[9] After seeing an ad in Physical Review, Condon worked in public relations at Bell Telephone Laboratories in fall 1927, in particular promoting their discovery of electron diffraction.

General Groves had objected when Condon's superior J. Robert Oppenheimer held a discussion with the director of the project's Metallurgical Lab at the University of Chicago.

I only want to say that in my case I found that the extreme concern with security was morbidly depressing—especially the discussion about censoring mail and telephone calls, the possible militarization and complete isolation of the personnel from the outside world.

[15] In June 1945, Condon was among many prominent American scientists invited to attend a celebration of the 220th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Academy of Sciences to be held in Moscow.

When Groves learned of this, he contacted Condon's employers at Westinghouse, and explained that he believed this would be dangerous from the perspective of possibly revealing information about the atomic bomb work that was still on-going.

[24] U.S. Commerce Secretary (and former U.S. Vice President) Henry A. Wallace came to know Condon and in October 1945 recommended him as director of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now known as NIST).

On May 29, 1946, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote a letter intended for President Truman that named several senior government officials as part of a Soviet network.

"[29] In the same month, Congressman J. Parnell Thomas, head of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), furnished information to the Washington Times-Herald that denigrated his loyalty in two articles published.

He had no sympathy for the scientific community's international spirit in the first place and could use the ongoing controversy to argue for an increase in his committee's appropriation, to bolster opposition to the Condon-supported McMahon Act, and to attract favorable coverage during election season.

[34] On March 3, 1948, Senator Dennis Chávez (Dem-NM) read into the Congressional Record an article by Marquis Childs, which stated: The current loyalty witch hunt is shown in its shabbiest and meanest form in the attack on Dr. Edward U. Condon ...

Because Dr. Condon, head of the National Bureau of Standards, talked to the wife of the Polish Ambassador and to two or three attachés of Soviet and satellite embassies, the committee demands his discharge.

"[35]On March 5, 1948, Representative George MacKinnon (Rep-MN) stated: "Mr. Speaker, today's paper carries the story that the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. [W. Averell] Harriman, has refused to respond to a congressional subpoena to supply information with respect to one Dr. Condon.

"[33] On March 6, 1948, a Washington Post editorial stated, "There is an abundance of precedent for the Secretary's refusal to turn over his department's loyalty board files on Dr. Edward U.

The Post also objected to an alternative proposal to send files on the Condon case to the top-level "Loyalty Review Board" in the Civil Service Commission.

If this bill could be enacted, it would extend to a world-famous scientist, such as Dr. E. U. Condon, the same protection which is now available to a chicken thief or a traffic violator; that is, the right of defense against his accusers.

"[33] On March 9, 1948, Representative Glen H. Taylor (Dem-ID), then Progressive Party vice presidential candidate, stated: It is very difficult, Mr. President, to stand up against this diabolical Witchhunt.

We are going to wreck our atomic program with these methods, Mr. President, because scientists are self-respecting people Who refuse to be hounded and shadowed and have the finger of suspicion constantly pointed at them.

[33]On the same day, Representative Emanuel Celler (Dem-NY) stated: "I believe the attitude and the action of the Un-American Activities Committee toward a very famous scientist, Dr. Edward U. Condon, has been very unjust and unfair.

[40] In September 1948, at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), President Truman, with Condon sitting nearby on the dais, denounced Rep. Thomas and HUAC on the grounds that vital scientific research "may be made impossible by the creation of an atmosphere in which no man feels safe against the public airing of unfounded rumors, gossip and vilification".

[41] In 1949, Edward R. Murrow had colleague Don Hollenbeck contribute to the innovative media-review program, CBS Views the Press over the radio network's flagship station WCBS.

This simply makes it easier for them to conceal their true nature, and to allege that the term 'Communist' is meaningless ... At the same time, we cannot let abuses deter us from the legitimate exposing of real Communists.

President Truman issued a statement of praise: "You have served in a most critical position with continued and loyal attention to your duties as director, and by reason of your standing among scientists and the supervision you have given to the bureau's activities, you have made of it a more important agency than it has ever been before".

Two Republican Congressmen asserted that Condon was being investigated as a security risk and was leaving "under fire", a charge the Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer denied.

[47] On December 30, 1952, Condon assumed the presidency of the AAAS at its annual meeting, where, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "The tremendous ovation by his fellow members accompanying his induction was a further affirmation of their faith in his loyalty and integrity".

[50] In 1958, Condon wrote that his decision reflected his belief that the Eisenhower administration "was committed by policy to the persecution of scientists, or, at the very least, to a callous indifference toward what others were doing to attack and discredit them.

I believe in Newton's laws ...." and continued with a catalog of scientists from earlier centuries, including the Bernoulli, Fourier, Ampère, Boltzmann, and Maxwell.

He later wrote that he agreed to head the project "on the basis of appeals to duty to do a needed public service" on the part of the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

A role in this was played by Yuletide reading Condon provided in December 1969, in the form of a 3-page article reproduced in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists entitled "UFOs I Have Loved and Lost" and also offered in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

The tone and tenor of further parts of the article/talk are set by Condon's deploying of the terms "gullible audiences", "pseudo-science organizations", "charlatans", "cultists", the "narrow wobbly line" between science and pseudoscience, "accepted on faith", "astrologers", "spiritualism", "dowsers" and "so-called educated people".

The article concludes with a penultimate paragraph holding that: "Perhaps we need a National Magic Agency to make a large and expensive study of all these matters, including the future scientific study of UFOs, if any"; as well as a final paragraph potentially serving as the Condon Committee take-home message, in which it is noted that: "publishers who publish or teachers who teach any of the pseudo-sciences as established truth should, on being found guilty, be publicly horsewhipped, and forever banned from further activity in these usually honorable professions.