The Pros And Cons Of World War II

Even though the United States emerged as a clear victor of World War I, many Americans after the war felt that their involvement in the conflict had been a mistake (Markus Schoof, “The American Experience During World War II,” slide 3). This belief, however, did not deter the country from engaging in many other international affairs in the future, most importantly the WWII and the Cold War. Right from the Manifest Destiny, which led to expand its empire at home and abroad, to the World War I, the country had come a long way from being somewhat a lonely-land to a global superpower of the 20th century. Its influence in the international arena grew unprecedently after its commitment to the World War II, and like they say, the rest is history. If the WWII was a resounding success to the American legacy, what followed, the Cold War, put many implications on the American diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and to the world. Although the rising Fascism in Europe and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drove the U.S. to enter the WWII, historians over the years have laid equal blames on both nations for starting the Cold War. These two events helped in shaping up many domestic and foreign policies for the U.S.

With the start of World War II the race for the first atomic bomb started. With Germany under Hitler’s reign, the Nazis began separating uranium to form the first atomic bomb to control the world. The push for the United States build the first atomic bomb began with this knowledge. With the help of several scientists the United States succeeded in building the atomic bomb first. Two atomic bombs were used; a uranium bomb on Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Along with the many deaths were six stages of A-bomb illness which includes acute stages, atomic bomb trauma, A-bomb radiation illness, radiation blood injury at lethal dosage, blood injuries, and secondary radiation illness. Seven unhealed scars were also an effect of the atomic bombs that includes keloids, A-bomb cataracts, leukemia, cancers, chromosome changes, exposure in utero and microcephaly, and genetic surveys. Regulations and guidance were set in place soon after the bombings to protect the people of the world based on the information that was gathered and it has changed over the years based on the new information that was learned. With the use of the atomic bombs in World War II, a lot of pain and suffering was caused, but a great deal of information was learned to help protect future generations from radiation.

The Manhattan Project was created out of the fear of their current enemy, Germany of making the first atomic bomb and using it in the war. The current President of the United States was Franklin Roosevelt. It was seen that Germany was making great advances in the war which worried many. But the people who were very worried were three prestigious scientists. Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller who were Hungarian scientists who immigrated to the United States during the war. Szilard and the other scientists wished to advocate for the start of a program that put all efforts into making an atomic bomb. But of course they were very intelligent on how to get their cause across seriously. “Though the three men, particularly Szilard, were well known

The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear engineers; the name of this research was called, “The Manhattan Project”. On July 16, 1945, the detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb was detonated, it sent shock-waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would forever change the meaning of war.

The process of building the two atomic bombs was long and hard. The Manhattan project employed 120,000 people, and cost almost $2 billion. Although there were 120,000 Americans working on the project only a select group of scientist knew of the atomic bomb development. Vice president Truman never knew about the development of the bombs until he became president. The axis powers did not know what was going on with the development of the atomic bomb; there was a soviet spy in the project. The soviet spy was Klaus Fuchs, and he had become one of the few people who knew of the bombs.

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,

In 1942, the Manhattan project was started. The Manhattan project was created to make the first nuclear weapon in the United States.The bomb was created to help defend the United States. World War II was going on and the United States was not involved yet. President Harry S. Truman was elected after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harry

Nuclear weapons have been a present factor in my lifetime, and in WWII the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused thousands of deaths. Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane weapons ever created. Both in the scale of the devastation that they cause, and in their uniquely persistent, genetically damaging radioactive fallout, they are not like any other weapon. A single nuclear bomb detonated over a city could kill millions of people. The use of tens or hundreds of nukes would disrupt the world's climate, causing lots of famine.(Arguments for nuclear abolition)

In 1939, the United States started funding the Manhattan Project. A project which goal was to make a bomb using the power of nuclear energy. There were a few problems with making the bomb. One the resources needed to make the bomb were expensive and hard to find. And, by 1945, the budget for the Manhattan Project be around Two billion dollars.

The atomic bomb was a marvel of modern scientific discovery. It over exceeded all expectations. It started as an idea and grew to be one of the world’s biggest discoveries. Can you imagine what it was like seeing the testing of the bomb in person? The raw power and the shift of the ground. The blinding light and the mushroom cloud soaring into the atmosphere. It was truly a spectacle to behold. There is so much power in the splitting the particles of energy and harnessing its energy. From there on, the world and science as we knew it would never be the same. The Manhattan Project officially began the September of 1942. The main research facility and laboratory was in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The laboratory was built in 1943 and the first

Harry Truman, the Vice President of the United States at the time took over the presidency. Once Truman was officially announced as President, he then found out about the Manhattan Project (Stein). The Manhattan Project was a very secretive project created to start the process of dropping an atomic bomb on Japan. Around 100,000 people were employed around 13 different states in order for the bomb to work. On July 16,1945, the Manhattan Project workers successfully dropped a test atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico (Stein). Immediately after the workers, and Truman saw the effects of the bomb on the desert, they assumed Japan would instantly surrender. Some workers believed the bomb is too mean, and Japan is already so close to defeat. Truman still pushed out the bomb as soon as possible

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.

Scientist like Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi escaped Axis control and sought refuge in America (Burr). They agreed that the President must be informed of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers so they could build counter-weapon. After careful consideration and insider information from Einstein and Fermi, President Roosevelt made his decision. Although Roosevelt did not see the necessity for a atomic program, he slowly agreed to creating an atomic weapon rather than a counter-weapon. As a result an American secret military project to build an atomic bomb was launched. Code named, the Manhattan Project”, it wasn't until 1942 that the project picked up speed. Enrico Fermi led a group of physicists to produce the world’s first nuclear chain reaction. This breakthrough gained the necessary attention from Roosevelt, funds were allocated more freely, and the project advanced exponentially. The Manhattan Project spent nearly $2 billion on research and development with over 120,000 employees all in the dark. Only a small privileged cadre of inner scientists and officials knew about the atomic bomb’s development. In fact, Vice President Truman was not informed of the Manhattan project until he became President (Burr). Final testing began in the summer of 1945 at Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The bomb was fixed to a 100-foot tower that was set to

Albert Einstein validated this rumor as he proclaimed “the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future” [2] and also the ushered the United States to build this powerful bomb before Hitler could. President Roosevelt at first did not value this information, but gradually started up the research program and in 1941 this program received the name Manhattan Project. During the first few years of the research, the Columbia, Berkeley, and Chicago Universities helped conduct the necessary experiments. Later the main assembly edifice was created at Los Alamos, New Mexico [3]

As mentioned above, in the summer of 1945, the United States was the first to use the nuclear bomb. It showed the world the ability of the States to bring destruction. Since then, other countries (most notably Russia and China) have also produced nuclear warheads. Given history, it seems surprising that the world has not gone the way of nuclear war. However, there is an easy answer, it would have had the effect of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). There seems to be an acceptable rationale or thought process in this; for countries, not to use the bomb would be because one country already did, and they will know that if that country is attacked, they will unquestionably use nuclear weapons. We can see it stated in the book The Politics of Nuclear