Editor's note: John Waelti's series on the American Atomic Veterans continues with today's column.
He had served his country, leading the scientists at Los Alamos to design and deliver the atomic bomb. But he was deeply troubled by the human suffering these destructive weapons had caused. J. Robert ppenheimer became a leading voice for arms control and opposed development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb.
By the mid-1950s, the Eisenhower Administration, including Lewis Strauss who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Air Force generals, and powerful U.S. Senators wanted to silence him as a public policy spokesman. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had long been monitoring Oppenheimer and had extensive files on him, some gleaned by illegal wiretaps. Communist friends from the 1930s, Jewish, prestigious schools - Oppenheimer had long been a bone in Hoover's throat - he would eagerly cooperate.
Hoover was incensed by the security leak at Los Alamos during the war. It was Klaus Fuchs who had fed information to the Soviets, and it wasn't Oppenheimer who was responsible for Fuchs' security clearance. Hoover should have been shadowing Fuchs, instead of Oppenheimer with whom he was so obsessed. But Fuchs was now doing time in a British prison and was irrelevant. Hoover wanted Oppenheimer's skin.
Oppenheimer's term on the AEC's General Advisory Committee had ended and he was now a consultant. They could have simply chosen not to consult with him. But his enemies wanted blood - to discredit him as a public policy voice.
AEC Chair Strauss informed Oppenheimer he was deemed a "security risk." Oppenheimer could either concur, or challenge the AEC. The stunned Oppenheimer did not accept that he was now unworthy to serve his government. He would, of course, refute these charges. He spent a day with two lawyers, in an office electronically bugged by the FBI.
The deck was stacked for the hearing. AEC Chair Strauss selected a three-man board - pre-selected for anti-Oppenheimer views. Instead of AEC lawyers, Strauss acquired Roger Robb, a fierce trial lawyer with a reputation as a savage prosecutor. Oppenheimer's own legal counsel was ineffective, made less so by being excluded from some of the hearing because of lack of security clearance.
For three days and 20 hours Oppenheimer was brutally cross-examined on matters gleaned from FBI files going back some 14 years. Prestigious former colleagues including physicists Enrico Fermi and I.I. Rabi, and mathematician John von Neumann testified to Oppenheimer's loyalty, to no avail. The context of his association with Communist friends of the 30s, such as their anti-fascist motivations - and Oppenheimer's achievements at Los Alamos - were lost.
If this were not enough to finish Oppenheimer, they called another of his former colleagues, Edward Teller, a brilliant scientist and strong proponent of the hydrogen bomb. Teller worried about losing standing with fellow scientists. Observers believe that Teller and Robb conspired on how Teller could damage Oppenheimer while maintaining rapport with other scientists.
When questioned whether Oppenheimer was disloyal to the U.S., Teller gave a wordy answer to the effect that he was an intellectual, alert and complicated person, but assumed he was loyal until seeing conclusive proof to the contrary.
So a tough prosecutor doesn't get quite the desired answer by asking such an incriminating question. Then back off ever so slightly and ask a similar question.
Next question of Teller: "Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?" Another abstruse answer with references to Oppenheimer's confusing, hard to understand, and complicated actions, and never deliberately doing anything against the country. Teller finishes with "if it is a question of wisdom and judgment as demonstrated by actions since 1945, then I would say one would be wiser not to grant clearance."
Bingo. That's what the prosecution wanted - Oppenheimer declared a security risk by his former Los Alamos colleague. Oppenheimer was finished without having to turn him over to Sen. McCarthy, who the Eisenhower Administration feared would turn the entire scientific community into a bunch of Reds.
As this hearing was proceeding, so was another saga of the atomic age. March 1954 - the first hydrogen bomb was tested at Bikini in the Marshall Islands. The explosion was twice as powerful as expected, and 1,000 times more powerful than "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima. Warnings of the test were issued, and reached Japanese boats in major ports. The Fukuryu Maru, or Lucky Dragon, a fishing boat in the minor port of Yaizu, didn't get the warning.
Before dawn, crewman Shinzo Suyuki saw a giant whitish-yellow glow, like the sun rising in the west. Minutes later, a seismic shock in the ocean followed by two concussion-like explosions and a giant cloud. Two hours later, a giant fog appeared with a light drizzle - a drizzle of dry ash that got in the hair and eyes of the crewmen.
March 13 - The AEC announced the test and mentioned that 28 Americans and 236 Marshall Islanders had been treated for radiation, but all were reported well.
April 1954 - The hearing was over; Oppenheimer was finished. But so was Teller - not with the government; but he became a pariah in the scientific community.
Oppenheimer retained his post as Director of Advanced Physics in Princeton. AEC Chair Strauss, a member of the Institute's Board, recommended a raise, "to prove there was no personal animosity." Money is not the primary motivator of such scientists. Humiliated and without contact with fellow physicists exploring advanced theories, Oppenheimer became despondent, and his chainsmoking increased.
Teller maintained that he was not responsible for Oppenheimer's downfall. He was unable to convince fellow scientists.
As the members of the Lucky Dragon got ever more horribly ill and died painful deaths, Strauss dismissed the incident as a Communist plot.
These Japanese fishermen were but a few of the many who would become innocent victims of atomic testing.
Next week: Results of atomic testing come home - the experience of Francis Beers.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
He had served his country, leading the scientists at Los Alamos to design and deliver the atomic bomb. But he was deeply troubled by the human suffering these destructive weapons had caused. J. Robert ppenheimer became a leading voice for arms control and opposed development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb.
By the mid-1950s, the Eisenhower Administration, including Lewis Strauss who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Air Force generals, and powerful U.S. Senators wanted to silence him as a public policy spokesman. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had long been monitoring Oppenheimer and had extensive files on him, some gleaned by illegal wiretaps. Communist friends from the 1930s, Jewish, prestigious schools - Oppenheimer had long been a bone in Hoover's throat - he would eagerly cooperate.
Hoover was incensed by the security leak at Los Alamos during the war. It was Klaus Fuchs who had fed information to the Soviets, and it wasn't Oppenheimer who was responsible for Fuchs' security clearance. Hoover should have been shadowing Fuchs, instead of Oppenheimer with whom he was so obsessed. But Fuchs was now doing time in a British prison and was irrelevant. Hoover wanted Oppenheimer's skin.
Oppenheimer's term on the AEC's General Advisory Committee had ended and he was now a consultant. They could have simply chosen not to consult with him. But his enemies wanted blood - to discredit him as a public policy voice.
AEC Chair Strauss informed Oppenheimer he was deemed a "security risk." Oppenheimer could either concur, or challenge the AEC. The stunned Oppenheimer did not accept that he was now unworthy to serve his government. He would, of course, refute these charges. He spent a day with two lawyers, in an office electronically bugged by the FBI.
The deck was stacked for the hearing. AEC Chair Strauss selected a three-man board - pre-selected for anti-Oppenheimer views. Instead of AEC lawyers, Strauss acquired Roger Robb, a fierce trial lawyer with a reputation as a savage prosecutor. Oppenheimer's own legal counsel was ineffective, made less so by being excluded from some of the hearing because of lack of security clearance.
For three days and 20 hours Oppenheimer was brutally cross-examined on matters gleaned from FBI files going back some 14 years. Prestigious former colleagues including physicists Enrico Fermi and I.I. Rabi, and mathematician John von Neumann testified to Oppenheimer's loyalty, to no avail. The context of his association with Communist friends of the 30s, such as their anti-fascist motivations - and Oppenheimer's achievements at Los Alamos - were lost.
If this were not enough to finish Oppenheimer, they called another of his former colleagues, Edward Teller, a brilliant scientist and strong proponent of the hydrogen bomb. Teller worried about losing standing with fellow scientists. Observers believe that Teller and Robb conspired on how Teller could damage Oppenheimer while maintaining rapport with other scientists.
When questioned whether Oppenheimer was disloyal to the U.S., Teller gave a wordy answer to the effect that he was an intellectual, alert and complicated person, but assumed he was loyal until seeing conclusive proof to the contrary.
So a tough prosecutor doesn't get quite the desired answer by asking such an incriminating question. Then back off ever so slightly and ask a similar question.
Next question of Teller: "Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?" Another abstruse answer with references to Oppenheimer's confusing, hard to understand, and complicated actions, and never deliberately doing anything against the country. Teller finishes with "if it is a question of wisdom and judgment as demonstrated by actions since 1945, then I would say one would be wiser not to grant clearance."
Bingo. That's what the prosecution wanted - Oppenheimer declared a security risk by his former Los Alamos colleague. Oppenheimer was finished without having to turn him over to Sen. McCarthy, who the Eisenhower Administration feared would turn the entire scientific community into a bunch of Reds.
As this hearing was proceeding, so was another saga of the atomic age. March 1954 - the first hydrogen bomb was tested at Bikini in the Marshall Islands. The explosion was twice as powerful as expected, and 1,000 times more powerful than "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima. Warnings of the test were issued, and reached Japanese boats in major ports. The Fukuryu Maru, or Lucky Dragon, a fishing boat in the minor port of Yaizu, didn't get the warning.
Before dawn, crewman Shinzo Suyuki saw a giant whitish-yellow glow, like the sun rising in the west. Minutes later, a seismic shock in the ocean followed by two concussion-like explosions and a giant cloud. Two hours later, a giant fog appeared with a light drizzle - a drizzle of dry ash that got in the hair and eyes of the crewmen.
March 13 - The AEC announced the test and mentioned that 28 Americans and 236 Marshall Islanders had been treated for radiation, but all were reported well.
April 1954 - The hearing was over; Oppenheimer was finished. But so was Teller - not with the government; but he became a pariah in the scientific community.
Oppenheimer retained his post as Director of Advanced Physics in Princeton. AEC Chair Strauss, a member of the Institute's Board, recommended a raise, "to prove there was no personal animosity." Money is not the primary motivator of such scientists. Humiliated and without contact with fellow physicists exploring advanced theories, Oppenheimer became despondent, and his chainsmoking increased.
Teller maintained that he was not responsible for Oppenheimer's downfall. He was unable to convince fellow scientists.
As the members of the Lucky Dragon got ever more horribly ill and died painful deaths, Strauss dismissed the incident as a Communist plot.
These Japanese fishermen were but a few of the many who would become innocent victims of atomic testing.
Next week: Results of atomic testing come home - the experience of Francis Beers.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
