Decision To Fund The Atomic Bomb :: essays research papers

"No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power hadever occurred before. The lighten up effects beggareddescription. The whole country was lighted by a searing lightwith the intensity many times greater than that of the middaysun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue..."( Groueff355). The words of Brigadier widely distri anded Thomas F. Farrelldescribe the onset of the atomic age, which began on July16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This was the site ofthe first large-scale atomic test, which utilized the tool ofdestruction that would presently decimate the populations ofHiroshima and Nagasaki less than a month afterwards. Thistest consummated the years spent developing the bomb, andwas the end result of the efforts of nuclear scientists whoconstructed it, and those of President Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, who made the finish to fund the so-calledManhattan Project.In a letter dated August 2nd, 1939, Albert Einstein firstinformed President Roosevelt of the resea rch that had beendone by Enrico femtometer and Leo Szilard with unstableUranium which could generate large amounts of power andenergy (Einstein1 PSF Safe Files). Einstein also includedanother possible use for the uranium- the social structure ofextremely powerful bombs, which were capable ofdestroying a seaport and the surrounding territory. Thisinformation may have come precisely at the right time, for inOctober of 1938 Roosevelt asked relative for a $300million military appropriation, and in November instructedthe Army Air Corps to plan for an annual production oftwenty thousand planes. Later, in 1939, Roosevelt called foractions against " assaulter nations," and in the same yearsubmitted to Congress a $1.3 billion defense budget (Boyer861). In an accompanying memorandum that was sent withthe Einstein letter, scientist Leo Szilard explained the technological science of nuclear fission and stressing theimportance of chain reactions (Walls 1 PFS Safe Files).Both documents, the Einstein letter and the Szilardmemorandum, were to be delivered by Alexander Sachs, anadviser to Roosevelts New Deal since 1933 who wouldknow how to approach Roosevelt and the government(Lanouette 200). It was not until mid-October 1939 thatSachs wangled an invitation to get in to see the Presidentover breakfast (Burns 250). Though Roosevelt found thedocuments interesting, he seemed hesitant about committinggovernment funds to such speculative research. But afterSachs reminded him of Napoleons skepticism of RobertFultons idea of a steamship, Roosevelt concord to proceed.Regarding the steamship issue, Sachs went on to comment,"This is an example of how England was saved by theshortsightedness of an adversary," this insight madeRoosevelt greatly consider the creation of the bomb.President Roosevelt authorized a study, but the decision to