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Fifty years ago this month the Manhattan Project to build the first
atomic bomb came into existence. But among the galaxy of stars recruited
to work on it, the greatest talent of all was strangely absent: Albert Einstein.

Historians have known for years that Einstein was suspected of being
a communist sympathiser by the FBI, which vetted those working on the secret
project. But most believed that the suspicions were based on nothing more
than anticommunist hearsay taken too seriously by the paranoid head of the
FBI, J. Edgar Hoover.

Now, however, a German historian has uncovered evidence that the FBI’s
suspicions may have had some foundation. Earlier historical research revealed
that Einstein had been under investigation by the FBI as early as 1932.
By 1940, a report prepared for military security officials said that the
bureau believed Einstein to be ‘an extreme radical’, alleging involvement
in communist organisations during his time in Berlin.

But was there any substance to the FBI’s suspicions? Frederick Litten
of the Institute for the History of Science in Munich has uncovered evidence
linking Einstein to pro-communist organisations (British Journal for the
History of Science, vol 24, p 465). On 15 June 1931, police in Shanghai
arrested a ‘Mr and Mrs Noulens’ on suspicion of being agents of the Communist
International (Comintern). Although their real names and relationship have
never been uncovered, a Hilaire Noulens was the head of the Pan-Pacific
Trade Union Secretariat, an offshoot of the Red Trade Union International,
and a leading member of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Comintern.

The arrests triggered a campaign by communist organisations to secure
their release. Investigating the case, Litten has found that one such body,
the League against Imperialism and for National Independence, had Albert
Einstein as its honorary president.

Litten has also discovered telegrams Einstein sent to a number of US
senators, including one to William Borah, the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations, asking him to intervene. One of Borah’s replies was
addressed to Einstein, care of the Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (Workers
International Relief) organisation in Berlin, another communist group.

Taken together with his espousal of pacifist causes, Einstein’s involvement
in the Noulens affair and his relationship with the IAH would have provided
grounds for the FBI’s suspicions, says Litten. ‘An investigation, especially
in a military context, would have been justified.’

But was Einstein an active communist? Abraham Pais, a former colleague
of Einstein and his biographer, rejects the idea. ‘He was never attracted
to communism as a creed,’ says Pais. ‘He was never a member of any political
party, not even the Zionists. He had this fairly normal left leaning, but
he was not rabid.’

Richard Schwartz of Florida International University, who uncovered
the 1500-page FBI file on Einstein, is convinced that he fell foul of the
bureau’s determination to find him guilty of something. ‘Einstein was an
international figure who appealed to many people, especially because of
his pacifism. He certainly wasn’t apolitical – he had political points of
view and lent his name to a lot of causes.’

Litten agrees that the FBI file shows signs of sloppy investigation.
But he believes his findings suggest that it would be wrong to dismiss Einstein’s
exclusion from the Manhattan Project as based on nothing more than gossip.