☢️💣 If you watched Oppenheimer, you'll recognise this as Lewis Strauss, the film's antagonist.

Strauss is depicted as a fierce Cold Warrior who casts suspicion on Oppenheimer for sympathy to the Soviet Union.

But Strauss held a dual loyalty of his own. 🇮🇱

1/11 🧵 pic.twitter.com/rFgmxbeUPc

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

2/11 Strauss was the architect of American nuclear policies in the 1950s.

Strauss left a career as an investment banker on Wall Street to lead the Atomic Energy Commission – an agency set up to be custodian of America’s nuclear materials. ☢️ pic.twitter.com/E3yOjzsBXa

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

3/11 Strauss was a conservative and a staunch anti-communist. 🇺🇸

He is now most remembered for his successful fight to strip Robert J. Oppenheimer of his security clearance. This conflict was the focus of Chrospher Nolan's film. pic.twitter.com/AugETaP6SL

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

4/11 One theme of the film is the different relationships Strauss and Oppenheimer have to their Jewish identities. ✡️

Strauss, grandson of Jewish immigrants, was the picture of an assimilated Jew, insisting people pronounce his surname as the more English sounding "Straws". pic.twitter.com/HhzAvUiStk

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

5/11 Though he kept it private, Strauss' Jewishness was central to his identity.

Strauss was a leader from 1938 of the largest Reform synagogue in New York City.

He wrote of his great guilt at not doing enough to stop the rise of the Nazis, and held onto a disdain for Germans. pic.twitter.com/XKuPLu8ZKn

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

6/11 Though Strauss was originally an opponent of Zionism, he became more sympathetic through his lifetime, before finally visiting Israel in 1964. 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/PtTdBqLvvz

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

7/11 When Strauss left the AEC in 1958, he did not inform his successor – John McCone – of the intelligence he knew about Israel's nuclear weapons program.

According to Seymour Hersh, this was because "as a Jew with deep feelings about the Holocaust, he approved of it". pic.twitter.com/xr9l5gan6V

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

8/11 Strauss befriended his Israeli counterpart Ernst David Bergmann – the father of the Israeli nuclear program.

The Director for Advanced Studies at Princeton soon realised he was working on an Israeli nuclear bomb, and was surprised to discover Strauss privately supported it. pic.twitter.com/HT2GxWBFDZ

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

9/11 🔎 In 1958, the CIA presented surveillance photos of Israel's nuclear site at Dimona to Eisenhower and Strauss, but neither reacted or took action to stop it. pic.twitter.com/L3egnISTpw

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

10/11 Seymour Hersh, in his book The Samson Option, concludes that Strauss likely kept quiet about Israel's nuclear program because he held dual loyalty to Israel. 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/EdFe0IClS4

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024

11/11 Strauss, who ruthlessly pursued his fellow Jew Oppenheimer for his lack of loyalty, had finally wavered in his duty – siding with Israel over the United States. pic.twitter.com/JCwSSFnnjl

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 8, 2024