The Aftermath of WO II

—The beginnings of the Cold War—

Technology and Culture, 8-11-2005

Thieme Hennis
Introduction

To start with a short history will be handled leading to the growing fear of communism and
communists in the United States, which grew slowly the first few years after the war and reached its
peak in the ’50s, in the McCarthy era.

McCarthy was US Senator and led a demagogic crusade against communism, thereby harming many
innocent people. The Cold War tensions and the broad anti-Communist propaganda created a
unbearable climate for anyone who had even some affection with communist ideas in this time.

This, as you would expect, had some severe implications in the American culture, high valued
democracy ideas being snowed under by the general anti-Communist feelings.

Two important consequences of this political climate will be discussed. First the infamous trial of the
communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg will be handled and then the revocation of Oppenheimer’s
security clearance.

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History (1)

A short explanation follows regarding the growing anti-Communist sentiment in the US from a
historical perspective.

Anti-Communist feelings and ideas are as old as communism itself, and the first time there was a
general ‘Red Scare’ in the US was just after WO1, but only shortly. After that communism was still
generally considered as an utopia, totally countering the capitalistic river of free enterprise thoughts
that fed the American economy and society, but you cannot speak anymore of a ‘Red Scare’. During
and before WO2 there was even some positive propaganda regarding communism and in this time it
won even some popularity in the US at young left-winged students. Still, you could say that
communism was something totally anti-American, as for people being American implied being anti-
communistic.

Even though the war in Europe was ended with help of the Russians, the friendship did not last long.
During the Yalta-conference, which dealt merely with Japan issues, the US with his allies, represented
by Roosevelt and Churchill, secretly made some concessions to Stalin about Eastern Europe, and
agreements about free elections.

The following year, a plan, also known as the Baruch-plan, was presented by the US to the United
Nations regarding atomic matters. The original plan, made by (amongst others) Oppenheimer, that
more or less calls for a worldwide control on atomic energy, the immediate halt of production of
atomic weapons and destruction of existing ones, was altered in such a way by Government advisor
and Wallstreet broker Baruch, that the outcome of the proposal could be determined beforehand,
which is a refusal by the Soviets. This paved the way for a nuclear arms race. Truman later admitted:
‘asking Baruch was the worst mistake I ever made.’

After this sorrowful waste of opportunity, Stalin focussed on expanding communism and his power,
meanwhile not granting free elections in East-Europe and oppressing and even assassinating political
enemies, or suspected political enemies, acting like a true dictator.

A milestone in the beginning of the Cold War occurred in 1949. The Russians had made a replica of
‘Fat Man’, using information provided by Western spies. Now the Soviet Union had proved their
nuclear power, and its domain covering nearly half of the Northern hemisphere, you can imagine the
terror that grew within the minds of Americans. The Cold War was well on its way.

When then subsequently Mao takes control in China and North-Korean forces invade South-Korea the
expansion of communism is felt deeply, within normal American citizens as well as within the
government.

Just before the Korean War a very important report was written that later was to be considered the
blueprint for the Cold War. It said that the Soviet Union tried to spread communism worldwide and to
stop this, the US should adopt a policy of containment, that signifies involving actively worldwide to
stop further spread of communism. The theory that Truman held, the ‘Domino theory’, claimed that if
one country gets into communistic hands, others will follow.

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Figure 1: Map division East-West in 1952 (Wikipedia)

During this highly tensed time some very troubling cases of treason and espionage came to light.
Due to the breaking of codes the communication between the Soviet Consulate and the KGB could be
deciphered (also known as the Venona-project), what led to a chain of arrests. Even high government
officials were involved in espionage, such as White (IMF), Hiss (UN), MacLean and Burgess. The
danger now lay not only outside the US, but had found its way into even the highest circles of the
own government.

The scare intensified enormously during this time and McCarthyism, which we will be handled in the
following part, flourished.

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Red Scare – McCarthyism

Senator Joseph McCarthy, until after WO2 not a very significant political figure, felt just as most of the
people in America honestly threatened by the expanding communism and new cases of treason and
espionage. By intensifying the atmosphere of fright, where his words were received with delight, his
political status rose exponentially. You could call Senator McCarthy the answer to the Red Scare as
well as the Red Scare itself, the latter because his investigations and accusations were partially
unjustified. In a way he needed the general feeling of insecurity to satisfy his political appetite. By
intensifying the feeling of angst, he could rise his influence enormously.

Apparently a popular and successful way to empower yourself, because we have all seen that history
has repeated itself in this matter, unfortunately on the highest level you can get. But let us not go
into that matter.

Figure 2: Political cartoon McCarthyism 1950 (Wikipedia); The Elephant, that represents the
Republican Party, being by the leading Republicans in that time. First appearance of the term
McCarthyism.

When in ’52 McCarthy became chairman of the Senate’s Investigation Subcommittee, a new policy
was introduced under which a government employee not only had to be loyal, but his or her
background “clearly consistent with the interests in national security”.

In short this wave of anti-communism meant the loss of jobs for a lot of persons at universities,
government posts or other places and more people being discredited or harassed in any way under
the pretext of maintaining national security. Even though McCarthy had a point in saying that there
was a serious communist threat and that there were more than a few government officials involved,
in his Red Hunt a great number of innocent persons were prosecuted, on low and high levels, their
lives being brought down.

His popularity went as it came and even turned into a general averse for his person. As most of his
victims fell pray to the power of the media, in 1954 he himself was portrayed rather negatively, and
numerous cases of people whose lives were ruined unjustly were brought to the public. In the end
even some Republicans denounced him.

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Red Scare – Rosenberg trial

Two cases will be discussed that happened in this period of severe anti-communism. Before we get to
the case of Oppenheimer’s security clearance, which I think is the most interesting, one of the most
publicized cases of that decade, that of the suspected espionage of the Rosenberg couple, will be
handled.

In the worst time possible husband and wife Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indicted by authorities
and accused for passing on information to the Russians about production of nuclear weapons. As
mentioned before Americans successfully intercepted conversations between the Soviet Consulate
and the KGB in the Venona-project. Hundreds of persons, amongst others high American government
officials, were discovered of having transferred top-secret information and one of them was the
British scientist Klaus Fuchs, a former employer of Oppenheimer in the Manhattan Project. One thing
led to another, numerous persons were caught and charged, and the Rosenbergs found themselves
on the benches facing death penalty.

Julius as Ethel were both fervent communists, involved actively in the communist party in New York
for more than a decade before they dropped out of the party in 1943. Even before Ethel’s brother,
David Greenglass, began working at Los Alamos, he was approached by his brother-in-law about
conducting espionage activities. One has to remember that during that time, the general feeling
about communism and the Soviet Union was rather positive, being its ally in the war and even high
officials praising the Russians. David Greenglass gave in and provided over a period of time notes
about a certain production process of nuclear weapons. Julius Rosenberg remained active after the
war in espionage activities, as mentioned earlier, the public opinion about communism changed
drastically.

It was in 1950, when the Red Scare controlled the people of America, when Julius Rosenberg was
arrested, following a chain of arrests, the last link through David Greenglass, the brother of his wife.
While the testimonies and evidence against Julius piled up, there was nearly nothing that could lead
to the arrest of his wife. But because of Julius’ stubbornness and refusal to cooperate, the FBI needed
other ways to get him talking. This was the reason a case was built up against his wife, Ethel, with
help of her brother David Greenglass. The case against Ethel was extremely weak, the only ‘evidence’
provided by her brother and his wife Ruth. Even this ‘evidence’ was very weak, for it said no more
than that Ruth had been seen typing notes from Los Alamos and being present at some conversations
about espionage.

When Ethel’s arrest did not have the effect the FBI longed for and Julius remained uncooperative, the
Government was committed to the prosecution of her as well. They were both accused, in the light of
the Red Scare hysteria, of a crime worse than murder, of providing the Soviet Union with weapons
that they could use to destroy the US.

A death-penalty followed not only for Julius, but for Ethel as well. After 2 years of useless appeals, in
1953 Julius and Ethel were sent of this world.

Although even Julius sentence could be justified even by our standards, it remains one of the greatest
failures in the American history of law that with such scarce evidence the same destiny was implored
to Ethel. Later evidence made abundantly clear that Julius did, in fact, was a spy. The case against his
wife, which rested on the Greenglasses testimonies, lost all credibility when Greenglass admitted to
giving false testimonies in order to save himself.

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Oppenheimer’s Security Clearance Revoked

A less fatal, but equally unfortunate fate waited for Oppenheimer, during this period of paranoia. In
spite of all his contributions to the national security of the US, earning him a Medal for Merit, the
highest civilian award in WO2, he wasn’t saved from the sentiment that proved lethal for his political
life.

As the Cold War came into full extend, the opposition to Oppenheimer grew as well. His ideas
regarding the development of the ‘super’, also known as the hydrogen bomb, had irritated a lot of
influential people. Many think he was against the hydrogen bomb, he was not. In fact, his opposition
was on its development as a deliverable weapon, not on research. He changed his opinion in 1951,
because of breakthrough discoveries in the field and the advancement on nuclear weapons in the
Soviet Union. But you can consider that the damage was done and there were enough right-winged
people who rather saw him leave.

When the time was right, these people used their power and information what led to the
disappearance of Oppenheimer from the political stage. They brought up many old acquaintances of
Oppenheimer, who were Communists, trying to prove his Communist ties. To please certain persons
in the government, Oppenheimer had even testified against some of his former colleagues and
students, but this did not help him in retaining his influential position as official advisor of the
government on nuclear matters. The most crucial in this process was Oppenheimer’s contradictory
testimony regarding his old friend Haakon Chevalier, who had ties with Communists. He belatedly
informed security agents about a conversation they had regarding the possibility of having contacts
between American and Soviet scientists outside official channels and then delivered contradictory
statements.
This is even more astonishing when you think of the fact that (1) all this had been known to General
Groves during the Manhattan Project (2) the whole AEC granted clearance in 1947 to Oppenheimer
when this all had been known.

Years later though, this somewhat controversial background , which could be interpreted as not
‘clearly consistent with the interests of national security’, and equivocative statements now were to
be used by his enemies to get rid of him. His earlier opposition of the H-bomb and his liberal leftist
thoughts were not in accordance with the political sentiment at the time.

In 1953 his fall was foreshadowed by an article in Fortune, which consisted of an extensive accusation
from officers of the Air Force who were opposed to Oppenheimer’s defense policy. There were even
some influential persons who claimed that Oppenheimer was a spy, one of whom was Borden, who
was Executive Director of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (AEC) between 1949 and 1953.
During this time he got convinced that Oppenheimer was a critical threat to the country. In 1953 he
wrote a letter to FBI-boss Hoover claiming that

‘based upon years of study, of the available classified evidence, that more probable than not J.
Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union’

He also mentioned in the letter that

The central problem is not whether J. Robert Oppenheimer was ever a Communist; for the
existing evidence makes abundantly clear that he was..’

, which shows the extremely fanatic anti-Communistic sentiment of the time, that ever being a
Communist is already considered a problem.

Another enemy of Oppenheimer and AEC-member Lewis Strauss, pushed with the help of his political
friends President Eisenhower to revoke Oppenheimer’s Security clearance in 1953. Eisenhower asked
Oppenheimer to resign, which was refused, instead Oppenheimer asked for a hearing.

During this hearing many of his friends and enemies were questioned. Important figures as Strauss,
who felt resentment over Oppenheimer’s political ideas, but maybe even more over his humiliation
by Oppenheimer before Congress some years earlier and Teller, with whom Oppenheimer had a very
difficult relationship during the Manhattan Project and disagreed on more than one point, testified
against him. The outcome is well known.

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After his fall from the political stage, he focussed again on science, giving lectures, write and work on
physics. He demonstrated his skills again as a director of the Institute of Advanced Study in
Princeton. In 1963 he was awarded the AEC Enrico-Fermi award, the highest award on nuclear physics
by President Lyndon Johnson, which many consider as a gesture to make up the injustice done to him.
He was put forward by, amongst others, Edward Teller, who won it the year before.

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Thesis

The lack of an international nuclear agency, controlling the production of nuclear bombs world-wide
(as suggested by Oppenheimer before the end of the war), made it possible for the two biggest
powers in the world (America and Russia) to develop nuclear arms separately, posing a threat on
each other and the rest of the world.

I think this is one of the most important reasons for the creation of the tension, which was justified by
the danger posed by both nations, and ultimately led to the downfall of Oppenheimer.

So my thesis is that his controversial history and possible ties with communism were only partly
cause of his downfall. Said more clearly:

• The change of the plan by Baruch caused the first and most important break between ‘East’ and
‘West’.
• This led to the change in environment into a very hostile one towards Communism.
• In this environment several thoughts were not wished for or even considered dangerous. These
include;
- opposition to H-bomb or opposition to the arms race in general
- leftist thoughts or background
• The reason of the revocation is that some people were opposed to Oppenheimer politically, and
others were honestly concerned with his loyalty.
• Within the described environment, an objective outcome of Oppenheimer’s case, but
undoubtedly as well that of the Rosenbergs, was highly improbable.

A final remark will be that I do not mean that there would not be a Cold War, but that the scare would
be significantly less, because of the fact that the whole nuclear issue would not play such a great part
of it.