The Case of Dr. Oppenheimer
A "leak" by newspaper columnists is obviously not the best first source of the news that Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer has been suspended from the United States advisory com- mittee on atomic energy. But now that the news is confirmed that this distinguished scientist, the man who had charge of the production of the first atomic bomb, is to be investigated as a "security risk," it is certainly not too early to issue a warning against the mischief-makers who will rush in to do their worst in what promises to be a cause célèbre of the first order. It is easy, of course, to discount in advance the new burst of activity of Senator McCarthy, who has been barely able to restrain himself from pronouncing in advance the guilt of a man whom it may not even be necessary to try. It will be less easy for British people to accept with calm any new surge of anti-Communist fervour throughout the United States or any new outcry among our own jaundiced observers of the American scene, who will use the expression " witch-hunt " freely and be as anxious to pronounce Dr. Oppenheimer innocent as the McCarthyites to pronounce him guilty. It will be essential to avoid any kind of pre-judgement. All that is clear is that Dr. Oppenheimer is a distinguished scientist who formerly dabbled in left-wing politics. That is not a crime. But it would be crime if the investigation which will now take place were to be magnified into a new cause of division either among the people of the United States or between the United States and her allies.
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