THE OPPENHEIMER CASE: Security on Trial (First UK edition - first impression)

First impression of the first UK edition. Foreword by Sir Solly Zuckerman. ***Near fine in blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine slightly rubbed. No bumps or creases. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges clean. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No creases or tears. ***In a near fine monochrome-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's dual price of £3.50 (70s). Extremities of dustwrapper just slightly rubbed. Bottom edge of back panel slightly creased. No chips or tears. Back panel and spine of dustwrapper slightly rubbed and discoloured. Very small surface-splash mark to top of inner front flap. Front panel of dustwrapper bright. ***224mm x 144mm. 591 pages including notes and sources and index at the back of the book. ***'In 1958 an obscure ex-official wrote to the FBI, claiming that J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb", one of the most respected scientists in the West, was a Soviet agent. The charge was incredible - literally unbelievable - yet suddenly powerful people throughout the Government were rushing to bring him down. The result was the still notorious security "trial". ***'There hasn't been a proceeding like this, 'said one key witness, 'since the Spanish Inquisition.' ***How such a thing could happen - even to so eminent a public figure - is the appalling mystery which this book unfolds. The first full-scale account of the historic case, it deals fully with Oppenheimer's earlier years, with his affair with the radical left in the thirties, and with his wartime directorship at Los Alamos when security agents watched every move - even the night he spent with his former fiancee, a communist. It covers occasions when Oppenheimer informed on friends and associates, collaborating in the very security system which would later destroy him. It follows his ascent to the highest councils of government, and recounts his conflict with the H-bomb advocates. and illuminates in the trial, where, ruthlessly grilled, kept from confronting hostile witnesses, deprived of crucial papers and even sometimes of his defence counsel, Oppenheimer was brought to cry aloud, "I was an idiot". ***The Oppenheimer Case is still very much a live issue and it involves men still prominent - Nixon, for instance, defended Oppenheimer four times. and it involves questions vitally important to any democracy - the power of the military, the meaning of loyalty and freedom of conscience. This freedom, at that time a victim of the McCarthy scare, is still by no means completely assured. ***As a special appendix, Oppenheimer's chief defence counsel, Lloyd K. Garrison offers his first public commentary on the case.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***First impression of the first UK edition, complete in its original dustwrapper. An uncommon book in first edition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. …