Loyalty Oath Quotes
Referring to the 1989 National Endowment for the Arts censorship regulations requiring grantees to sign an agreement regarding the content of their work:
The Massachusetts Bay Company
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.
The requirement for citizenship required the applicant to petition—make a true declaration. The issues of that day that Americans were concerned about were anarchy, polygamy, and loyalty to other nations. A century later, terrorism has taken the place of anarchy as the major concern. Polygamy is no longer an issue, and America allowed citizens to have dual citizenships with many other counties.
The revolutionary acts from some of the more radical colonists but the colonial power structure was trying to negotiate for changes from the taxation and rights-impinging laws that Parliament had passed. Within a year the Continental Congress would take a more revolutionary position when this petition yielded no betterment-- {636864} and {636958}.
