John E. Gingrich - Atomic Energy Commission

Atomic Energy Commission

On August 18, 1947, Gingrich was appointed the first director of the Division of Security and Intelligence at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). As AEC security chief, he was responsible for the physical security of AEC installations, control of classified information, development and operation of security clearance procedures, and coordination with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Gingrich found the job very frustrating. Shortly after leaving the position, he testified before the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy that he lacked confidence in the AEC security program, complaining that the security organization was too decentralized and its headquarters too powerless for the director to be effective.

Gingrich was an early ally of AEC commissioner and security hawk Lewis Strauss. Like Strauss, Gingrich felt that his efforts to tighten security were being unjustly blocked by irresponsibly idealistic AEC leaders. He submitted numerous written protests against the employment of individuals with questionable associations, but found his reports overruled or ignored by superiors who refused to consider political ideologies such as being an "advanced 'liberal'" as disqualifying scientists from work in the atomic energy programs, and who demanded proof of membership in the actual Communist Party for evidence of a poor security risk, not just membership in organizations deemed subversive by the Attorney General. Resentful AEC security officers believed they were being caricatured as military men without a scientific background who were jumping at ghosts by considering atomic workers unsafe if they "did not share antiquated political beliefs," a caricature perhaps grounded in incidents such as the interview of a suspended Oak Ridge National Laboratory chemist during which Gingrich "personally advised against the unfortunate practice of scientists acting outside their own field," and went on to disparage scientists' "attitude toward security and the fuss being raised over the Negro question."

It later emerged that Gingrich had only been hired as AEC security chief because of a lack of viable candidates. Testifying before the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, AEC chairman David E. Lilienthal conceded that Gingrich had no relevant background in security. Asked why the FBI had not been solicited for better qualified candidates, Lilienthal said that it had been hard to find anyone willing to accept the "thorny" task. "So you selected a man who had no experience of background in this work," stated committee chairman Bourke B. Hickenlooper. "We were very pleased with the selection," Lilienthal replied, adding that Gingrich had been "a real patriot in undertaking so difficult a task when he knew other men were unwilling to undertake it."

As a high-ranking AEC official, Gingrich was occasionally called upon to explain atomic energy to the public. Addressing the Annapolis Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars on April 19, 1949, Gingrich assured his audience that there had been no significant violation of security regulations in the past year and a half, and decried "sensational and grossly exaggerated tales" about "spies stealing atomic secrets" and about the hazards of atomic energy. "One prominent university president stated that three atomic bombs could destroy the United States. That is not true. It has been said that radioactivity will kill everyone in a city not killed by the blast of a bomb. That is not true. The effect of atomic radiation need not be fatal at all. It needs care and treatment. There is less mystery about radiation than is realized."