J. Robert Oppenheimer Cleared of “Black Mark” Against His Name After 68 Years
upstart writes:
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 His security clearance was revoked on the grounds of "fundamental defects of character," and for Communist associations "far beyond the tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint" expected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.
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