Diana Trilling
THE OPPENHEIMER CASE:
A READING OF THE TESTIMONY
Between June 2, 1954, when the Gray Board announced
its findings in the Oppenheimer case, and' June 30, when the Atomic
Energy Commission published its decision not to grant clearance to
Dr. Oppenheimer, the transcript of Dr. Oppenheimer's lengthy hear–
ings before the Gray Board was unexpectedly released to the public.
1
A gigantic volume, some thousand oversized pages of minute type, it
is a document which asks for untold hours of close reading. Yet no
one who has not studied it carefully can properly evaluate the final
verdict which was passed upon Dr. Oppenheimer. It is not only that
the evidence on the specific charges put forward by the Atomic
Energy Commission cannot be assessed without recourse to the record.
Even more important, it is impossible to form a sound judgment of
Dr. Oppenheimer's situation without acquaintance with at least
what the transcript tells us of the highly complicated context in which
these charges were raised and explored.
First, there is the adversary nature of the hearings themselves.
No loyalty inquiry is a trial, but neither was this inquiry a neutral
investigation in which the Atomic Energy Commission, having been
apprised of certain derogatory information about one of its employees,
undertook to the best of its ability to command the whole evidence
of his guilt or innocence. I am not implying that Dr. Oppenheimer
was not given his full day in court-he most surely was. I am merely
calling attention to the fact that the approach of the Atomic Energy
Commission to the case was that of a prosecution. For instance, while
all
the defense witnesses appeared voluntarily or perhaps at the re–
quest of Dr. Oppenheimer's counsel, all the witnesses against Dr. Op-
1
In the Matter of
J.
Robert Oppenheimer : Transcript of Hearing Before
Personnel Security Board
may be purchased for $2.75 by writing to the Superin–
tendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.
