Oregon State UniversitySpecial Collections & Archives Research Center

History of Atomic Energy Collection, 1896-1991

4. Atomic Espionage and the Oppenheimer Hearings. 1948-1985.

Incidents of clandestine exchange of atomic secrets - both verified and merely accused - are surveyed in this series, as are the details of J. Robert Oppenheimer's security hearings in April-May 1954.


24 items
0567.
ATOMIC SPY CASES. Vol. l, No. l. Based on True Stories! 14 leaves. Color-illustrated comic book. 4to, pictorial wrappers. New York: Avon Periodicals. March-April 1950.
Fascinating mirror of the atom spy hysteria of the period, summarized in the opening lines: "History's darkest pages contain no more violent and explosive passages than those now being written in the intense struggles of foreign powers to learn the secret of the Atom Bomb. Only the eternal vigilance of our own undercover agents keeps this deadly information from the evil hands that would turn this powderkeg of desperate hates and vicious emotions into a world-wide cataclysm. . . ."
0568.
COOK, FRED J. "Hiss: New Perspectives on the Strangest Case of Our Time." pp. 141-184. 4to, printed wrappers. New York: The Nation. 1957.
Comprises essentially the entire issue of The Nation for September 21, 1957.
0569.
CURTIS, CHARLES P. The Oppenheimer Case. The Trial of a Security System. 281 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1955. QC16.O62 C8
0570.
DANIELS, FRED E. "The Rosenbergs." A Year After. IN: Masses & Mainstream, Vol. 7, No. 6. 8vo, pictorial wrappers. New York: Masses & Mainstream. June 1954.
0571.
DAVENPORT, ELAINE, PAUL EDDY & PETER GILLMAN. The Plumbat Affair. 192 pages. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1978. HD9539.U7 D38
True story of the theft of 200 tons of Uranium Oxide from the freighter 'Scheersburg A' by the Israeli Secret Service in 1968, resulting in the diversion to Israel of enough uranium for 20 nuclear weapons.
0572.
GELLHORN, WALTER. Security, Loyalty, and Science. 300 pages. 8vo, cloth. FIRST EDITION. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press. 1950. UB270 .G4
0573.
GROVES, LT. GEN. LESLIE R. "The Atom General Answers His Critics." IN: The Saturday Evening Post, Vol. 220, No. 15. 144 pages. Illustrated. Folio, pictorial wrappers. Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing Company. June 19, 1948.
Groves defends himself against charges by David E. Lilienthal that the publication of the "Smyth Report" was a breach of security.
0574.
HOLIFIELD, CHET. Sabotage of American Science: The Full Meaning of Attacks on Dr. Condon. Speech in the House of Representatives Tuesday, March 9, 1948. 18 pages. 8vo, printed self-wrappers. Washington, D.C.: USGPO. 1948.
Acerbic rebuttal of the "fantastic renewal of the attempts to discredit the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb. . . It is significant that the question of reappointment or replacement of the present members of the Atomic Energy Commission comes up this August. I wonder if a certain clique of the military is working closely with the chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, [i.e. Joseph McCarthy] in an effort to so discredit civilian control that the army will be handed back the atomic energy project on a platter appropriately stained with the sacrificial blood of the lopped-off heads of our scientists who advocated civilian control."
0575.
KAMEN, MARTIN D. Radiant Science, Dark Politics. A Memoir of the Nuclear Age. Foreword by Edwin M. McMillan. 348 pages. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. Berkeley: U. of California Press. 1985. QH31.K277 A37 1985
By the co-discoverer of 14C. History of the Author's persecution by the federal security program.
0576.
MAJOR, JOHN. The Oppenheimer Hearings. 336 pages. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Stein and Day. 1971. QC16.O62 M3 1971
0577.
NEWMAN, BERNARD. Soviet Atomic Spies. 239 pages. 8vo, cloth. FIRST EDITION. London: Robert Hale. 1952. HD9698.A28 N45 1952
0578.
NIZER, LOUIS. The Implosion Conspiracy. 495 pages. 8vo, cloth. FIRST EDITION. Garden City: Doubleday. 1973. KF224.R6 N58
PRESENTATION COPY from Nizer to Harry Hershfield. This is the famous jurist's detailed and eloquent account of the Rosenberg trials.
0579.
PILAT, OLIVER. The Atom Spies. 312 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Putnam's. 1952. HD9698.A28 P53 1952
0580.
RADIO REPORTS, INC. Paul Harvey Incident [in manuscript]. Special for United States Atomic Energy Commission. 7 leaves of miscellaneous typescript excerpts, quotes, etc., with some manuscript notes, probably in the hand of Charter Heslep, marked "Confidential" on the front leaf. 4to, unbound, stapled. New York: Radio Reports, Inc. February 7, 1951.
A very interesting collection of material, apparently compiled by Radio Reports as an internal briefing memo, relating to the so-called "Paul Harvey Incident." Harvey, the noted radio commentator, was apprehended by the FBI on February 7, 1951 while making an "unauthorized entry" at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. Includes a transcript of Harvey's radio broadcast of March 18, 1951, in which he explains and defends his actions.
0581.
REUBEN, WILLIAM A. The Atom Spy Hoax. 504 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Action Books. 1955. HD9698.A28 R4
Signed by the Author. A carefully researched critique of the Cold War atomic espionage cases-Greenglass, Fuchs, Gold, the Rosenbergs, et al.
0582.
REUBEN, WILLIAM A. The Atom Spy Hoax. 504 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. New York: Action Books. 1960.
The second edition.
0583.
ROOT, JONATHAN. The Betrayers. The Rosenberg Case - a Reappraisal of an American Crisis. 305 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Coward McCann. 1963. HX84.R6 R6 1963
0584.
SMITH, JOHN CHABOT. Alger Hiss. The True Story. 485 pages. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Holt, Rinehart. 1976. E743.5.H55 S58 1976
0585.
STEN, HEMMING, JR. & OLLE SVENSSON. Spioneri. 95 pages. Illustrated. 8vo, pictorial wrappers. FIRST EDITION. Stockholm: Folk Och Foersvar. 1952.
Concerns contemporary espionage cases: Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, David Greenglass, et al.
0586.
STERN, PHILIP M. The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial. With a Special Commentary by Lloyd K. Garrison. 591 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. New York: Harper & Row. 1969. QC16.O62 S69
0587.
USAEC. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Texts of Principal Documents and Letters of Personnel Security Board General Manager Commissioners. Washington, D.C. May 27, 1954-June 29, 1954. 67 pages. 8vo, printed wrappers. Washington, D.C.: USGPO. 1954.
0588.
USAEC. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board Washington, D.C. April 12, 1954, through May 6, 1954. 993 pages. 8vo, printed wrappers. Washington, D.C.: U.S. GPO. 1954.
0589.
U.S. CONGRESS. JOINT COMMITTEE ON ATOMIC ENERGY. Soviet Atomic Espionage. April 1951. 222 pages. 8vo, library binder. Washington, D.C.: GPO. 1951. UB270 .U5
0590.
WEXLEY, JOHN. The Judgement of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. 672 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. New York: Cameron & Kahn. 1955. KF224.R6 W4
The definitive contemporary study of the case. Dust jacket designed by Rockwell Kent.
0591.
WILSON, THOMAS W. The Great Weapons Heresy. The Struggle Behind our Present Nuclear Dilemma as Reflected in the Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. 275 pages. 8vo, cloth, dust jacket. FIRST EDITION. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1970. QC16.O62 W5 1970