Comment by yareally
12 years ago
Considering what happened with Robert Oppenheimer[1], I doubt Feynman would smear himself.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_security_hearing
12 years ago
Considering what happened with Robert Oppenheimer[1], I doubt Feynman would smear himself.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_security_hearing
Considering that Feynman neither needed nor wanted any role which would require him to hold a security clearance, I think the case of Robert Oppenheimer would, if anything, have encouraged Feynman to thumb his nose at the establishment. He was always one for doing what he thought was right and ignoring the potential fallout -- witness his willingness to testify to spending time in a strip club.
Hmm, that's a good point. Oppenheimer had much more to lose with his clearance/position and far more baggage they eventually used against him than Feynman (aside from some extremely personal vendettas against Oppenheimer). Maybe it was plausible after all, since Oppenheimer was known to encourage his colleagues to do what they thought was right.
Guessing if comparing the two, it would hurt Oppenheimer's rep more than someone like Feynman, since they blamed Oppenheimer more than anyone when many of the Manhattan Project scientists refused to work on the H-Bomb project with Edward Teller.