Kai Bird

ut the night before his scheduled appearance, Lawrence fell ill with an attack of colitis. The next morning, he called Strauss to tell him he could not make it. Sure that Lawrence was making excuses, Strauss argued with the scientist and called him a coward.

Heslep’s memo to Strauss lays out the full political motivations behind the Oppenheimer case:

Teller regrets the case is on a security basis because he feels it is untenable. He has difficulty phrasing his assessment of Oppie’s philosophy except a conviction that Oppie is not disloyal but rather— and Teller put this somewhat vaguely—more of a “pacifist.”

OPPENHEIMER’S SECURITY CLEARANCE was thus rescinded just one day before it was due to expire.