Oppenheimer admits lying during investigation

The Oppenheimer affair occupied center stage throughout much of the 1950’s, polarizing the atomic research community and much of official Washington. Oppenheimer’s security clearance was suspended after hearings conducted by a special board appointed by the Atomic Energy Commission. During the Board’s investigation, Lewis L. Strauss, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission filed a preliminary report in a letter to President Eisenhower (4-16-54) In it, Strauss revealed that Oppenheimer had admitted that he had lied to government investigators and that he had ” many and continuing relations with persons known to him to be Communists while he was engaged on the atomic bomb project and subsequently.”