{"id":1977063,"date":"2023-07-19T07:19:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T11:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/it-is-completely-reasonable-to-wonder-if-oppenheimer-was-a-soviet-spy\/"},"modified":"2023-07-19T07:22:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T11:22:45","slug":"it-is-completely-reasonable-to-wonder-if-oppenheimer-was-a-soviet-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/it-is-completely-reasonable-to-wonder-if-oppenheimer-was-a-soviet-spy\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Oppenheimer a Soviet spy? It&#8217;s a valid question."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fit-is-completely-reasonable-to-wonder-if-oppenheimer-was-a-soviet-spy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1977063&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div\u2063 class=\"article-content\"> \u200d\t\t\t\t\t \u200b<\/p>\n<p>J. \u2064Robert Oppenheimer, known\u2063 as &#8220;the\u200d father \u200cof\u2063 the atomic \u2062bomb,&#8221; has captivated the left \u2063for \u200creasons beyond\u200d his\u2064 role \u2063in creating a\u2063 devastating \u2064weapon. Oppenheimer\u2062 is seen as the\u2064 tormented conscience of the Cold War and a\u2064 martyr of McCarthyism.<\/p>\n<p>   \u2062\u200b <\/p>\n<p>Kai Bird,\u2062 co-author of\u200b the \u200bcaptivating <a\u200d href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Prometheus-Triumph-Tragedy-Oppenheimer\/dp\/0375726268\">biography<\/a> that inspired Christopher \u200dNolan&#8217;s\u200b film\u2063 &#8220;Oppenheimer,&#8221; \u200dhas written a\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-jake-tapper-takes-shot-at-mother-of-hunter-bidens-unacknowledged-child\/\" title=\"VIDEO: Jake Tapper Criticizes Mother of Hunter Biden's Unacknowledged Child\">thought-provoking column<\/a>\u2062 in The\u200b New York \u2062Times,\u200c lamenting the \u200btragic life\u2063 of the physicist \u2064who lost \u2062his security clearance in 1953. According to Bird, \u2064Oppenheimer was &#8220;destroyed by a political movement \u2062characterized by rank know-nothing, \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/here-are-the-professors-disparaging-rush-limbaughs-passing\/\" title=\"Here Are The Professors Disparaging Rush Limbaugh\u2019s Passing\">anti-intellectual<\/a>, \u200dxenophobic \u200ddemagogues. The witch-hunters\u200c of that season are the direct ancestors of our current \u2062political \u2063actors\u200b of a certain paranoid style.&#8221; \u2064The \u200cmain\u2062 culprit, as \u2062Bird argues, \u2063is Roy\u2063 Cohn, \u2064Joe \u2062McCarthy&#8217;s chief counsel, who \u200callegedly\u200d taught former \u200cPresident\u200b Donald Trump his brash and deranged style \u200bof politics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex\u200c justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; \u200btext-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-763827246\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\"\u200c class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e3bd02977fff06fe573a0bbe23362b4f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\"\u200c id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e3bd02977fff06fe573a0bbe23362b4f\"><\/div>\n<p> \u2063  \u200d <\/p>\n<p>There \u200dit\u2062 is. You\u2062 can \u2062almost \u200bpicture that \u200binnocent screenwriter,\u2063 who had only\u200b briefly flirted with communism as a \u200byoungster, being accused of \u200bsedition \u200cby The Donald. \u200cThe Red\u2064 Scare, \u2064just ask anyone\u2062 in Hollywood, was\u200c the greatest crime ever visited upon mankind. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u200d<\/p>\n<p>Well,\u2064 perhaps the second greatest after the 2016 election. &#8220;Just recall \u2062the former president&#8217;s fact-challenged \u2063comments on \u200cthe pandemic or climate change,&#8221; Bird reminds us.\u200d &#8220;This is \u2064a\u2062 worldview proudly scornful of science.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> \u2063  \u200c \u200d<\/p>\n<p>The problem\u2064 is, Bird doesn&#8217;t\u2063 defend Oppenheimer&#8217;s science \u2014 or any science, for that matter.\u2064 Rather, he defends \u200dthe physicist&#8217;s <em>political<\/em> outlook,\u200c which,\u200d like his\u2064 own,\u2063 was fueled\u200b by utopian wish-casting \u2062and\u2063 counterhistories.<\/p>\n<p>\u2062   \u200d <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no accident that \u2063Bird, \u2063<em>the \u200b<\/em>Oppenheimer expert, writes \u200ban \u2064entire \u200dcolumn about \u2062this \u200bwitch hunt\u2063 without once mentioning \u2062that\u200d the \u200cphysicist was likely\u2064 a communist\u2063 \u2014 \u200dor, at \u200bbest, a communist\u200c sympathizer. Bird&#8217;s column creates the \u200dimpression \u2063that only \u2062hysterical and \u200cparanoid Birchers could \u200cpossibly have questioned \u2064Oppenheimer&#8217;s integrity. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-48452bdf48229b12595a614d0287d9c0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-48452bdf48229b12595a614d0287d9c0\"><\/div>\n<p>  \u2062  <\/p>\n<p>Bird&#8217;s book, <em>American Prometheus<\/em>, tells a different story. \u200cOn numerous\u200d occasions, \u2064Oppenheimer\u200d admitted\u2063 to being a &#8220;fellow traveler.&#8221; \u200bIndeed, Oppenheimer lied to government investigators and\u2063 was \u200doften evasive \u200cabout his numerous\u2063 close relationships with \u200bknown\u2064 communist operatives. His first\u200b love, his \u2063wife, his\u2064 brother, and many \u200dof his good \u2063friends\u200d and colleagues\u200c were \u200dall communists at some \u200bpoint.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b  \u200c \u2062 <\/p>\n<p>And long \u200dbefore anyone ever\u2063 heard \u2064the name &#8220;Roy Cohn,&#8221;\u200c the U.S. government was \u200bmonitoring Oppenheimer, tapping\u200b his phones, tracing his \u200bmovements and relationships.\u2062 There was much consternation among U.S. officials \u200cabout \u200cOppenheimer while \u2062he was director \u2063of the Los Alamos lab. According\u2064 to Richard\u200c Rhodes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes\/dp\/1451677618\">author<\/a> of <em>The Making of \u2062the \u2064Atomic Bomb<\/em>, Peer\u2063 de Silva, \u2062the project&#8217;s\u200d chief resident security\u2062 officer,\u200d believed Oppenheimer was \u2064a spy \u2064back\u2064 in 1942.<\/p>\n<p> \u2064 \u2064  <\/p>\n<p>Just \u2062because \u2064they&#8217;re paranoid doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;re\u2062 innocent. There\u200d were\u200d plenty\u2062 of communists operating \u200cin the U.S. government around this time. Many elites who\u2064 came of age in the\u2064 1920s \u2064and \u20641930s,\u200b including Oppenheimer, had \u2063been\u200d supportive of\u2063 the\u200d Soviet Union. When \u2063the Venona files\u2062 and Soviet archives were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsa.gov\/Helpful-Links\/NSA-FOIA\/Declassification-Transparency-Initiatives\/Historical-Releases\/Venona\/\"\u2063 target=\"_blank\" \u2062rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">opened<\/a>, Americans learned that\u2064 Alger \u200bHiss, \u200bLaurence Duggan, Lauchlin \u2064Currie, William Remington, and \u200cmany others defended\u2062 by the \u200dAmerican \u200cleft \u2064had been Soviet agents.\u200c Some\u2064 of the \u200dknow-nothings knew\u2063 something.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, \u200dOppenheimer managed \u2064a \u200dManhattan \u200bProject that \u200bwas <em>teeming<\/em> with Soviet spies. In \u200ctheir <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sacred-Secrets-Intelligence-Operations-American\/dp\/1574883275\">book<\/a>, <em>Sacred Secrets<\/em>, Jerrold and Leona Schecter \u200bproduce \u2063a Soviet \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org\/document\/letter-boris-merkulov-ussr-peoples-commissar-state-security-lavrenty-beria-ussr-peoples\"\u200b target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer \u200cnoopener\">document<\/a> sent to Stalin&#8217;s secret police \u2063henchman\u200c Beria that they claim points\u200b to \u2063Oppenheimer as being \u2064a facilitator of espionage \u2014 much like FDR&#8217;s \u200cpro-Soviet Treasury official Harry Dexter White, \u200cwho let\u200d a \u200cnest of spies work\u2064 under his nose.<\/p>\n<div \u2062class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ec6e8d00156eadd874fb200b200e9077\u200c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ec6e8d00156eadd874fb200b200e9077\"><\/div>\n<p>  \u2064  <\/p>\n<p>Historians can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilsoncenter.org\/publication\/was-oppenheimer-soviet-spy-roundtable-discussion#:~:text=Oppenheimer%20was%20never%20formally%20recruited,to%20Beria%20notes%20in%20detail.\">debate<\/a>\u2063 the significance\u200b of the document and whether Oppenheimer was a spy. My admittedly cynical\u200b view is that many contemporary historians\u200d don&#8217;t\u200c really \u2063see very much \u2062wrong with the\u2062 communist \u200dflirtations of\u2064 U.S. officials, anyway. Hagiographies of Oppenheimer&#8217;s\u200c life\u2062 almost always double\u200b as\u200b critiques of American Cold\u2063 War policy.\u2064 Oppenheimer, \u200cfor instance, is nearly always \u2062compared to his great rival, the stern \u2062and uncompromising anti-communist Edward Teller, the \u2064&#8221;father of the hydrogen bomb&#8221; \u200cand template for Dr. Strangelove and other warmongering villains.<\/p>\n<p>\u2062    <\/p>\n<p>Though Teller would be proven\u200c right about both the \u2064Nazi and Soviet threats,\u2064 no one is ever \u200bmaking\u2063 a movie celebrating his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u2062 \u200b \u2064  <\/p>\n<p>When \u200cthe \u200bManhattan Project was concluding,\u200b numerous\u2063 participants began \u2064to argue that the U.S. shouldn&#8217;t have \u2062a monopoly\u200b on nuclear \u200btechnology. \u200cNiels\u200d Bohr\u2062 (not a spy)\u2064 famously <a \u2064href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Niels-Bohr\/The-atomic-bomb\">wanted<\/a> atomic \u200dscience open-sourced. Klaus Fuchs (definitely <a href=\"https:\/\/ahf.nuclearmuseum.org\/ahf\/profile\/klaus-fuchs\/\">a spy<\/a>)  wanted the same, \u2064but\u2064 simply handed Stalin atomic secrets instead. In\u200d 1995, when \u2062it \u2062was\u2063 learned\u200d that \u200danother\u2063 Los Alamos\u2063 scientist, Ted Hall, had sent \u2064secrets to \u200bthe Soviets in the 1940s, he went on television and <a\u200d href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/1999\/nov\/16\/guardianobituaries.haroldjackson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\u2062 noopener\">explained<\/a> that\u2063 he\u200b &#8220;decided to give atomic \u2064secrets to\u2062 the \u2064Russians because\u200b it seemed\u200c to me that\u200d it was important that\u2063 there should be \u2063no\u200b monopoly&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> \u200b \u2063  \u200b<\/p>\n<p>How these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/it-is-completely-reasonable-to-wonder-if-oppenheimer-was-a-soviet-spy\/\" title=\"Was Oppenheimer a Soviet spy? It's a valid question.\">men conducted business \u2063matters<\/a>, but\u200c the\u2063 rationalization of all of them\u200c is\u200b perilously close to Oppenheimer&#8217;s stated \u2064thinking on the technology he had helped \u2064create.<\/p>\n<p>As Bird writes:<\/p>\n<p>    \u2064<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p> \u2062<\/p>\n<p>Oppenheimer was trying desperately to \u200chave \u200cthat kind\u200c of\u2063 conversation \u200dabout nuclear weapons. He was trying to\u200d warn our generals\u200c that these are\u2063 not\u200c battlefield weapons, but weapons of pure terror. But our politicians chose to \u2063silence him;\u2064 the result\u2062 was that we spent\u200d the\u200c Cold\u200c War engaged\u200b in a costly and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-house-dem-wants-to-cut-nuclear-arsenal\/\" title=\"Top House Dem Wants To Cut Nuclear Arsenal\">dangerous arms race<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Would Hall or \u2062Oppenheimer \u200chave\u2062 wanted to break\u200b the\u200c U.S. \u2063atomic \u2062monopoly\u2064 or effectively surrender our \u2062technology\u200b had the Nazis still\u200d held power? \u200bOf course \u200bnot. The American\u2063 left never\u2062 really viewed \u200bStalin \u200cwith the same moral disdain they did Hitler.   <\/p>\n<p>   \u200b <\/p>\n<p>Had it not been\u2062 for the spies\u2064 working\u200c under Oppenheimer, the\u200d United States\u2062 might have\u200b spent more of the \u2062Cold \u200cWar in a \u2063less costly and precarious position. Even \u200cstill, \u2062the U.S. avoided the\u200b kind of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aclu-presses-supreme-court-to-end-men-only-draft\/\" title=\"ACLU Presses Supreme Court to End Men-Only Draft\">large-scale conflict<\/a> that\u200b engulfed the world in\u200c the \u2064first\u2063 half \u200cof the 20th\u2062 century. All the spies\u200b did \u200cwas help the Soviets\u2063 strip hundreds of millions of \u2063people \u2062of\u2064 their basic dignity and freedom \u2063and spread\u200c war and \u2063destruction. <\/p>\n<p>\u2064    \u2063<\/p>\n<p>And those who wanted the United States to surrender their advantage voluntarily were\u200d basically arguing for \u200bthe \u200csame \u2062results. \u2064That is\u2062 not a position to\u200c be admired. It&#8217;s\u00a0a position that\u200b sparks more \u200bcuriosity about\u2063 Oppenheimer&#8217;s thinking.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e99c24e3d5a3b81d2646e97cbea6a9fb fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e99c24e3d5a3b81d2646e97cbea6a9fb\"><\/div>\n<p>\u200d \t\t\t\t\t \u2063<\/p>\n<hr \u2063class=\"wp-block-separator\"> \u200d \u2062  \t\t\t\t\t \u200c \u200d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the atomic bomb&#8217;s creator, is admired by the left. They see him as the symbol of guilt during the Cold War and a victim of McCarthyism. Kai Bird, co-author of a notable book, shares this perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1977064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1977064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}