Indeed. I first read the hints of that story in Mike Davis's book City of Quartz. Another interesting co-founder (one of the original handful, along with Pars

Indeed. I first read the hints of that story in Mike Davis's book City of Quartz. Another interesting co-founder (one of the original handful, along with Parsons) was Frank Malina, who was the second director of JPL (after von Karman). Malina was also suspected by the FBI of having Communist sympathies. He eventually left JPL and went to live in France.