Letter from A. M. Pappenheimer, Jr. to Alden H. Emery, American Chemical Society

In this letter Heidelberger once more expressed his objection to the decision of the Admissions Committee of the American Chemical Society in 1953, at the height of the McCarthyism, to deny membership in the society to the French chemist and Nobel Laureate, Irene Joliot-Curie, on the grounds that she was a communist. Heidelberger objected that this decision was itself political, that it undermined the freedom of scientific inquiry in the United States, and that a candidate's scientific qualifications alone should determine eligibility for membership.