Senate Jenner Internal Security Subcommittee

The Senate Jenner Internal Security Subcommittee enters the account as a proposed investigator of J. Robert Oppenheimer, not as the body that decided his security case. Its threatened involvement helped turn a pending administrative review into a matter with potential congressional and political consequences.

Proposed Investigation

On December 21, 1953, at 11:30 in the morning, Oppenheimer’s friend and attorney Herbert Marks arrived at Lewis Strauss’s office with news that the Subcommittee was proposing to investigate Oppenheimer. Marks had not discussed the matter with Oppenheimer, who was then away in Europe. He instead pointed Strauss to a May 11, 1950, New York Times clipping bearing the headline “Nixon Champions Dr. Oppenheimer.” Marks suggested that a Subcommittee investigation could embarrass Vice President Richard Nixon by bringing Oppenheimer into the committee’s spotlight.

Strauss asked whether Marks had anything else on his mind and whether Oppenheimer knew of his concern. After Marks left, Strauss suspected that the lawyer had made a tactful attempt at political pressure. When Oppenheimer arrived that afternoon, Strauss told him about the visit; Oppenheimer said he knew nothing of the Subcommittee’s plans. Strauss then informed him that his security clearance would be suspended as the first step in a review.

Place in the Security Case

The proposed congressional inquiry formed part of the pressure surrounding the government’s handling of Oppenheimer, but the account distinguishes it from the proceeding that followed. Strauss and other officials had considered an open congressional examination as one possible way to confront derogatory information in Oppenheimer’s file, then favored an administrative review instead. The Subcommittee’s reported proposal made the prospect of a public political inquiry newly immediate, while Oppenheimer’s clearance was dealt with through the Atomic Energy Commission process.

The evidence establishes that the Subcommittee was considering an investigation and that Marks raised this prospect with Strauss. It does not establish that the Subcommittee ultimately opened or completed an inquiry into Oppenheimer. Its significance in this episode lies in the pressure its possible intervention exerted at the moment Strauss was preparing to confront him.