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To: MikelTackNailer
For an introduction to the subject, consider: Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion Notably, the best evidence -- that of the Soviet era spy archives -- remains closed, but the trend of disclosures increasingly favors the view that Oppenheimer was a Soviet spy or a knowing source for them in one sense or another even if not formally enrolled as a spy.
98 posted on 03/11/2024 12:25:22 AM PDT by Rockingham (`)
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To: Rockingham; MikelTackNailer; Rummyfan
John Fund weighed in yesterday on Oppenheimer:

the Oppenheimer question

Naive idealist? Useful idiot? Conscious fellow traveler? Hidden party member? Spy?

During the 1920's and 30's, the blurring of the lines was deliberate. The CPUSA was legal and aboveground. The espionage apparatus was secret, but the chiefs wanted to make smoke to camouflage the spies: "nobody here but good American liberals, and anyone who says otherwise is a Reds-under-the-bed conspiracy theorist. And still today, writers on the left often throw up the dupes, useful idiots and fellow travelers to deflect attention from the spies and conflate it all into a diatribe about McCarthyite Red hunting.

I've always been agnostic about Oppenheimer. Fund reports that the Venona intercepts may implicate him as having been a secret Party member, at least for a time. Many of his associates, including his wife, mistress, and brother were party members; he swam in that sea. That doesn't make him a spy, but it is relevant to the question of his security clearance, given that he had lied to the FBI about several details of his communist acquaintances.

100 posted on 03/11/2024 4:25:46 AM PDT by sphinx
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