<--PREV Doc #928  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #930 Document #929; June 16, 1954 To Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part V: Maintaining "a united defense"; April 1954 to August 1954 Chapter 11: The "men in the Kremlin are not to be trusted"   Dear Lewis: Why do we not get Dr. Oppenheimer1 interested in desalting sea water?2 I can think of no scientific success of all time that would equal this in its boon to mankind--provided the solution could do the job on a massive scale and cheaply.3 As ever 1 Two weeks earlier, an Atomic Energy Commission special security panel had recommended against reinstating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer as consultant on atomic energy matters. He had been deemed a security risk (New York Times, June 2, 1954). For background see nos. 578, 584, and 836; and Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 310-14). Oppenheimer's appeal of the security panel's decision would be denied by the AEC's commissioners on June 28 (Hewlett and Holl, Atoms for Peace and War, pp. 98, 106; New York Times, June 30, 1954). The next day Eisenhower would hear the news, then call AEC Chairman Strauss to offer congratulations on a good job. Eisenhower told Strauss he hoped that the conduct of the Oppenheimer hearings would provide "such a contrast to McCarthy's tactics that the American people would immediately see the difference" (see Ferrell, ed., Diary of James C. Hagerty, pp. 80-81; Strauss, Men and Decisions, pp. 267-95. For additional information see Philip M. Stern, The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial [New York, 1969], pp. 257-423; and Herbert F. York, The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb [Stanford, Ca., 1989], pp. 137-43). 2 A friend of Eisenhower had written earlier on the possibilities of removing salt from ocean water (Eisenhower to Knox, June 14, 1954, AWF/D). 3 There is no response from Strauss in AWF. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss, 16 June 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 929. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/929.cfm <--PREV Doc #928  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #930

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