PROFESSOR AND MADAME JOLIOT-CURIE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R000200470001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 7, 1947
• Content Type: IR

-RDP82-00453RPR220004=
! 'IN t; 9
E TRH r GROUP
IN TEL UG -'E REP OW
COUNTRY France
SUBJECT Professor and Madame Joliot-Curie
25X1A6a
ORIGIN
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DATE.
INFO. Current
DIST. 7 January 1947
PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT
1. The recent lecture delivered by Joliot-Curie on the occasion of
the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of radioactivity
produced a general impression of malaise. Joliot launched into
an anti-American argument, violently crt t3 sizing . the Bikini
experiments which were aimed, he said, at terrorizing the world
by demonstrating that America was the strongest nation.. This
incursion Into an extra--scientific field was severely commented upon
by several personalities in the audi ence0 It was thought that
Joliot-Curie had thus clearly demonstrated his ideological ties
with the Soviets, and the fact that the nigh. Commissioner of
Atomic Energy has stopped out of his role is causing a certain
anxiety. Military circles, which were represented by the leaders
of the Ecole Polytechnique were particularly shocked by Joliot's
remarks. Broadly speaking, a certain hostility against Joliot
and his entourage has become more apparent in scientific milieux
and all the more ~ openly since the recent progress of anti-r
Commuunism0 The Joliot-Langevin clan, so powerful in the past, has
today lost much of its Influence, particularly with the Academia
des Sciences. In the event of the Communists being excluded from
the now goveb nment, measures would shortly be taken to replace
Joliot and part of his team.
2. Irene Curie is undoubtedly more dynamic politically than her
husband. She has remained faithful to the ideas of her mother
who was a nih..liat when she came to France, and very soon
polarized around herself scientists of the extreme-left such as
Professors Langevin and Jean Perrino Rumor has it that Irene
Curie is,, in fact, the daughter of Jean Perrin., Irene Curie's
marriage to Frederic Joliot was arranged by Perrin, and she has
been a member of the Commmmist Party for a very long time. Perrin
Is partly responsible for Joliot'a successful career. For instance,
Perrints extreme attachment to the Curies prompted him to request,
while he was a member of the Nobel Committee? the Nobel Prize for
Joliot for his discovery of artificial radioactivity. Joliot did
25X1A9a get the prize but had to share it with Chadwick who had discovered
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the "neutron". This division irritated Perrin Inmensely but
Joliot was launched, and his wife's political connections
gave him a free and well-orchestrated publicity from the
Communists. Irene Joliot-Curie is a fanatic. According to
Godorovsky, who is on the staff of Polytechnique, and who
worked before the war in Joliot's laboratories, if one messures
Joliot's scientific value at one hundred, Irene Curio can be
given one. But this inferiority is largely compensated by
other qualities. She is in charge of recruiting all personnel
and organizes the various services. She is the one who pushed
Joliot into the Communist Party. She has an enormous influence
on her husband. Several times Irene Curio has refused to hire
research workers or students in her laboratories on the
pretext that they did not offer sufficient political guarantees.
A girl student bras told openly that she could not be used since
she was not a member of the Communist Party.
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Approved For Release 1999/09/08 : CIA-RDP82-00457R000200470001-1