In the weirdness engendered by red-baiting and McCarthyism, Pauling was stopped at the airport in New York and had his passport confiscated because he had been spouting enough pacifist opinions that the FBI thought he might be a threat to the country if allowed to travel. So he never got the chance to discuss the crystallography work done in England, thus helping the U.S. lose the race to figure out DNA.
The US loses out
