The Cyril Smith Incident

A tale of Cold War jitters

On August 12, 1948, Senator Bourke Hickenlooper learned something that horrified him: the details of the American nuclear program were about to be spilled to a roomful of foreign scientists. He sped into action, requesting an emergency meeting with the secretary of defense. "Some of the most vital of our weapons secrets were about to be disclosed in full," he later recounted. He and the secretary moved quickly to stop the man they believed responsible.