and Air Force over the types of nuclear weapons the country required, technical conflict between the scientists over the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb, and personal conflict with AEC commissioner Lewis Strauss. The panel found that he was loyal and discreet with atomic secrets, but did not recommend that his security clearance be reinstated. This ended his role in government and policymaking. He became an academic exile, cut off from his former career and the world he had helped to create. The findings were seen as fair by some and as an expression of anti-Communist McCarthyism by others. (Full article...)
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