einstein

to Theodore White of the Reporter magazine. “I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler, in the hope of finding that modest degree of
independence still available.” 32
That earned him an honorary membership card from a plumbers’ union, and it sparked a national debate on academic freedom. Even slightly
frivolous remarks made by Einstein carried a lot of momentum.
Einstein was right that academic freedom was under assault, and the damage done to careers was real. For example, David Bohm, a great
theoretical physicist who worked with Oppenheimer and Einstein in Princeton and refined certain aspects of quantum mechanics, was called
before the House Un-American Activities Committee, pleaded the Fifth Amendment, lost his job, and ended up moving to Brazil.
Nevertheless, Einstein’s remark—and his litany of doom—turned out to be overstated. Despite his impolitic utterances, there was no serious
attempt to muzzle him or threaten his job. Even the slapstick FBI efforts to compile a dossier on him did not curtail his free speech. At the end of the
Oppenheimer investigation, both he and Einstein were still harbored safely in their haven in Princeton, free to think and speak as they chose. The
fact that both men had their loyalty questioned and, at times, their security clearances denied was shameful. But it was not like Nazi Germany, not
anything close, despite what Einstein sometimes said.
Einstein and some other refugees tended, understandably, to view McCarthyism as a descent into the black hole of fascism, rather than as one
of those ebbs and flows of excess that happen in a democracy. As it turned out, American democracy righted itself, as it always has. McCarthy was
relegated to his own disgrace in 1954 by Army lawyers, his Senate colleagues, President Eisenhower, and journalists such as Drew Pearson and
Edward R. Murrow. When the transcript of the Oppenheimer case was published, it ended up hurting the reputation of Lewis Strauss and Edward
Teller, at least within the academic and scientific establishment, as much as that of Oppenheimer.
Einstein was not used to self-righting political systems. Nor did he fully appreciate how resilient America’s democracy and its nurturing of
individual liberty could be. So for a while his disdain deepened. But he was saved from serious despair by his wry detachment and his sense of
humor. He was not destined to die a bitter man.