Manhattan Project physicist was infamously stripped of his security clearance in 1954:
Nearly 70 years after having his security clearance revoked by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) due to suspicion of being a Soviet spy, Manhattan Project physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer has finally received some form of justice just in time for Christmas, according to a December 16 article in the New York Times. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm released a statement nullifying the controversial decision that badly tarnished the late physicist's reputation, declaring it to be the result of a "flawed process" that violated the AEC's own regulations.
Science historian Alex Wellerstein of Stevens Institute of Technology told the New York Times that the exoneration was long overdue. "I'm sure it doesn't go as far as Oppenheimer and his family would have wanted," he said. "But it goes pretty far. The injustice done to Oppenheimer doesn't get undone by this. But it's nice to see some response and reconciliation even if it's decades too late."
[...] Physicists became national heroes, and Oppenheimer became chairman of the AEC. But suspicion over his Communist ties grew stronger, culminating in the infamous 1954 security hearings to determine whether he was guilty of treason. This was at the onset of the McCarthy era, with its paranoid emphasis on rooting out "subversives." As chair of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, Senator Joseph McCarthy unveiled a new policy under which a government employee not only had to be judged "loyal," but his or her background had to be "clearly consistent with the interests of national security."
[...] The AEC found Oppenheimer innocent of treason, but ruled he was "not reliable or trustworthy" and thus should not have access to military secrets. His security clearance was revoked on the grounds of "fundamental defects of character," and for Communist associations "far beyond the tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint" expected of those holding high government positions.
The lone dissenting opinion among the members of the AEC came from Commissioner Henry DeWolf Smyth, who found no evidence that Oppenheimer had ever divulged secret information during nearly 11 years of constant surveillance. Smyth, a physics professor at Princeton University, believed the charges against Oppenheimer were supplemented by "enthusiastic amateur help from powerful personal enemies," and concluded that, far from being a Communist subversive, the physicist was "an able, imaginative human being with normal human weaknesses and failings." Einstein and 25 Princeton colleagues joined the Federation of American Scientists in protesting the AEC's decision.
[...] Science historians have long argued that the revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance should be overturned. In 2014, several transcripts from the 1954 hearings were declassified, revealing no damning evidence against the late physicist. Rather, the testimony tended to exonerate him. "It's hard to see why it was classified," Cornell University historian Richard Polenberg told the New York Times at the time. "It's hard to see a principle here—except that some of the testimony was sympathetic to Oppenheimer, some of it very sympathetic."
[...] "I'm overwhelmed with emotion," Kai Bird, co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus, told the New York Times. "History matters and what was done to Oppenheimer in 1954 was a travesty, a black mark on the honor of the nation. Students of American history will now be able to read the last chapter and see that what was done to Oppenheimer in that kangaroo court proceeding was not the last word."
[Ed. note: I read American Prometheus several years ago and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in biographies, the Manhattan Project, or the atomic age. --hubie]
US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm's statement
Trailer for the forthcoming move Oppenheimer announced the day after Granholm's announcement.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @04:11AM (7 children)
One day, soon probably, we will find out McCarthy was a Russian operative and - MORE UNBELIEVABLY - Donald Trump wasn't.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Opportunist on Wednesday December 28, @11:16AM
The fun bit is that McCarthy fell over the same thing that killed Robbespierre. He threatened people with a list of names. And in both cases, people who had enough power to have them removed were afraid that their names could be on the list and that could be their downfall, so they pre-emptively fell them instead.
It's kinda funny how history repeats itself.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 28, @01:22PM (3 children)
Why not just go with the explanation that's right out in the open?
In 1945, after the D-Day landings, the US went to great lengths to recruit Nazis into their national security state of three-letter agencies, on the theory that would help them combat the Russkies. McCarthy simply did what those Nazis told him to do in exchange for dirt on his political opponents.
They did establish some interesting "rules" when it came to anti-Communism in America, though: (1) If you were accused of being a Communist, and admitted it or refused to say anything, you were guilty. (2) If you were accused of being Communist and denied it, you were guilty and a liar. And that dynamic was used by certain opportunistic jerks to ruin lives, among them my grandfather's (in his case, for the heinous crime of giving piano lessons to the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who he didn't know were spies).
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday December 28, @03:53PM (2 children)
Yeah, that's the military boys for you. Too ready to link up with fascists, and I don't mean that Operation Paperclip, I mean, just in their inclinations. Suckers for blinkered, simplistic thinking. The military industrial complex wants brilliant scientists to work for America (and give them reason for more funding), but they are perpetually suspicious and paranoid that the scientists aren't fully on board with whatever they consider to be the American values du jour. They're very jealous of the privilege to lead, of deciding what those American values are, interpreting how others' actions fit or don't fit their opinions of how an ideal American should behave, and what matters and what does not. They're the self-appointed priests of American values. Scientists are to be subordinate to generals, colonels, and perhaps even lower ranking officers. Any scientist they peg as a peacenik or a socialist is suspected of worse. As if those things are bad. Even merely voting for democrats or pursuing a vegetarian diet might be grounds for suspicion. Of course they know they can't use those things as reasons, but that's not a big problem, if they're feeling especially distrustful, they just hoke up something else that will fly.
When I was an undergrad, for one of the 2 required physical education credits, I tried the ROTC class. The variety of physical activities sounded more interesting than a typical team sport. It was a mistake. Most of the physical activity was the incredibly boring and mind numbing activity they called "drill and ceremony", march around in formation, turning left or right and a few other things they'd concocted. Don't think, just obey. One day was rappelling, another day was arms-- firing a weapon, with, as I recall, live ammo. And two guards standing on either side of you while you fired the weapon, in case you went crazy, whipped around, and tried to shoot people. The guards' main job was to shoot you first, before you could murder anyone. I skipped that day. One other day was map reading, without putting that training to any use by like actually trying to find your way out of a wilderness. I was informed by my roomie, who was in the ROTC program, that they had evaluated everyone in the ROTC class, for fitness to serve in the military, with, I suppose the proper attitudes, and had ranked me dead last, 77th out of 77. Had he not been in the ROTC, I likely would never have heard about that. I suppose he could have made that up, but I think not, they really did that. Rest of the semester which by then was only 2 weeks, he repeatedly told me that if a war broke out and I was drafted and ended up under his command, he'd shoot me in the back immediately, before I could cause any trouble. I didn't take that seriously, nevertheless, next semester, I roomed with someone else.
My ROTC roomie was unintentionally comical, making a farce of himself and somewhat his military service with some of the things he did. My first day in the dorms with him, he was there first, eating a pizza when I arrived. As I was unpacking, he finished the pizza, opened the window, and casually dropped the empty pizza box out it. I protested, and he brushed the matter off. I went back to unpacking and arranging my things. 5 minutes later, there was a loud knock on our door. It was the Resident Assistant who was also an officer in the ROTC, and he was holding the empty pizza box. He barked, in that loud, aggressive drill sergeant manner, "Rico, is this your pizza box?" My roommate denied it. Then the officer swiveled the box and pointed to the address label on it, where his name was clearly written. "It has your name on it!" Uh, uh, nope, he couldn't think of an out for that one. Someone else framed him? Nope! Gonna be doing pushups until your arms fall off! He was rueful and a bit disappointed that I hadn't tried to help him deny it, chiding me a bit for not backing him, not being in solidarity with your roomie, though he wasn't adamant about it as he fully realized that wouldn't have saved him.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 28, @11:41PM
When you look at how fascist movements operate, it's easy to see why they and the military of any country get along so well:
- Both have the idea of taking and giving orders that must be obeyed, even if doing so is dangerous or suicidal.
- Both have a fundamentally hierarchical structure: There's some guy at the top who is bossing everybody else around.
- Both have the goal of organizing a group of people to make them (but particularly the guy at the top) more powerful than they would otherwise be.
- Both divide the world into "ins" (i.e. the people who are part of this structure) and "outs" (everyone else, who must be destroyed or at least viewed suspiciously).
The main difference is how you end up in the "ins" versus "outs", and that militaries generally are more likely to give the "outs" ways of surrendering without being destroyed.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29, @06:24AM
With very minimal changes, this is the situation in Universities today. They have become shrines to Leadership, with scientists only remaining to provide cover - for now - for the comatose worship of power. As they say, power corrupts - like a mold that creeps into every human institution unless regularly disinfected with the bright sunlight of honesty.
Go into any work place - if you see superiors in outfits (anything that distinguishes them as superior), inferiors with their heads down, shoddy workmanship, buck-passing, nobody looks at you - you know this place is infected.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @03:18PM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Troll) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 28, @03:57PM
I've always figured a guy like that would do whatever you wanted if you just dangled a big enough wad of cash in front of him and/or presented him with pretty and willing women and/or did something that fed his ego. People these techniques appear to have worked for include but aren't limited to Kim Jong Un, Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi royal family, yes Vladimir Putin, the Gambino crime family, Jeffrey Epstein, and all 3 of his wives before he married them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @05:10AM (3 children)
Oppenheimer's associations are tame compared to the subversive [foxnews.com] perverts [thedailybeast.com] running the show these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @06:45AM (2 children)
So the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition (fired) is "running the show" now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @07:07AM (1 child)
He's an example of what you have to be caught doing to get kicked out of the club.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @08:22AM
And.... that's.... bad? Good? Where are you going with this. The dude is fired, unlike the clowns in the last administration who are finally going to prison.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Opportunist on Wednesday December 28, @11:14AM (3 children)
If you ever want to pardon me of anything, do it while I'm alive and I care. Otherwise, don't bother.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, @03:00PM (2 children)
So . . . are there some stories about you we should know about? :)
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday December 28, @03:55PM
Yeah, his handle starts with the same 3 letters as "Oppenheimer"! Coincidence?!?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Opportunist on Thursday December 29, @09:51AM
No.
I don't think you should know about them.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday December 28, @12:03PM
Robert Oppenheimer has entered the public domain. That explains.