page_title: Edward Condon
section_title: 1940s
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Condon / Career / Attacks / 1940s
caption_attribution_description: العربية: ألبرت أينشتاين English: Albert Einstein Español: Albert Einstein en 1947 Français&#160;: Portrait d'Albert Einstein
context_page_description: Edward Uhler Condon was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. The Franck–Condon principle and the Slater–Condon rules are co-named after him.
  He was the director of the National Bureau of Standards from 1945 to 1951. In 1946, Condon was president of the American Physical Society, and in 1953 was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  During the McCarthy period, when efforts were being made to root out communist sympathizers in the United States, Edward Condon was a target of the House Un-American Activities Committee on the grounds that he was a 'follower' of a 'new revolutionary movement', quantum mechanics; Condon defended himself with a famous commitment to physics and science.
  Condon became widely known in 1968 as principal author of the Condon Report, an official review funded by the United States Air Force that concluded that unidentified flying objects have prosaic explanations. The lunar crater Condon is named for him.
context_section_description: During the 1940s, Condon's security clearance status was repeatedly questioned, reviewed, and re-established.
  On May 29, 1946, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote a letter intended for President Truman that named several senior government officials as part of a Soviet network. It described Condon as "nothing more or less than an espionage agent in disguise." (Decades later Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it "baseless corridor talk.") The Truman administration ignored Hoover's charges.
  On March 21, 1947, Truman signed United States Executive Order 9835 AKA the "Loyalty Order."  In the same month, Congressman J. Parnell Thomas, head of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), furnished information to the Washington Times-Herald that denigrated his loyalty in two articles published. Thomas had several reasons to make a prominent case of Condon. He had no sympathy for the scientific community's international spirit in the first place and could use the ongoing controversy to argue for an increase in his committee's appropriation, to bolster opposition to the Condon-supported McMahon Act, and to attract favorable coverage during election season. The Department of Commerce cleared Condon of disloyalty charges on February 24, 1948.
  
  Nevertheless, a HUAC report dated March 2, 1948 stated, "It appears that Dr. Condon is one of the weakest links in our atomic security".  Condon responded: "If it is true that I am one of the weakest links in atomic security that is very gratifying and the country can feel absolutely safe for I am completely reliable, loyal, conscientious and devoted to the interests of my country, as my whole life and career clearly reveal". On March 3, 1948, Senator Dennis Chávez (Dem-NM) read into the Congressional Record an article by Marquis Childs, which stated: 
  The current loyalty witch hunt is shown in its shabbiest and meanest form in the attack on Dr. Edward U. Condon... It relies almost on guilt by association. Because Dr. Condon, head of the National Bureau of Standards, talked to the wife of the Polish Ambassador and to two or three attachés of Soviet and satellite embassies, the committee demands his discharge.  "It is known," said a letter quoted by the committee and purportedly from the FBI, "that in February 1947 Zlotowski (an attaché in the Polish Embassy) purchased 270 books on atomic energy which had been published by the Department of Commerce"... ”To fair-minded Americans it will seem clear that Condon is being persecuted because he was appointed head of the Bureau of Standards by Henry Wallace when Wallace was Secretary of Commerce."
   On March 5, 1948, Representative George MacKinnon (Rep-MN) stated: "Mr. Speaker, today's paper carries the story that the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Harriman, has refused to respond to a congressional subpoena to supply information with respect to one Dr. Condon. I am not presuming to pass on the facts in that case, but I do wish to point out that this follows the same pattern of Secrecy as the administration has been following with respect to congressional subpoenas throughout this entire session."  On March 6, 1948, a Washington Post editorial stated, "There is an abundance of precedent for the Secretary's refusal to turn over his department's loyalty board files on Dr. Edward U. Condon." The Post also objected to an alternative proposal to send files on the Condon case to the top-level "Loyalty Review Board" in the Civil Service Commission.  The Commerce Department's own loyalty board had already cleared Condon, and the Post argued that this decision should stand.  On March 8, 1948, Representative Chester E. Holifield (Dem-CA) noted:  "...calling the attention of the Members to H. R. 4641, a bill which I introduced December 4, 1947.  The purpose of this bill is to prescribe the procedures of investigating committees of the Congress and to protect the rights of parties under investigation by such committees. If this bill could be enacted, it would extend to a world-famous scientist, such as Dr. E. U. Condon, the same protection which is now avai
caption: Albert Einstein (1947) defended Condon
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