[IP] ONR vs. FBI (Science vs. Security)
Begin forwarded message:
From: George Dyson <gdyson@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 21, 2006 1:54:13 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: ONR vs. FBI (Science vs. Security)
Dave,
[Your call on whether this is relevant for IP]
A fragment from the archives, to remind us of how much we owe to
people like Mina Rees, who stood up for Science in times when
Security was being misused...
John von Neumann to J. Robert Oppenheimer, June 15, 1950:
I had a telephone call from Dr. Mina Rees, Chief of the Mathematical
Sciences Section of ONR. She informed me of the following facts:
Dick Feynman and the mathematician, J. McShane, had been invited by
the Institute for Numerical Analysis, which is a joint enterprise of
the Bureau of Standards and the University of California at Los
Angeles, to spend the summer months there, that is, at UCLA. The
Department of Commerce, which apparently exercises a direct
supervision over the Bureau of Standards' activities in such matters,
did not approve of these appointments for security or loyalty reasons
(I understand, however, that the appointments are purely scientific
and do not involve classified matters).
After Mina Rees learned this, she caused ONR to inquire from the FBI
about the causes for withholding Feynman's and McShane's clearance.
The FBI did not make the relevant files available, and Mina Rees
thinks that they are still in the hands of the Commerce Department.
After this, she turned to Condon, who inquired of Mr. Gladier,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce in charge of Administration, who
informed him that the immediately available evidence on McShane and
Feynman provided no basis for their clearance, so that a full
investigation would have to effected in order to appoint them. I
have heard from other sources that a full investigation is
undesirable, firstly, because it is very expensive, and secondly,
because it may take too much time. In view of all this, Mina Rees
suggested that Feynman and McShane be appointed to the ONR
mathematical contract at the IAS and sent to UCLA.
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