GENIUS OF THE ATOM BOMB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 5, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/08/07: CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
Level ll review 4 Dec 00 JIW
THE NEW YORic. TIMES, FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1963
Genius of the Atom Bomb
Julius Robert Oppenheimer
DR. J. J. oBEItt OPPEN-
HE'IMER, GENIUS IN
physics, was S years old
when he was ccllsl from his
university classes to lead the
Manhattan project that de-
veloped the atomic bomb and
brought World War II to an
end. To friends :Ind associates
he was known as "Oppie"
. eying the hec-
t. days when
was admin-
trator,
si sciert-
and diplo-
a ' of the
super-secret bomb project.
Dr. Oppenheimer wore a
brown pork-pit- hat in his
travels between groups of sci-
entists working on the proj-
ect. Frequently the hat was
hung in laboratories and offi-
ces as a symbui ina,t he was
at hand.
On Aug. 6, IJ45, when the
first uranium bomb pulver-
ized Hiroshima, the War De-
partment announced that Dr.
Oppenheimer "is to be cred-
ited with a thieving the
implementation of atomic en-
ergy for inilitiiry purposes."
Troubled by Success
Dr. Oppenheimer was
among the mealy scientists
troubled by thii; enormous ac-
complishment that had loosed
such an awesome force upon
mankind. Not long ago he
remarked that scientists had
come, because it this experi-
ence, to know sin.
Yesterday it was disclosed
that Dr. Oppenheimer, now
director of the, institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton,
N.J., will receive the Fermi
Award, the .iighest honor
conferred by the Atomic En-
ergy Commission.
Dr. Oppenheimer rarely
makes public appearances. At
scientific meetings he speaks,
with diffidence and modesty,
in a low voice that does not
carry far. =His listeners have
to strain to ficaii his words,
which are usl alty illuminat-
ing.
Dr. Oppenheimer, a thin
man, is 6 lieec tall and has
close-cropped hair. He chain-
smokes cigarei ti-s.
A Touch (if the Poet
In his writing he is al-
most a poet, oeautifully flu-
ent. -He moves gracefully. He
is a scholar and well versed
in eight languages.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was
born in New York on April
22, 1904. His father was a
well-to-do te:itile importer,
who had come to this country
from Germany at the age of
17. His mother was a Balti-
more artist.
At the age of 11 he was
elected to the New York Min-
eralogical Society. He at-
tended Ethic& Culture School
here. In three years he com-
pleted a Harvard College
course summa cum laude. He
studied at Cambridge Univer-
sity in England.
At Gr'oettingen in Germany
he earned his doctorate in
1927 with a hesis on quan-
tum mechanics. It was fin-
ished three weeks after he had
enrolled. In t929, he joined
the physics iaculties of the
California Inatitute of Tech-
nology in Paiiiadena and the
University cc California in
Man
In the
News
Associated Press
Physics with poetic flair
Sophocles early. At Harvard
he found Dante and pored
over French literature. The
scope of his erudition is enor-
mour. He knows art and he
knows music. He was an enor-
mously popular teacher with
a wide influence on his stu-
dents.
He came by his interests
in physics early.
Once, it is recalled, he
made an infrequent trip to
the playground as a third or
fourth grader. A child threw
a ball out of the playground
and the director criticized
throw. But young Robert
calculated the force with
which the ball struck the
sidewalk and demonstrated
that it could not have hurt
anyone.
A Scholar's Paradise'
Harvard herecalls as an
intellectual paradise.
"I loved it," he said later.
"I almost came alive. I took
morecourses than I was sup-
posed to, lived in the stacks,
just raided the place intel-
lectually."
In his teaching days in
California, Dr. Oppenheimer
stuck to the academil life. He
recalls that he had no radio,
no telephone, and he never
read a newspaper or a cur-
rent magazine. His friends
were faculty people from
Pasadena and Berkely?sci-
entists, classicists and artists.
"I was interested in man
and his experience," Dr. Op-
penheimer said later. "I was
deeply interested in my sci-
ence, but I had no under-
standing of the relations of
man to his society."
In 1940 he married Kath-
Berkeley. erine Puening. The Oppen-
Approved For Releasgalltliwweu
%is' _interests. ranz _ed heimers had two children,
tHe Q1AeRlaR841=0031,8R000401X1 20001 -7
..E.C. PRIZE GOING
TO OPPENHEIMER
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1963.
erini Award Signals Move'1.4 GOING
to Annul Security Ban REIMER
data" pending a security re-
view.
A three-man panel, headed by
Cordon Gray, then president of
the University of North Caro-
lina, was set up to review the
ed during Wort ; War 11 andi the case. noss the back row,
that it was a p5 utile, personallMr. Naiden was reported to hay
abuse of the n. ticial system.", objected that the commission
Suggests ?Vav Out [could not take such a position
Whon 'loon ,,,H52.2,2210??11:04.1. it W0111(1 be en-
promoted te tit injdorsnig the position taken din-
By JOHN W. FINNEY ago 1, Ca 7 charges. Dr. Oppenheimer had May, 1960, t 'g ii trying to lag the
Special to .1111 2.21,2 0120 Tses been accused of associating with work out rr.4 rigement to, lien.
WASHINGTON, April 1- - Dr. that the sci- Communists before and during restore 1,4.. ii ,00nilr.lislil A pp,
Robert Oppenheimer, the nu- ijustly deni-- World War II, of hiring Com- clearance. Fie p p sed that the It' 01
car physicist who was decl"redps should be munists and ex-Communists at commissMws ri MY 110011 ,,?inting
security risk by the Atomieldiat was re- the Los Alamos Laboratory, ot
hire lir, ?pawn: tit 4,0 as a con-
nergy Commission in 1951, haste most glar- aiding and eontrinuting to COM- sultan l and ilas thur 1140 44,1.1-
wen chosen to receive the high-le era of the munist causes and of actively mission grtoh tit a security
require a
opposing the hydrogen bomb clearance.
ation
N
project after it had been ord- g Noising care 1 110210 be- laid he,f0,.
erect by President Truman.
hind-the-suithes .orts during
-st honor the comintssion con- h R. McCar-
The decision to present Dr some accept_
Dppenheimer with the $50,00Olr, was cora_
-ermi Award for 1963 is ex-al and poli-
-eeted to be announced by thei. On the one
White House tomorrow. lesire not to
Officially, Dr. Oppenheimer.eimer to the
-Yin receive the award for hisblicity
iontributions to the development big, suocfhaans-
-q nuclear energy. These include , the spring
iis work in developing the
ttomic bomb during World War
[I and in promoting the military Administra-
ted peaceful uses of the atom adverse po-
ny step that
if ter the war.
Within the Administration, ect of dentist who
who
mwever, the award is intended minently in
Is as symbolic action to :'clear e McCarthy
the name" of the scientist who are reliable
Was director of the Los A.lamoq't?h Kcconn:
Laboratory during the wartime n to post- The lone dissenter was Dr. ,
Nlanhattan Project. Ten years last fall's Henry D. Smyth, now the kindly on 1 hearing4 Up pe
later he was declared a security' United States representative to heimer's ""Yr" [ hail had its
risk by the Government. - histration it l the International Atomic En- Predeeesl[w.-
The decision to give the award - A Change at Climate
le presenta-Hergy Agency.
to Dr. Oppenheimer comes as aic?city
risK b Messmr
,' The majority opinion, signer
r. i This belief W.15 reinforced by
Award does
climax to several years of be- penheimer's t'httiadosstii.le1D-cerr onpd_ T. se,thorg.
the appointment 4tf Dr. Glenn
a ' Insititti who hail,
CYampbells,
hind the scenes activities during to White penheimer was a security risk worked "'lit' 1ir. Oppenheimer
d can clear defects in his character" on the Mann Ran P roejet.a.
vever, it is
those years persons within both on the basis of "fundamental
the Eisenhower and Kennedy
y for thc and commission 'I iii early in
sennov. et: .kilministra-
Mullein Suggested
-reit reeornmended a p-
tr. Oppenheimer as a
on a eltissified proj-
Polnted out, would
new security invest,
wit a report would be
O the commission and
nission would gi TOO
? ot cecl on the com1
The Clay pane ann tn
June 1 that it had found Dr. the Eisenhower Administration. clearance and "that's all there
Oppenheimer to be "a loyal citi- The Aeminist 1100's position would he to it,"
was reflect ed n a January, Nothing positive resulted fro
1953, when P 'es?dent Eisen- this COIlltrii2iSiOn diSCUSSiOrl. AC-
zen" but had recommended, by
2-to-1 vote, against reinstat-
ing his security clearance as a
consultant to the commission.
Approval By A.E.C.
The panel's recommendation
was upheld later that month by
the commission, which an-
tit, ed the
' '" ' "3nt"'""'e' tiers seemingly was put oft on:
()PPen- the comnion agreement that thel
is ...t. l.it'd" aid in , question went beyond the eeri-
ly .vi is Stiauss ? aii.ssian,s scope,
st,:ntial new evi- Behind the scenes, however,
tv, slid be reopened
the scientist members of the;
(ming or the Een- commission corn inued to discuss I
sti?Ltion there ,was action to vindicate Dr. Oppen- ,
oi ai twity, within heimer.
simi, the White There were also continuing
on, oatside giTaps. efforts by outside groups.
Joseph Volpe for example, a
Washington lawyer and general
da, c, 1. in ., counsel of the commission from
n s position on the
1948 to 1951, urged Administra-
eise, but the pre-
lion officials and members of ,
v,is that the new
the Joint Congressional Com-4
n would look more init. ce
t on Atomic Energy to I
act. Mr. Volpte had worked with!
Dr. Oppenheimer on the Man-:
halt an Project. .
,
Some influential members of I
the oongressr,nal Committee:
made. clear that they were liot
opposed to renpenirig the Op-
penheimer case Mit urged that
action be defi'rred until after
the elect ion.
hower told a
that he 12..Ct
teim er casi
the statemen
that the case
only if "sab
nounced on June 29 that it had dence were pre en I ed.
voted I to 1, against grant-
ing sscurity clearance to Dr.
Oppenheimer.
In the majority were Lewis 1,.
Strauss, the commission chair-
With the c
nedy Admini
a new flurry
the commis
House and fr
man, Eugene M. Zuckert, now As a Senator mil as a Presi-
Secretary of the Air Force, Jo-
seph Campbell, now Comptroller
General, and the late Thomas E.
Murray.
dential candi
had not take
Oppenheimer
veiling belief
Administ ratio
Administrations and outsiderity
groups have sought for a feas- mer. clear-
groups
way to reverse the security, Closely
indictment of the physicist and on, there-
to restore his public honor.
Particularly within the Ken- ng closely t
nedy Administration, there was reaction to
the award.
Continued on Page 26, Column 3 e somewhat
al political
sores created nearly a decade
ago by the Oppenheimer case
Will have healed and that the
award will be accepted as a jus-
tified honor to man who
played such a key role in the
development of the atomic
bomb.
The Fermi Award, named for
Enrico Fermi, the Italian born
scientist who directed the sci-
entific team that achieved the
first controlled chain reaction,
was authorized in the Atomic
Energy Act of 1951. The law
provides that the commission
may, "upon recommendation of
the General Advisory Commit-
tee and with the approval of
.?
for any especially meritorious
contribution to the develop-
ment, use or control of atomic
'energy."
Awarded Unanimously
At a meeting late last month
in Albuquerque, N.M., the gen-
eral Advisory Committee voted
unanimously to give this year's
award, which since 1956 has
carried a $50,000 reward, to Dr.
Oppenheimer.
The committee, which Dr. Op-
penheimer headed after World
War II is the top scientific ad-
visory group to the commis-
sion. Its members now are:
Dr. Manson Benedict, the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, chairman; Dr. Ken-
neth S. Pitzer, president of Rice
University; Dr. Philip H. Abel-
son, the Carnegie Institution of
Washington; Dr. Norman F.
Ramsay, Harvard University; I
Dr. J. C. Warner, president of
the Carnegie Institute of Tech-
nology; Dr. Eugene P. Wigner,
Princeton University; Dr. John:
H. Williams, the University ofl
Minnesota; Dr. Robert A. Char-
pie, the Union Carbide Corpora-
tion;Con-
ceal Labora-
tories, Dr. L. R. Hafstead Gen-
tories, and William Webster,
president of Yankee Atomicl
Electric Company.
i
' Sent to The President 1
At a meeting on March 25,[
the five-man A.E.C. unani-j
Lmifted the Oppenheimer nomiH
ously approved the commit-I
tee's recommendation and sub-1
[nation to the White House. Thel
nomination was shortly ap-
proved by President Kennedy)
Dr. Oppenheimer, according
to White House officials, wasl
'informed at Princeton, N.J., to-
day of the honor. Since 1947, he
has been director of the Insti-,
pte, fox'. Advanced Study in(
[
If tradition is followed, thel
iformal presentation will comel
on Dec. 2, the twenty-first an-,.
niversary of the first chain re-'
action in an atomic pile built'
in Stagg Field in Chicago, early
in World War II.
According to associates, Dr.
Oppenheimer ha.s made no overt
move to reopen his security
/case. But he was reported to
have made it clear that he
would welcome action by the
1 A dm in is tra bon to ci ear his
Maine.
A Touch of Irony
1 There is a personal irony in
Dr. Oppenheimer's receiving the
:award this year, a year after
it was give nto Dr. Edward
'Teller.
i The two scientists were the
'r principal protagonists in the
controversy over whether to
build the hydrogen bomb ? a
controversy that figured large-
ly in the security charges
against Dr. Oppenheimer, And
during the lengthy security [
hearings Dr. Teller was on of
the principal hostile witnesses
against Dr. Oppenheimer, his
former director at the Los Ala-
mos Laboratory.
As one way to vindicate Dr.
Oppenheimer, the commission
informally proposed to the Gen-
eral Advisory Cormnittee last
year that the award for 1962
be shared by Dr. Teller and Dr.
/iOppenheimer. The suggestion
was turned down by the com-
mittee.
Ordered By Eisenhower j
- The Oppenheimer case burst
;into the open on April 11, 195a,
I when the Atomic Energy Con -,
1.953, President Eisen- Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
mission announced that ill DC-2
[bower had directed that "a
blank wall be placed between
Dr. Oppenheimer and secret
because "his associations with
persons known to him to be
Communists have extended far
beyond the tolerabe limits of
prudence and self-restraint."
In a separate opinion, Mr.
Murray went beyond the ma-
jority and questioned Dr. Op-
penheimer's loyalts.
In his dissent, Dr. Smith
maintained that Dr. Oppen- er ease'
heimer's "loyalty and trust- For reasons ha t are not clear,
worthiness emerge clearly" knowledge of 1 lie federation let
from his record of Government ter was origii restrieted to
service and that there was no the two seier tist members of
reason to believe that he "has the cornmiss,, in- -Dr. Seaborg
ever divulged any secret in- and Dr. Lela id J. Haworth--
formation.
An iMporta
mission actio
Federation o
tists, a politi
tee created
tists in 1946
the federation wrote a liter 1,0
the COMMISSitst orging a corn-
plete review o lie Oppenhdirn-
Invited to White House
VI ii2ipettlS to com-
n came from the As a "trial balloon" to test
I American Scien- public reaction, the Adminis-
csi attb,n t ?ation invited Dr. Oppenheimer
gor April .A
1962, that honored
to a White House dinner on
forty rime Nobel Prize winners.
The invitation was regarded by
some White House officials as!
the first step in the "rehabilia-
ot Dr. Oppenheimer.
During the dinner, Dr. Sea-
borg was understood to have
approached Dr. Oppenheimer.
and asked whether he would .
like another hearing. Dr. Op.:
penheimer was reported to have
replied, in effect, "not on your ,
life."
The Seaborg question and thel
Oppenheimer response pointed
up the basic problem confront-
ing Administration officials ?
that 01 finding a way to clear
Dr. O'menheimer without re-
opening the hearings and sub-
I jecting him to another round
of interogation.
Late in the spring of 1962
;there was general agreement.
I within the Administration that
Moves Begun in 1958
The move to reverse the
security decision against Dr.
Oppenheimer or to take some
step to "clear his name" began
and kept trot 2 the two lawyer
members- -Mr Olson and John
S. Graham.
It was unit iii the following
March that the two lawyer
commissioner: score told by Neil
Naiden, genet al counsel if the
within the Government when' cOrnMission al out tne leder atm%
Mr. Strauss left the commis- letter.
stoic.
When his successor, John A. Pro, olci ;I Disl.liSSit?i
McCone, now director of the During a c .m ission meeting
Central Intelligence Agency, in March, ar. Olson asked
was named commission chair- whether a le ter from the fed-
eration was 'a Mating around
man in June, 1958, Senator
Clinton P. Anderson, then here." This
chairman of the Joint Congres- heimer case
sional Committee on Atomic by the comm
Energy, asked him to review During t
the Oppenheimer case. Olson told 1J
As a result, Loren K. Olson could count
then general counsel of the (ion favorab
commission, made a detailed er. Mr. Grah
review of the case. tion on beeo
As he recalled recently, Mr. in 1957 was
Olson concluded that it was transcript o
"a messy record from a legal hearings, w
standpoint, that the charges have made
kept shifting at each level of sire to reopea the case.
the proceedings, that the evi- One commtssroner, not klenti-
dence was stale and consisted tied, was rep Ated to have sug-
of information that was 12 gested that the commission
years old and was known when agree that
a security clearance was grant- new evidence
trOlight the ()poen- ,ii wool,' Sc a 1,110,10,,, i0 III'
up for discussion commission to act then. Those
i 1511111. taking this view believed it
h diseussion, Mr. would be unwise to take any
Seatiorg that he action that might make the Op-
. n tus vote for ac- penheiiner case an issue in the
ly to Dr. Oppenhehn approaching Congressional elec-
., m, whose first ac- tion,
ming commissioner Aft, r the election, there was ;
t,[ read the 992-page renewed activity within the
the Oppenheimer commission and the office of .
a.; also reported to Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, the
rear earlier Ins de- President's science adviser. In
recent weeks officials have been
indicating privately that action
could be expected shortly.
The climax will come tomor-
is the absence of row with the White House an-
it could not reopen nouncement.
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
Oppenheimer Selected
To Get Fermi A wIt
By lloward Sinun
trit1f 12enon,
J. Robert Oppenheimer, controversitt liar cientist,
has been selected to receive the S50,000 iirrmi Award-1
the Atomic Energy Commission's highs' inner, it was:
learned last night.
Oppenheimer, who lost the
right to do secret work for
1,1 Vawed
the Government in a ccle-I qu
brated security case in 1954,Iabind , n gni to the I
was picked unanimously for?deirclop sch- lIar hydrugclu
bee General Advisory Com-
the award by the AEC's 0-mess-,1:77,;:
debate result-
mittee, a group of eminent
,
omu ions split
American scientists.
The award was endorsed, scn, .,,,,muf.as. and
again unanimously, by the pros- the : have mu been'
ent Atomic Energy Commis-
sion and- was approved by ?
President Kennedy. ird i' 'Urity
c
The Fermi award, which is cl-i,i1;.:1I nJ''1'I dmimsclince by'
(given for "especially Inert,: a 4 Ia I c a 111 111)5.L ThrPe.
tOriOUS contribution to the de- of Old IThe corn sili?tott-i
velopment, use or control of els rman EcwIs
atomic energy," goes to Op-,Strauss: ne 01. Zackert,
penheimer for his contribu-I and ."ampbcII--based,
.tions, to theoretical nuclear their cMf iin, on the con-
physics and for his leadership ',elusion this I lipenheimiar had:
in developing both the atomic!shown "fundamental defects"I
bomb and peaceful applications] of charaet, r, and "wilful dis-I
of atomic energy. 1u2ii;ard? obliga-;
Oppenheimer's selection will halts, rh di slit majority'
he viewed by many as. repro- nienthcr Connnissioner,
senling a desire by the present iThomas ;am ray.
Administration to redress what r-
jitusis tiiT Henry D.
some consider a previous sn),.1,, , fs,,, pw
Wrong. 11111i111(11, tiglt "he
It also has led to speculation j,
that Oppenheimer might be The i)1 decision
requested to do secret work Haud?,,i a ga inn in
for the Government, which 1504 ,ft, presnient, Eisen-
would automatically make him ha, ,,,,,speisshei Oppen-,
a candidate for new security o' -at pending
clearance. The award ,waii)si the
does not reinstate Oppenheim: scient s spec:I.-it three-
er's security clearance. ? meml,,r ,ard co ,cluded
The wartime scientific di-, unan,nnn, I a n May, 1954,
rector of the Nation's Manhat-I that Oppma,irner v as a loyal
I Lan Project for building the' bf it nated 2 to I
first atomic bomb lost Isis i-' r, slams's; Ii Sm
,clearance after a lengthy andIdearanrc The (feel-
! acrimonious hearing to deter-ision ills, vi,! in Tune. II
(mine whether he was a scour- Imform, d sources yesterday,
,ity risk.
-said inat Sirauss, along with,
I Essentially Oppenheimer's other for ince AEC chairmen'
judgment as regards security and mera hers of the J oi n t!
was called into question he-' Congressumat Committee on;
cause of his association with Atomic I1 rgy, had been in-
French scientist Haakon formed of the decision to I
Iii' ni1 ,m," as he is known
srit commUutty,
the iswa,
4//4/ /1/ /7-r/ / / .minktra Soil might approve!
? At- ,, Th, Si hint that the Ad-,
tionerim mpenheimcr came
v hell he was iiwitscr
10 a 0 fmee at the White:
liii is 'A ofwl Prize win,
on,,r is not. a NtMei
HSI lie has hecn
s 1,1,1[1111e tsar Add,
c weed t- ,usle at Princeton
, I
it
Iv I 21 II of the
11, 1,11' 1.11l1 late
T's liFt, ni,Aleer uitcsrtir
John \ iii
i)
(;;euil T
rut. 1/1. Ille
rol', [10 a ri(1
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7
Standard Form 63
Nov. 1961 Edition
63-104
MEMORANDUM OF CALL
TO-
Date
/3 -7-7.".?
Time
--
0 YOU WERE CALLED BY? L:J YOU WERE VISITED BY?
Number or code
TELEPHONE:
Extension
PLEASE CALL
WILL CALL AGAIN
RETURNING YOUR CALL
IS REFERRED TO YOU BY:
WAITING TO SEE YOU
fl WISHES AN APPOINTMENT
LEFT THIS MESSAGE:
e;:d5eAr
?
.9"erzey
4 4.4444.111:5B--I'l //2-.(-1'T
GOVERNMENT PRIN(ING OFFICE 1962 0-633141
Approved For Release 2001/08/07 : CIA-RDP84-00313R000100120001-7