American Research And Development Of An Atomic Bomb

The invention of the atomic bomb took several years and after many trials and errors the invention was finally complete. Albert Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt in 1939 about

“ The atom bomb was no ‘great decision.’ It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.” This quote was said by Harry S. Truman the first President who used an atomic bomb. The program that was able to create this monstrous power was known as the Manhattan Project. Creating this weapon was their main priority. The United States was in the midst of World War 2. The atomic bomb is considered to be the main factor that ended that war. It was a race against the multiple enemies of the United States, to be the first to acquire this power and use it when necessary. The Manhattan Project was kept strictly confidential and, created the foundation of the future and more powerful nuclear weapons to come.

Even before the outbreak of War, the United States was concerned with a fascist regime in Europe researching in nuclear weapons. In retaliation, the United States began to fund an atomic weapon development program which became known as “The Manhattan Project” led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next several years, the Manhattan project started obtaining key materials such as Uranium-235 and Plutonium and testing prototypes until they reached a working model (Coroner).

On August 2, 1938, in the heat of World War II, Albert Einstein, a physicist born in Germany, sent a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. The letter suggested America to build an atomic bomb before the Nazi Germany does. However, it took more than two months for the letter to reach Roosevelt. On October 19, 1938, Roosevelt agreed, replying, “I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board … to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium” (“President Roosevelt's response to Dr. Einstein”). As a result, America held a secret program, code named Manhattan Project, and started to build new, destructive weapons in a laboratory in Los Alamos,

Throughout the Roosevelt administration and later through the Truman administration, it became clear that both had the distinct focus of ending World War II at the earliest possible time. This is a common theme identified throughout J. Samuel Walker’s Prompt and Utter Destruction. While some countries had put moderate effort into researching atomic power and how it could affect the war, the United States was the only country capable of putting full effort into researching and creating an atomic bomb that could be utilized during the war. Following warnings from scientists that informed Roosevelt of the possibility of the Germans making progress on their knowledge of nuclear energy, Roosevelt assigned a lofty and difficult project to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This project soon became known as “the Manhattan Project” due to the engineer district that was formed to design and build this bomb being originally headquartered in New York. The Manhattan Project was established at a time in the war when the United States was uncertain of its outcome. After the first successful, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place in a squash court at the University of Chicago, the idea of an atomic bomb became more feasible. However, while the idea became more feasible, the transition from experimental knowledge to designing an actual bomb was a huge step that involved many uncertainties and troubles. Although the Manhattan Project was formed during a period of uncertainty, the government had high hopes of the newly formed project, but despite these high hopes, the Manhattan Project faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles as it moved from experimental knowledge to designing the bomb, the most prominent being the design for the new technology and the role the bomb would play in the realm of global diplomacy.

During World War II (WWII), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) organized a committee to advise him “on questions of policy relating to the study of nuclear fission” (Stimson 1947). This committee was involved of all aspects of the atomic project from whether

Necessity is the mother of invention. Michael Blow wrote in his book, The History of the Atomic Bomb, that the United States was building an atomic weapon for the main purpose of beating the Germans to the creation of the bomb (95-96). After uranium was used to create atomic fission in Berlin in 1939, Albert Einstein and other scientists wrote a letter to Roosevelt, talking him into government funding for atomic research in America (Foner and Garraty, “Manhattan” n. pag.). In a bit of irony, American leaders believed that the Germans, in the race to create the ultimate weapon, were beating them. In actuality, however, they never got far in their research, and America defeated them by a sizeable amount (Blow 96). In the United States, research for the “Manhattan Project,” the code name for the secret project to use atomic energy to create a bomb, expanded all around the country. This included universities such as Columbia, Princeton, California, and Chicago. While the research had been independent and government funded up until the middle of 1942, the army took over guidance of the project at that point. The possibility of an atomic bomb had become too realistic to keep the research in the private sector (Foner and Garraty, “Manhattan”).

In December of 1941, the United States entered into the second World War after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Due to these attacks and the dangerous rumors sprouting of German bomb builders, the U.S. decided to put efforts towards constructing the ultimate weapon of mass destruction: the Atomic Bomb. With billions of dollars and over 100,000 people, the Manhattan Project was founded to affirm these efforts by U.S. military and scientists. By the Manhattan Project we saw the unfortunate destruction of Japanese cities, the incredible advances in the world of science, and the threats of the cold war resulting in measures to protect against modern nuclear threats.

Scientists from Germany were making huge progress on the topic of nuclear fission. Fortunately, many of these scientists escaped the authoritarian Germany. These refugees, including Albert Einstein warned the United States about the German’s nuclear weapons capability. Consequently, the United States created the Manhattan Project in 1942 under fears of a nuclear attack by the Germans.

As the United States became aware of Germany’s race to the atomic bomb, President Franklin D. Roosevelt organized a top-secret research committee, The Manhattan Project, to focus more on Germany’s extent of their nuclear program. By 1944 however, Germany’s mission to obtain the atomic bomb failed due to the capture of 10 German scientists by the

Nuclear research all started when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered into World War II. When the United States realized that Germany attempted to build an atomic bomb, Americans began to concentrate on their research about creating an atomic bomb more heavily. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project, which included a group of top scientists, under General Leslie R. Groves, who worked around the clock to try to develop an atomic bomb within three years (Beyer, Page 15). The Americans and the British combined their efforts to research the development of the bomb and created plants and factories to work in the atomic bomb. They created plants for three separate processes: electromagnetic, gaseous diffusion, and thermal diffusion. These plants helped create the plutonium and uranium 235 needed to manufacture the atomic bomb ("Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Pre Cold War: Manhattan Project.", Web). The secrecy of the Manhattan Project was essential in order to develop the atomic bombs to end World War II.

Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States government nonetheless gave little research priority to the development of an atomic bomb. In an effort to increase research efforts, Albert Einstein would sign a letter to President Roosevelt, urging the development of an atomic research program. Roosevelt saw neither the necessity nor the urgency for a project of this scale, but agreed to progress. This all changed in the fall of 1941. The Roosevelt authorized intensive research efforts in the United States because of intelligence reports that state the Nazis had already inaugurated test of their own atomic weapons. Furthermore, the shock of the Pearl Harbor incident and the

In the early months of 1939, scientists Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi penned a letter to the President of the United States, informing him of a recent breakthrough in the German research utilizing uranium. If the huge amounts of energy produced by the splitting of a fissionable nucleus was harnessed, it could be used to construct a bomb with destructive power never before seen. Even more concerning, they had reason to believe that such a weapon was closer to reality than ever before thought, and the German physicists that had made this discovery were seemingly first in this atomic arms race. Fearing the future in which the axis successfully claimed control of such power, Einstein, Fermi, and numerous other scientists strongly urged the president to start his own atomic research program. Though Roosevelt had his doubt about the

Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program in 1939. Roosevelt saw neither the necessity or the utility for the project, but agreed to proceed slowly. The American effort to design and build an Atomic bomb received it’s code name, in late

In the late 1930s, global tensions crystallized into war and a quest for a new super-weapon quietly began around in the world in numerous, underfunded laboratories. As Europe crumbled under the might of the Axis powers, American scientists began to explore the possibilities of nuclear fission in warfare.