The hearing will come to order.

Dr. J.R. Oppenheimer, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.

There has developed considerable on Atomic Energy Commission work is consistent with the interests of the national security.

In view of your access to highly sensitive classified an d in view of allegations which until disproved, raise questions as to your veracity, conduct and even your loyalty., the Commission has no other reco rse but to suspend your clearance until the matter has been resolved.

The hearings were held in a makeshift courtroom in a shabby government office in Washington, DC.

It was reported that your wife, Katherine Puening Oppenheimer, was a member of the Communist Party.

It was reported that your brothe , Frank Friedman Oppenheimer, was a member of the Communist Party.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the most eminent atomic scientist in stood accused a risk to national security.

It was 1954.

The Cold War with Russia was fueling fears of Communist infiltration at the highest levels of government.

It was reported that you stated that you were not a Communist, but it probably belonged to every Communist front organization on the West Coast and had signed many petitions in which Communists were interested.

The news shocked Americans everywhere.

If Robert Oppenheimer could not be trusted with the nation secrets, who could be?

Brilliant, proud, charismatic, a poet as well as a physicist, Oppenheimer had seemed to enjoy the full trust and confidence of his country's leaders.

He was a national hero, the man who had led the scientific team, wh The ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

Oppenheimer came to prominence through unspeakable violence and suffer and contradictions he had helped to create.

We knew the world would not be the same.

A few people laughed.

A few people cried.

Most people were silent.

I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

I suppose we all thought that one way or another.

What he was trying to help the world understand is that these are These are forces of destruction so great that we finally, as a species, are in a position where we can destroy the entire human world without question.

As the nation's top nuclear weapons advisor.

Oppenheimer tried to warn his countrymen of their dangers.

But powerful figures within the government feared he was a threat to America's security.

They determined to destroy him.

The country asked him to do some hing and h and they repaid him for the tremendous job he did by breaking him.

Doctor, do you think that social contacts between a person employed in secret war work and Communists or Communist adherents is dangerous?

Are we talking about today?

Yes.

Certainly not necessarily so.

They could conceivably be.

Was that your view in 1943 and during t The hearings would go on for nearly a month, the story of Oppenheimer's life laid bare, his secrets, exposed, his brilliance and arrogance, naivete and insecurities debated, dissected, and judged.

A special three man board appoin ed by the Atomic Energy Commission would rule on the charges.

To defend himself, the embattled scientist fe The items of so-called derogatory information cannot be fairly understood exce t in the context of my life and work.

I was born in New York in 1904.

My father came to this country at the age of 17 from Germany.