Security Clearance Quotes
This vague criterion was in effect and was initially used to clear scientists at Los Alamos and their spouses who were part of the team that was to develop the Atomic Bomb. The Army security people however had never been in such a situation before. Few distinguished scientists wanted to come to Los Alamos to begin with as once there, they were there for the duration of the war and were cut off from friends and relatives. But there were very few people in the entire country who had the unique education and training. When the security people rejected a candidate before that time, another person was recruited. But for many of the scientists at Los Alamos, they were one of a kind. There were not two Enrico Femi’s or Luis Alverez’s. “Moral fiber” could mean anything and the American academic world has always tolerated a wider variety of behavior then most of the rest of society. Sexual activity, left wing views, parental irresponsibility, failure to pay debts, attacking religion or religious organizations all created problems. But the biggest problem was association with others of “demonstrated weakness in moral fiber” including communists and left wingers. In most university settings, with a norm or tolerance, almost all associated with “undesirables”. As a result many scientists or family members could not get cleared. But the project could not function without them, and if some were fired for that reason, many others might have quit. Finally, General Groves, relaxed the standards, yet the army security officers were constantly suspicious. This criterion was in use as late as the 1960s where a brilliant scientist working in the Executive Office of the President was threatened with dismissal for this reason. She had borne an illegitimate child years earlier.
H. S. Tsien was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the major technical leaders of the American Space and Missile Programs. In the Red Scare of the 1950s some nativist conservative members of Congress and others managed to get his security clearance removed on the grounds that he had Communist Sympathies. Like many other American Citizens, he disapproved of the Chinese dictator Chiang Kai-shek even though Chiang was the anti-Communist bulwark in China. Since his work was space and missiles, he had little professional to do and when Chiang Kai-shek was defeated in China and pushed to Taiwan, H. S. Tsien ended up going to China and starting their rocketry program. (He is known as the “Father of Chinese Rocketry”). He is the only scientist who was an early leader in the space programs of two different nations. Kimball, whose naval missiles were all in part developed by H. S. Tsien’s work, was furious, but at the time with McCarthyism riding high, his criticism was met by accusations that he was a Communist sympathizer.
