Einstein’s secret FBI file inspires new book
By Edward Chiao
Oct. 20, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Albert Einstein, the greatest scientist of the 20th century, was
a wanted man ““ by the FBI.
From 1933 to 1955, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI compiled
“derogatory information” in an effort to undermine the
physicist’s influence and destroy his reputation, according
to Fred Jerome, a science journalist and author of a new book
titled “The Einstein File.”
Jerome spoke about his book in front of about 100 people in
Knudsen Hall last Thursday, highlighting the major points of
Hoover’s plot to defame the scientist.
For the beloved and iconicized scientist to be a target for the
FBI comes as a surprise to many.
Today, the image of Albert Einstein is one of an absentminded
and goofy-looking genius. But in fact, he was involved in many
social issues, believing it was his duty to use his fame to help
advance the cause of social justice worldwide.
In the United States, Einstein used his fame to speak out
against McCarthyism and racism, as well as dedicating his efforts
to over 70 different socialist and pacifist organizations.
All of this led Hoover to open a file on Einstein in 1950,
requesting authorities from numerous agencies to “furnish a
report as to the nature of any derogatory information contained in
any file your bureau may have (on Einstein).”
The FBI obtained unauthorized phone taps, read through
Einstein’s mail, and even searched his trash for anything
that could link Einstein as a communist. One thousand eight hundred
pages later, he was even labeled as an “undesirable
alien” and banned from working on the Manhattan project.
“(Fifty years ago) it was front page news,” Jerome
said. “The irony is that (today) this is not something that
people know. So it had to be buried.”
Jerome attributes the change in Einstein’s public image
after his death to many factors.
In his book, Jerome argues that in order to make the world
forget about the controversy surrounding Einstein, there was a
collective effort to iconicize the scientist after his death. The
thought of Einstein as anything but an absentminded genius now
seems unlikely to those born after the World War II era.
However, the existence of the Einstein files did not come as a
shock to some who lived through the post-World War II and
McCarthyism era.
For the FBI to have a file on a politically outspoken man such
as Einstein was no surprise, since “he was also recognized as
the greatest pioneer in scientific thinking,” and therefore
uniquely powerful and respected, said Jacqueline Popkin, whose
family knew Einstein closely.
Popkin was one of several non-students in attendance at the
physics and astronomy colloquium lecture, along with physics
professor Rubin Braunstein, who lived in Princeton when Einstein
was a professor at the university.
“We know more (about Einstein) than even (Jerome) knew
(before uncovering the files),” Braunstein said.
Luckily for Jerome, he was in the right place at the right time.
He uncovered the file while working on a story about the 100 most
compelling science stories of the 20th century.
After five and a half years of requests and research into the
files, Jerome managed to obtain almost 80 percent of the original
FBI file.
“If I were to try to obtain the files today, I
wouldn’t be able to get it,” Jerome explained.
“The rules have changed, the procedures have changed (as a
result of the USA PATRIOT Act). They’re not giving out this
info anymore ““ and not just about Einstein.”
But while the book takes a critical look at the FBI’s
investigation into the life of Einstein, Jerome believes the moral
of the story lies elsewhere.
“I had a vision when I read this file that it could raise
awareness of the fact that Einstein would stand up for (what he
believed in) to make a difference,” he said.
