Giving Gray His Due: A Defense of Gordon Gray’s Leadership In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Giving Gray His Due: A Defense of Gordon Gray’s Leadership In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer

In 1954 Gray chaired a committee appointed by AEC chairman Lewis Strauss which recommended revoking Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance. The Gray Board, as it was known, issued its split decision on May 27, 1954, with Gray and Thomas A. Morgan recommending the revocation, despite their finding that Oppenheimer was a “loyal citizen.” Dr. Ward V. Evans, a conservative Republican and the third member of the board, dissented, saying that most of the allegations against Oppenheimer had been heard before, in 1947, when he had originally received his clearance.[2]

Strauss went on to disgrace – failed confirmation as Secretary of Commerce
Gray went on to Eisenhower then appointed Gray his National Security Advisor from 1958 until 1961. On January 18, 1961, President Eisenhower awarded Gray the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. In 1976, he was awarded the United States Military Academy’s Sylvanus Thayer Award.