In 1936 he fell in love with a psychology student, Jean Tatlock. She was a supporter of communism and involved the scientist in many left-wing initiatives. Because of her membership in the Communist Party of the United States of America, she was placed under FBI surveillance and her telephone was tapped.
Oppenheimer twice proposed marriage to her, but she refused. She is credited with introducing the physicist to radical politics in the late 1930s and putting him in touch with Communist Party officials and sympathizers.
Oppenheimer continued to meet with her even after he was involved with Kitty Harrison, whom he married in 1940.
