Green, Harold P. 1922–2008

(Harold Paul Green)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 23, 1922, in Wilkes-Barre, PA; died of congestive heart failure, July 19, 2008, in Evergreen, CO. Attorney, educator, and author. Green was a staff attorney for the security division of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954, when the security clearance of Manhattan Project scientist Robert J. Oppenheimer was about to expire. Green became the lawyer credited (or blamed) for the "disloyalty" charges that derailed the career of the man known as the father of the atomic bomb. Green's task was to draft charges based on his investigation of Oppenheimer's potential tendency toward socialism and communism at the height of the so-called "McCarthy era," when fears of communism ruined many respectable careers in all walks of life. Green, perhaps inadvertently, intensified the case against Oppenheimer by questioning the scientist's opposition to the accelerated development of the hydrogen bomb by the military arm of the U.S. government. Despite the fact that no disloyalty was ever proven, Oppenheimer's security clearance was suspended, and one of America's scientific elite suddenly had a very hard time finding work. Green reportedly had second thoughts about his role in the affair, and he traded his government position for a career in the private sector. Green was a partner of the Washington law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman from 1961 to 1983. He joined the law faculty of George Washington University in 1964, where he taught law classes related to science and technology issues until 1992. Green discussed the Oppenheimer investigation and other related issues in two coauthored books: Government of the Atom: The Integration of Powers (1963) and The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial (1969).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Green, Harold P., and Philip M. Stern, The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1969.

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, August 1, 2008, p. B7.