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The Oppenheimer affair occupied center stage throughout much of the 1950's, polarizing the atomic research community and much of official Washington. Oppenheimer's security clearance was suspended after hearings conducted by a special board appointed by the Atomic Energy Commission. During the Board's investigation, Lewis L. Strauss, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission filed a preliminary report in a letter to President Eisenhower (4-16-54) In it, Strauss revealed that Oppenheimer had admitted that he had lied to government investigators and that he had " many and continuing relations with persons known to him to be Communists while he was engaged on the atomic bomb project and subsequently."