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The Manhattan Project Essay example

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During World War II, the Americans fought a two-front war, with pressure from both Japan and Germany. The United States, aware that Germany was threatening to build an atomic weapon, created a secret project to develop the technology first. Under the codename, the Manhattan Project, leading scientists carried out top secret research on fission and the technology needed to create the first atomic bomb. The immediate impact of the Manhattan Project was the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, ending the war in the Pacific. However, more important influences of this project can be seen following the detonation of the first bombs. The emergence of the United States as a world superpower following World War II, the tensions derived from the …show more content…

This committee decided that the United States should retain nuclear superiority, in the event that international relations deteriorated following World War II (US Department of Energy). This decision is a foreshadowing of the Cold War, and nuclear arms race which followed the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan. The interim committee also decreed that a regulatory system should be created to control the development of nuclear weapons, since other nations would inevitably obtain the technology needed to develop weapons. Possibly, the most influential decision made by the interim committee was to keep the details of the atomic bomb a secret, to maintain the shock effect, until after it had been dropped on Japan. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first bomb dropped was a uranium bomb, nick-named Little Boy, was untested before its detonation (US Department of Energy). The second, dropped after the Japanese did not surrender, was a plutonium bomb, nick-named Fat Man. The dropping of these bombs propelled the United States to a seat of world power, as they were the only country to obtain a weapon of mass destruction. The Manhattan Project became scientific and engineering feat, employing over 100,000 individuals. The exceptional organizational model the Manhattan Project provided, allowed for great scientific achievements in the later part of

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