Oppenheimer retired from teaching soon after Los Alamos. In 1946, Oppenheimer accepted a position on the general advisory committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). More specifically, he was the scientific director of the Institute for Advanced Study and chairman of the AEC.
During his time at the AEC, Oppenheimer lobbied for international oversight as the Soviet Union developed a working hydrogen bomb. This led the two once-allied world powers into a decades-long Cold War.
However, the more clandestine sides of Oppenheimer’s life came to light during a security hearing orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.
Oppenheimer’s stance on nuclear supremacy, mixed with his close connections with members of the Communist Party, placed him in the crosshairs of anti-Soviet McCarthyists and former ally Lewis Strauss during the Second Red Scare.
His close relationship with his brother Frank, a left-leaning physics teacher and founder of the San Francisco Exploratorium, led to the suspension of Oppenheimer’s security clearance and subsequent termination at the AEC.
