The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1954-06-30
BY WARREN ROGERS IN

Energy Commission has malice
down the ban against atomi,
pioneer J. Robert Oppenheimel
with Al declaration that he i,
unfit to handle Americas nuclea,
secrets because of defects O
character and dangerous as
sociations."
The commission thus closed out
late yesterday its role in a Ions
and wordy legal battle with the
5O-year-old physicist who was once
one of its most trusted advisers.
What the next act would bring
was unclear. Neither Oppenheimel
nor his attorneys were saying what
steps, if any, they contemplated
One unanswered question: Would
he appeal to President Eisen.
hover?
The President has declined com.
ment in the case since, on his or.
ders, Oppenheimer'S security
clearance was suspended last
December.
Oppenheimer appealed then, and
the Acc set up a special security
panel to consider his case. It heard
80 witnesses, including Open
heimer, and on May q voted 2-1
against him.
Oppenheimer, in New York last
night after the commission re-
leased its decision upholding the
boards ruling, had no direct COM
ment on the majority report.
But he voiced confidence in the
will of Americas scientists to
''work faithfully to preserve and
strengthen this country" And he
praised DR.. Henry D. Smyth, the
only commissioner to recommend
reinstatement Of his security clear
ance, as having rendered "fair
and considered statement.
The majority report was signed
by Acc Chairman Lewis l..
Strauss and Commissioners Eu-
gene M. Zuckert and Joseph Camp
bell, both of whom appended state
ments of their own.
Commissioner Thomas E. Muir
ray, agreeing with them that OPP
penheimer should be denied access
to secrets, wrote separate opinion
which said: "Dr. Oppenheimer was
disloyap' in the sense that he dis
regarded security regulations.
But Mr.. Smyth, a Princeton
scientist who worked with Open
heimer in wartime development Of
the atomic bomb, strenuously dis
agreed with his four colleagues.
He is completely loyal" wrote
Smyth, "and / do not believe he
is a security risk"
In Congress, Rep. w. Sterling
Cole (R-NY), chairman Of the Sen
ate-House Atomic Energy Com
mittee, said he sees no reason to
challenge the commissions deci-
sion. He said there had been no
request for any move by the COM
mittee, which keeps tabs on COM
mission activities.
Oppenheimer, now director Of a
private research group called the
Institute for Advanced Study at
Princeton, NJ, winds up his ca
reer as an Acc consultant today,
with expiration Of his contract.
The ecurity board which
weighed his case last spring heard
a half-million words of testimony
and ruled Oppenheimer was loyal
but security risk.
As the commission majority saw
It, the issue was whether it was
in the interest of national security
to let Oppenheimer see "some of
the most vital secrets in the pos
session of he United States"
Substantial defects of char
acter and imprudent and dan
gerous associations, particularly
with known subversives who place
the interests of foreign powers
above those Of the United States,
are also reasons for Disqualified
tion," said the report, and it
added:
". :. We find DR.. Oppenheimer
Is not entitled to the continued
confidence of the government and
of this commission because of the
proof Of fundamental defects in his
character
eve find that his associations
with persons known to him to be
Communists have extended far be-
yond the tolerable limits of pru-
dence and sef-restraint which are
to be expected of one holding the
high positions that the government
has continuously entrusted to him
since 1912"
To this, DR.. Smyth dissented:
81 cannot accept this conclusion
or the fear behind it."
He said Oppenheimer had been
closely watched, by professionals
as well as by ''amateurs" with
a grudge against him, for much
of IL years-as head of the Los
Alamos, N. NJ, laboratory which
developed the A-bomb in World
War II and, later, as head of the
Acc advisory committee until
1852.