Oppie a Commie? Interesting new book by Gregg Herken, The Brotherhood of the Bomb (Henry Holt). Its most explosive (pardon the pun) finding: Oppenheimer lied when he denied every having been a member of the Communist Party. (Herken also argues, however, that O. was neither a spy nor disloyal.)
It is interesting to note the contrasting ways this point was handled in two leading reviews today. In the Washington Post, Jennet Conant, author of Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II, ended her review by noting:
The most controversial part of the book is bound to be Herken’s assertion that Oppenheimer — despite his repeated denials — was in fact a card-carrying member of the American Communist Party during the 1930s and early ’40s and, furthermore, was involved with a secret propaganda cell at Berkeley.
In the New York Times, eminent Berkeley historian David Hollinger begins his review by stating that “J. Robert Oppenheimer was once much closer to the Communist Party than he ever admitted.”
