Shirley Barnett Quotes
Many people, including me, were never cleared because the standards was so ridiculous. If you had any kind of leftist background, and anybody worth their salt would've had some connections during the 1930s when anti-fascism was popular among intellectuals, you were never finally cleared. We all sort of ignored it because we were all there and they wanted us to work.
The security system at Los Alamos while the atomic bomb was being developed was absurd. Scientists from all over the country had to be hired quickly. Many of them had friends and relatives who had various left-wing associations; some came from Germany or had German connections. A number of the key scientists were German refugees from Hitler's persecution. The military security people, using their traditional standards, would not clear people if they had any left wing friends or associates or they came from Europe and there were no records to prove that they were not fascists or communists. Most of the refugees got out with their lives and had no records, but they were among the best scientists in the world. J Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director, and General Leslie Groves needed the scientists as the work had to be done. Groves approved important personnel for hire pending security clearance which never came and which Groves knew would never come. Nonetheless the people were working by the time intelligence officers outside the project realized what was going on. People without clearance had some of the most sensitive jobs at Los Alamos. Not a single one of those people turned out to be a security risk or a spy. There was a spy however who had come the English scientific delegation, but the security people had cleared him. Barnett however, as Oppenheimer’s personal assistant had access to almost everything having to do with the development of the bomb. She never did get cleared for her job.
Shirley Barnett, ?, Private Secretary and Assistant to the Director of the Los Alamos Manhattan Project facility, Quoted in Jennet Conant, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, 2005
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The military security people were so used to ferreting out communists in the 1930s that they had a hard time adjusting to the fact that the security risks or people who might have German connections or backgrounds. Many immigrant scientists were recruited for work on the Manhattan project to build the atomic bomb and they only did security clearances. The military security people kept checking on any communist background they might have had as opposed to possible connections with fascist organizations. By the end of the war they had adjusted but then had to go back to looking for communists as the Cold War evolved.
Oppenheimer was cleared but many of the rest of the staff were including those with access to the highest, most critical secrets in the land. See {629854} for a greater understanding of the situation.
The Scientific Project that developed the Atomic Bomb. Oppenheimer, like most sophisticated intellectuals and scientists of the time had acquaintances who were communists or Communist sympathizer in Oppenheimer's case his brother and wife were both members of communist organizations. They too severed their connections. At the time Russia was on major ally in the war against Hitler and fascism. However since the Communist Revolution of 1917 there had been an animus between the American and Russian governments. The work on the atomic bomb was so secret that everybody was a potential suspect and security risk, even our allies. In the final analysis it was a spy in the Manhattan project who was there as part of the British contribution to the project. The security people were chasing after all the scientists who had friends or acquaintances who were communists and missed the real spy who had no such connections.
H. S. Tsien was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the major technical leaders of the American Space and Missile Programs. In the Red Scare of the 1950s some nativist conservative members of Congress and others managed to get his security clearance removed on the grounds that he had Communist Sympathies. Like many other American Citizens, he disapproved of the Chinese dictator Chiang Kai-shek even though Chiang was the anti-Communist bulwark in China. Since his work was space and missiles, he had little professional to do and when Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in China and pushed to Taiwan, H. S. Tsien ended up going to China and starting their rocketry program. (He is known as the “Father of Chinese Rocketry”). He is the only scientist who was an early leader in the space programs of two different nations. Kimball, whose naval missiles were all in part developed by H. S. Tsien’s work, was furious, but at the time with McCarthyism riding high, his criticism was met by accusations that he was a Communist sympathizer.
After this, no other member of the Executive branch went before McCarthy again
Feynman was then a young brilliant graduate students working with colleagues far senior to him. He not only criticized the lax security of the safes, but when combination safes were later installed, he would infuriate the army security people by “hacking” the safes when scientists had lost their combinations.
Although the U. S. denied propaganda and dirty tricks efforts interfering in the internal affairs of South American Countries, this memo proves that there were some instances of just that.
This vague criterion was in effect and was initially used to clear scientists at Los Alamos and their spouses who were part of the team that was to develop the Atomic Bomb. The Army security people however had never been in such a situation before. Few distinguished scientists wanted to come to Los Alamos to begin with as once there, they were there for the duration of the war and were cut off from friends and relatives. But there were very few people in the entire country who had the unique education and training. When the security people rejected a candidate before that time, another person was recruited. But for many of the scientists at Los Alamos, they were one of a kind. There were not two Enrico Femi’s or Luis Alverez’s. “Moral fiber” could mean anything and the American academic world has always tolerated a wider variety of behavior then most of the rest of society. Sexual activity, left wing views, parental irresponsibility, failure to pay debts, attacking religion or religious organizations all created problems. But the biggest problem was association with others of “demonstrated weakness in moral fiber” including communists and left wingers. In most university settings, with a norm or tolerance, almost all associated with “undesirables”. As a result many scientists or family members could not get cleared. But the project could not function without them, and if some were fired for that reason, many others might have quit. Finally, General Groves, relaxed the standards, yet the army security officers were constantly suspicious. This criterion was in use as late as the 1960s where a brilliant scientist working in the Executive Office of the President was threatened with dismissal for this reason. She had borne an illegitimate child years earlier.
Lieutenant Redulivitch, an Air Force officer, was discharged from the Air Force on the grounds that he was a security risk. The Air Force stated that they had no reason to question his loyalty, but that the Lieutenant’s father read communist literature and associated with suspected communists, but refused to provide any evidence to the press, the Lieutenant or the father. The quotation illustrates the degree that McCarthyism and the Red Scare had twisted the national security apparatus of the nation.
The normally highly individualistic scientists from so many different cultures amazed all, especially the military, with the teamwork and organization of their effort. They all wanted to be sure that the Germans would not first develop the bomb and the refugees from Europe shared experiences that motivated them all. Also, the Army was very ham handed in trying to organize a community of scientists, and there was a great deal of cohesion to keep the army out of their day to day affairs. The other major factor was J. Robert Oppenheier, the scientific director, who despite his lack of managerial or leadership experience, rose to the occasion and became one of the great scientific administrators of all time. Ulam with Edward Teller were the first to design the Hydrogen Bomb.
