McCarthy Transcripts Point to Cover-up by Justice Department

A prime example is the case of the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose advocacy of sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union helped bolster the war machine of the genocidal Joseph Stalin. This gave the Soviets a leg up in the Cold War that lasted nearly a half century and took millions of innocent lives.

Paul Crouch, at one time a top functionary of the Communist Party, broke with the Red conspiracy and exposed communists in influential positions. Before McCarthy’s committee, Crouch testified that he had attended a closed Communist Party meeting with Oppenheimer.

Worse, he told the senators, two Justice Department officials in 1952 barred Crouch and his wife from testifying at a perjury trial of another scientist for fear that in so doing, he would end up exposing Oppenheimer.

The result was that the scientist on trial, Dr. Joseph Weinberg, was found innocent of lying when he said he was not communist. Crouch could have identified the man under oath, but because his testimony would also have exposed Oppenheimer, the Justice Department effectively conceded the case.

Part of the testimony before McCarthy’s committee reads as follows:

McCarthy: Did they [the Justice Department lawyers] say who had given them these instructions [not to allow Oppenheimer's name to come up]?

Crouch: No, sir, they did not. They did not indicate it in any way.

And a minute later ...

McCarthy: Is there any doubt in your mind that Oppenheimer was a member of the Communist Party?

Crouch: None whatsoever.

Crouch also testified in public hearings before the Senate panel and shared his knowledge with the FBI.

Now fast forward to 2002:

Out comes the book “Sacred Secrets” by Jorrold and Leona Schecter, two historian/journalists who scoured Soviet archival material and intelligence documents and conducted extensive interviews. They settle the argument. Oppenheimer was not innocent.

Though the authors are also critical of McCarthy, R-Wis., they show the “profound influence that an aggressive Soviet intelligence service exerted on U.S. domestic and foreign policy” in those years.

The Schecters find that Oppenheimer (code name CHESTER) was “a secret member of the American Communist Party [the Soviet NKVD identifies him as an 'unlisted member']." Their book produces FBI and Soviet intelligence documents showing that “the Communist cell to which Oppenheimer had belonged prior to working with the Manhattan Project received instructions to cease relations with CHESTER to avoid compromising him.” Henceforth, his contact would be restricted to Soviet intelligence channels.

Now back to the 1953 testimony before the McCarthy committee:

McCarthy: And if he [Oppenheimer] were under Communist Party [or Soviet] discipline, he, of course would be bound to turn over any atomic secrets to them that he had available?

Crouch: That the party directed.

Also:

Crouch: It is a matter of record that Dr. Oppenheimer appointed many Communists to key positions in the atomic energy program.