J. Robert Oppenheimer Cleared of ‘Black Mark’ After 68 Years (original) (raw)

Science|J. Robert Oppenheimer Cleared of ‘Black Mark’ After 68 Years

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/16/science/j-robert-oppenheimer-energy-department.html

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The physicist and architect of the American atomic bomb was stripped of his security clearance in 1954 after what is now called a flawed investigation.

A black-and-white image shows Robert Oppenheimer wearing a dark suit and writes an equation on a chalkboard, his gaze trained on something out of frame.

J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., in 1957. His security clearance with the Atomic Energy Commission was revoked in 1954 after he was accused of having Communist sympathies.Credit...John Rooney/Associated Press

Dec. 16, 2022

The Secretary of Energy on Friday nullified a 1954 decision to revoke the security clearance of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a top government scientist who led the making of the atomic bomb in World War II but fell under suspicion of being a Soviet spy at the height of the McCarthy era.

In a statement, the Energy Secretary, Jennifer M. Granholm, said the decision of her predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, to bar Oppenheimer’s clearance was the result of a “flawed process” that violated its own regulations.

As time has passed, she added, “more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed.”

Historians, who have long lobbied for the reversal of the clearance revocation, praised the vacating order as a milestone.

“I’m overwhelmed with emotion,” said Kai Bird, co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of “American Prometheus,” a 2005 biography of Oppenheimer that won the Pulitzer Prize.

“History matters and what was done to Oppenheimer in 1954 was a travesty, a black mark on the honor of the nation,” Mr. Bird said. “Students of American history will now be able to read the last chapter and see that what was done to Oppenheimer in that kangaroo court proceeding was not the last word.”

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