THE WEEK

It all went off like one of those trips of Dick Nixon’s to foreign parts—everything right on schedule, no feelings hurt, a good time had by all. Mission accomplished: Mr. Nixon willed peace in the Republican Party of California, and got it. He wished Goodie Knight out of the race for the governorship and into that for the Senate, and Knight has complied. We willed and wished the same, but probably for a different reason from Mr. Nixon’s, namely: a belief that as Governor of California William Knowland might become the strongest Republican contender for the Presidency, Dick Nixon notwithstanding.

The Pentagon chiefs and congressional leaders, who are under powerful post-Sputnik pressure to drop all restrictions on sharing our military secrets with all and sundry, will have to ponder an incident that was itself kept inexplicably secret for six weeks. On September 25 J. Robert Oppenheimer became, in a quiet little ceremony at the office of the French cultural attache in New York, a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The French government, perhaps out of a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, made no announcement about it. Dr. Oppenheimer himself promptly added it to the long list of matters about which he preserves a discreet silence. So one can only speculate about those of Dr. Oppenheimer’s high qualities that must have been mentioned in the citation. Devotion to the truth? Patriotism? Dislike of name-dropping? Your guess is as good as ours.

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It all went off like one of those trips of Dick Nixon’s to foreign parts—everything right on schedule, no feelings hurt, a good time had by all. Mission accomplished: Mr. Nixon willed peace in the Republican Party of California, and got it. He wished Goodie Knight out of the race for the governorship and into that for the Senate, and Knight has complied. We willed and wished the same, but probably for a different reason from Mr. Nixon’s, namely: a belief that as Governor of California William Knowland might become the strongest Republican contender for the Presidency, Dick Nixon notwithstanding.

The Pentagon chiefs and congressional leaders, who are under powerful post-Sputnik pressure to drop all restrictions on sharing our military secrets with all and sundry, will have to ponder an incident that was itself kept inexplicably secret for six weeks. On September 25 J. Robert Oppenheimer became, in a quiet little ceremony at the office of the French cultural attache in New York, a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The French government, perhaps out of a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, made no announcement about it. Dr. Oppenheimer himself promptly added it to the long list of matters about which he preserves a discreet silence. So one can only speculate about those of Dr. Oppenheimer’s high qualities that must have been mentioned in the citation. Devotion to the truth? Patriotism? Dislike of name-dropping? Your guess is as good as ours.