Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-04-14
Job Of OppenheimeI
AT Institute Now
Hanging in Balance
Continued From First Page.)

said he then decided that public
hearings on the issue at that
time would not be in the interest
of national security.
Virtually all of the Is charges
or allegations against DR.. Open
heimer have been weighed and
sifted by various Government
security agencies and top officials
from the time he started on the
A-bomb project at Los Alamos,
N. Mex, in 1912. The decision
always has been to clear him for
top secret work.
The principal new charge is
that DR.. Oppenheimer continued
to oppose the about program
for development of the H-bomb
after President Truman ordered
it in January, 1850, and that he
persuaded other scientists not to
contribute to the effort. This he
has denied.
The Acc, in a formal state
ment. yesterday disclosed that
President Eisenhower personally
directed that the scientist be
barred from. access to classified
material. A blank wall" was or
dered between DR.. Oppenheimer
and secret data.
DR.. Oppenheimer has been adj
wiser to the Defense and State
Departments. and the National
Security Council, in addition to
his role as consultant to the
Acc, at various times since the
wars end.
In 1850, some months after
President Truman ordered full
speed ahead on the H-bomb
program, the California State
I'm American Activities Com
mittee took public testimony
from an admitted former Com
munist that DR.. Oppenheimer
had attended a closed Red meet
ing. The physicists past associa-
tons and activities were again
put under the spotlight.
Later that same year, it is
known, the Senate Internal Sc
curity subcommittee, then headed
by Senator McCarran, Democrat.
of Nevada, had DR.. Oppenheimer
under subpoena. 1t had heard
charges by Paul Crouch, an ex-
Red who said that he had at
tended a closed Communist
meeting in DR.. Oppenheimer's
home in California and that the
latter was present.
The McCarran subcommittee
never called DR.: Oppenheimer to
testify. No reason was ever re-
vealed. But it is understood that
Vice President Nixon, then Sem
ator, told the subcommittee that
he was concerned about the plan
to rehaSh in public old charges
against the man who had done
so much for the Nations atomic
weapons program. Earlier, Mr..
Nixon had publicly declared his
confidence in DR.. Oppenheimer's
loyalty.
Admitted by Oppenheimer.
The following facts have been
admitted long since to the FBJ
and the House Committee on
Un-American Activities Gin Sc
cret session in 1949) by DR.. OPP
penheimer-just as they were
admitted in his March 4 reply
to the Acc. released yesterday:
l. That he associated with
c o m m In is, including his
brother Frank and Franks wife.
2. That he contributed f.
nancially, up to $3.50 at a clip.
to Communist PROJECTS. He espe-
clally favored the Spanish 10y
alist cause with financial con-
tributionS.
3. That his wife is a former
Communist and that she had
been befriended by the notorious,
Steve Nelson, an alleged Soviet
atomic spy, and that subse-
quently they entertained Nelson
at their home.
4. That he delayed reporting
to authorities for many months
that he had been approached
through a friend as to the pos
Sibility of supplying technical in
formation to the Russians, al
though he spurned the overture
as terribly wrong"
Denies Hiring Reds.
But DR.. Oppenheimer DIT I'd
that he hired Communists to
work at Los Alamos. He said his
brother had quit the party before
he went to work there. He also
denied that he persistently OPP
posed the H-bomb effort and
persuaded or tried to persuade
other scientists not to assist in
the hydrogen program.
In the fall of 1949, after the
Soviet Union had achieved it's
first atomic explosion, the de-
bate in the top circles of the
Truman administration over
whether to launch a huge and
immediate H-bomb project or
to concentrate on atomic weap-
onS reached a climax.
Admiral Strauss. then a mem
Der of the commission, led a sue
ceSsful fight for the H-bomb.
Acc Chairman David Lilienthal
and two other commission mem