Figure 1.--. |
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The American Manhattan Program was the largest weapons development program in history. It was initiated by President Roosevelt when work done by German physicists led to concern that the NAZIs might build an atomic bomb. Important scientists in 1939 concluded that German scientists had begun to develop an atomic bomb for the NAZIs. These scientists induced President Roosevelt to launch an American atomic bomb project. The project was, however, given serious attention only after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor bringing America into the war. General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970), Deputy Chief of Construction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was assigned to oversee the project. The Manhattan Project us named after the New York borough where the first office headquarters was located and began June 1942. Groves had just completed another rush project, the construction of the Pentagon. He considered himself an astute judge of men and chose Robert J. Oppenheimer (1904-1967)to lead the scientific team. Oppenhimer was a respected, but relatively unknown theoretical physicist. Enrico Fermi and Leo Salard working in a converted squash court beneath the University of Chicago's carried out the first controlled nuclear reaction occurred confirming that nuclear fission could unleash huge amounts of energy. The major difficulty in building an atomic bomb was in obtaining the required quantity of fissionable material. A huge facility was built an Oak Ridge, Tennessee to separated the U-235 isotope needed for the bomb from the more common U-238 isotope. The Hanford Engineer Works was built in Washington to produce plutonium. Groves chose Los Alamos, New Mexico as a location to actually develop and assemble the bomb or "gadget" a it was called. This isolated town had by March 1943 been turned into a high-technology boomtown. The Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge provided the bomb-grade U-235 used for the Little Boy bomb. The Harford plant provided the Plutonium used in the Fat Man bomb.
Germany in the early 20th century had the strongest scientific establishment in Europe. German scientists routinely received the largest number of Nobel prices in scientific fields. This did not change until the NAZIs seized power in 1933. After the NAZI seizure, Jewish scientists as well as anti-NAZIs were dismissed from their positions. After 1933, America became increasingly dominate in Nobel scientific awards. Despite a decline in German scientific dominance, the NAZIs still had access to a huge scientific establishment for their weapons and armament program. Another factor was the weakening of academic standards in German schools and universities. This was a development that would have affected Germany in the long term, but did not have an immediate impact on the German scientific establishment.
German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute demonstrated the phenomenon of nuclear fission. Lise Meitner (1878-1968), an eminent
scientist who became famous working at the neutron bombardment experiments with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (who both got the Nobel prize for physics, while Meitner did not). Meitner who was Jewish remained in Germany with her work until it was difficult to emigrate, but with the help of deiends did manage to escape. NAZI Germany had an aggressive military weapons. This discovery by German physicists raised the possibility of a NAZI German nuclear weapons program. This terrified the European scientists that knew Fascism first hand. The Luftwaffe was already the being used to terrify Europe. The consequences of a NAZI Germany armed with nuclear weapons was too terrifying to imagine. One of the ironies of history was that militarily, Hiltler was obsessed with giantism, he wanted the largest tanks, battleships, artillery, and other weapons that could be built. Yet he rejected a major effort to build the largest bomb, in part because he considered nuclear physics "Jewish science" and drove from Germany the very people that could have built him the ultimate weapon.
The NAZI campaign against Jews culminated in Kristallnacht, an brutal explosion of violence against Jews in Germany. Before Kristallnacht, the NAZIs had killed Jews in concentration camps and prisons behind closed doors. On Kristallnacht Jews were attacked and killed openly on the street or in their homes. There intentions cold no longer be doubted. The consequences for the atomic bomb project that among leading physicists were many Jews or anti-NAZIs. These men recognized the true nature of the NAZI regime more than others the potential danger of a NAZI atomic bomb. After Kristallnacht, even men who might have had moral qualms about building an atomic bomb, were prepared to do virtually anything to stop the NAZIs.
NAZI Germany in the first years of the War seemed unstoppable. Hitler launches World War II with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The initial operations were dazzling successes for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. Poland was smashed in a few weeks (1939). After Denmark, Norway was seized in a daring operation (1940), providing the Germany Kriegsmarine bases that greatly enhanced their operations. Then the stunning offensive in the West seized not only the low countries--but France. The French Army was the bulwark of the Allies war effort and was decimated by the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht in weeks (1940). The Wehrmacht next launched a stunning attack on Yugoslavia and Greece (1941). Then Hitler launched the operation he had dreamed of for years, the invasion of the Soviet Union which at first appeared to be a huge success.
The Germans initially had some advantages in the race to build an atomic bomb and through 1941 led in the race. The invasion of Norway 1940 gave them possession to heavy water plants. They had access to uranium ore. The Germans also possessed a nearly completed cyclotron. Germany despite 10 years of NAZI rule still possessed capable scientists and engineers and what many believed was the world's most important chemical
engineering industry. There were many factors that doomed the German atomic bomb program. The major factor was that building an atomic was an enormous undertaking requiring the massive allocation of resources. Germany never allocated the needed resources. There were several reasons for this. Perhaps the two greatest were the success in the early years of the War which led the Germans to believe that they were going to win the War without major economic sacrifices or expensive new weapon systems. Also Hitler was never convinced that the atomic bomb was a practical weapon. Some claim that the chief theoretical physicist (Heisenberg) deliberately pursued unproductive directions to prevent the NAZIs from building an atomic bomb. [Powers] This is intensely debated by historians. [Pais] Heisenberg visited noted Danish physicist Niels Bohr in occupied Denmark (September 1941). This is perhaps the most disputed scientific meeting in history. Bohr and Heisenberg have very different accounts of their meeting. Heisenberg after the War maintained his purpose was to broker a deal between scientists on both sides not to pursue an atomic bomb. Bohr strongly disputes this. Given that the NAZIs were not actively pursuing a bomb, many contend that Heisenberg's purpose was espionage. [Corwell] Bohr escaped from Denmark to Sweden (August 1943), and subsequently to London, and on to Los Alamos. An important NAZI scientist (Lenard) argued that
nuclear/Einsteinian theory was degenerate "Jewish science" which helped to deny nuclear science the huge allocation of resources needed to build a bomb. Jews were an especially important component of the German physics community. The NAZIs thus seriously weakened Germany's ability to build a bomb. In this regard it should be remembered that the American Manhattan Project was an international effort, including not only American and British scientists, but scientists from countries overrun by the NAZIs. [Rhodes] There were as was common in NAZI Germany, serious internal bureaucratic struggles. An important scientific eerror also impeded progress. As the War began to turn against Germany, resources became more difficult to obtain and the bomb project required a massive industrial effort. In addition, the allied bombing campaign further complicating any important industrial project.
The NAZI campaign against the Jews began almost as soon as Hitler seized power in Germany. Even respected scientists were quickly dismissed from positions at universities and research institutes. Many of these individuals were able to emigrate and pursue their careers in America, France, and Britain. While many German Jews were unable to get visas, especially after Kristallnacht. Many scientists had the international contacts needed to obtain visas and most left Germany before it became more difficult to get out. This significantly increased the pool of talented scientists available to the American atomic bomb program. Some of the best known were Hans Bethe (Alsatian-German Jew), Albert Einstein (German Jew), Enrico Fermi (Italian with Jewish wife), Lise Meitner (Austrian Jew), Leo Szilard (Hungarian Jew working in Germany), Edward Teller (Hungarian Jew working in Germany), and Eugene Wigner (Hungarian Jew working in Germany). Some like Bethe did not look on himself as a Jew. Some authors believe that the dismissal of competent scientists and appointment of Party hacks was a major reason in the failure of the German bomb program. [Walker] Many of these nuclear scientists emigrated early in the NAZI era when the NAZIs were primarily concerned with dismissing Jews from universities and other official positions. Fremi came much later and managed to escape with his wife when he was allowed to go to Sweden to accept a Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner (1878-1968), escaped to Sweden just before the War with the help of Niels Bohr (another Nobel laureate). She later continued to work in the United States.
History is full of unintended consequences. The Jews were essentially an easy target for Hitler and his NAZI thugs. Few expected retribution for their actions against the Jews. There were indeed few adverse domestic consequences. In fact the NAZIs probably gained support for these actions from anti-Semites as well as those who benefited from the jobs opened up and the property seized. The NAZI anti-Semitic campaign not only helped President Roosevelt build support for his policies opposing the NAZIs, but help with providing the United States scientific talent which help build the atomic bomb. If the NAZIs had not surrendered in May 1945, the atomic bomb could have been used on Germany.
President Roosevelt saw virtually from the first days of his presidency that Hitler and the NAZIs represented a mortal danger to America the other democracies. Much of his foreign policy efforts during the 1930s was involved in guiding American public opinion to see the threat posed by the NAZIs and adopting the necessary measures to confront the NAZIs. He was confront by a powerful and vocal isolationist opposition led by the America First Committee. Even so he managed to secure the passage of major initiatives to build a Two Ocean Navy, massive air forces, and a huge army
Albert Einstein was one of the scientists who left Germany when Hitler and the NAZIs seized power. Einstein was one of the first to leave (1933). He renounced his German citizenship and moved to Princeton. One historian calls Einstein and the European scientists who worked on the atomic bomb, "Hitler's gift to America". [Morgan, p. 514.] The scientists included Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Hans Bethe, John von Neumann, Stanislaw Ulman, and others.
Important scientists in 1939 concluded that German scientists had begun to develop an atomic bomb for the NAZIs. Of course the very idea of an atomic bomb was unknown to not only the general public, but even American political and military officials. Szilard was perhaps the most politically astute of the emigre scientists. Leo Szilard was the scientist who reacted most effectively to the news that German scientists had achieved nuclear fission with uranium. Szilard realized that that a group of little known foreign scientists with "funny" accents trying to convince America to spend billions of dollars on a project seemingly out of Buck Rogers would have little chance of receiving a serious hearing. He contacted Alexander Sachs, a New Deal economist that emigrated from Russia, who had an understanding of Washington politics. They both understood that Szilard by himself could make little impression. Einstein was a different matter. He had a huge international reputation and had even been invited by President Roosevelt to stay in the White House (January 1934). Sachs offered to deliver a letter to President Roosevelt if it was signed by Einstein. So Szilard who didn't know how to drive a car had Teller drive him to see Albert Einstein (August 2). Einstein by this time generally regarded as the greatest physicist of modern times and a refugee from the NAZIs. Einstein immediately grasped the situation and agreed to sign the letter to President Roosevelt recommending the United States explore the possibility of a nuclear weapon. Einstein had a reputation that could not be easily dismissed.
The letter was delivered (October 11). It read, "The new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable--though much less certain--that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat or exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with towns of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air." [Morgan, pp. 514-515.]
The President was indeed interested and impressed by the fact that Einstein had endorsed the idea. The President had an inquiring mind. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy he dealt with inventors, some crack pots and some with useful ideas, such as a magnetic firing devices for mines. He also dealt with crack pots as an investor in the 1920s and lost some money in the process. He was intrigued with new ideas and of course Einstein's signature must have impressed him. He noted "this requires action" and passed the letter on to Pa Watson. The result was the creation of an "Advisory Committee on Uranium"--the precursor to an American atomic bomb project.
While the President showed interest, the military did not take the project seriously. The assignment to follow up was given to the ordinance divisions of the Army and Navy. They considered this a Buck Rogers futuristic concept that was not practical. As result no real steps were taken to pursue the project.
A group of scientists because of the military's lack of interest took over the project. Vannevar Bush was was the President's scientific adviser and who headed the National Defense Research Committee assumed responsibility. Bush discussed the project with Sir Henry Tizard, Cairman of the British Committee of Air Defense. Bush decided that the project needed to be given great priority.
President Roosevelt also created the Advisory Committee on Uranium a committee chaired by Lyman J. Bridges, Director of the National Bureau of Standards. The Committee met (October 21). It included Leo Szilard, Eugene Wihne (a Budapest physicist), and Enrico Fermi (Nobel prize winning Italian physicist). The physicists on the Committee asked for $2,000 to begin their work. The military members were skeptical of the physicists. Their foreign accents did not help. Col. K.R. Adamson who represented the Army saw the whole enterprise a waste of time. He explained that it usually took two wars to perfect weapons and that any way the critical factor in war was troop morale, not weapons. Wigner irritated at such appalling ignorance, suggest that if this was true than perhaps the thing to do was to reduce the Army budget. Adamson agreed to the $2,000. [Morgan, p. 515.] This was the beginning of the Manhattan Project, the most ambitious undertaking of the War. The Committee was renamed the Advisory Committee on Uranium (April 1940). Szilard and Fermi were excluded. Officials thought that if the Committee included aliens that a Congressional investigation might result. The Committee approved a contract to develop the Fermi-Szilard system (November 1940). After the decesion to pursue the project as a priority was made, this project was transferred to the University of Chicago (February 1942). Finally the program was moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Los Alamos, New Mexico. [Morgan, p. 515.]
President Roosevelt in great secrecy made one of the most momentous decisions of the 20th century (October 9, 1941). Scientist adviser Vannevar Bush and Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace brought the project to the President's attention. He and Secretary Wallace met with the President (October 9, 1941). Bush expressed concern about German research, but told the President that it was not know what Progress the Germans had made. The project was both speculative and would be extremely expensive. The President acted decisively with little hesitation after receiving the Bush report. He made one of the most significant decisions of the 20th century. With only minimal discussion the President decided to pursue the project with a high priority. [Black, pp. 665-66.]
President Roosevelt persuaded Speaker Rayburn to push through the necessary apropriations without Congressional scrutiny. Speaker Rayburn certified to the House that he and the President considered the project vital for national defense and was too sensitive to even be discussed in closed sessions. A massive appropriation was approved.
The President set up the Top Policy Committee (October 9, 1941). The TPC was made up of General Marshall, Harvard President James B. Connat, Secretary Stimson, Secretary Wallace (chosen because he was a scientist), and scientist Vannevar Bush. The TPC actually met only a few times. It operated total secrecy. As it developed, it provided a platform to explore scientific initiatives. The major initiative pursued proved to be the atomic bomb project which became known as the Manhattan Project. The TPC reported directly to the President.
The decision to pursue the project was taken only 2 moths before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor bringing America into the war. he NAZI Blitzkrieg in Europe completed a very different mindset in American than existed in Germany. American officials did not doubt that the Germans had the ability to build a bomb or lack the willingness to use it. Thus the reverses of the early years of the war helped to create the conditions that induced President Roosevelt to approve an atomic bomb project in the same way that the early German victories caused Hitler to take little interest in a vastly expensive project that he did not even understand. By the time of the Japanese attack, the atomic bomb project had been approved and Congressional funding authorized.
The American Manhattan Program was the largest weapons development program in history. General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970), Deputy Chief of Construction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was assigned to oversee the project. The Manhattan Project us named after the New York borough where the first office headquarters was located and began June 1942. Groves had just completed another rush project, the construction of the Pentagon. He considered himself an astute judge of men and chose Robert J. Oppenheimer (1904-1967) to lead the scientific team. Oppenhimer was a respected, but relatively unknown theoretical physicist. Oppenheimer's politics are a matter of extensive debate. It is know that as a Jew, he despised the NAZIs and the atrocities against European Jews.
It was the Americans who achieved the first controlled nuclear reaction. Enrico Fermi and Leo Salard working in a converted squash court beneath the University of Chicago's into a nuclear reactor using a graphite pile and uranium balls. It was at this facility that the world's first controlled nuclear reaction occurred , confirming that nuclear fission could unleash huge amounts of energy. Notably both these two men were refugees from European Fascism.
The major difficulty in building an atomic bomb was in obtaining the required quantity of fissionable material. The enormous effort required to produce weapons grade material is one of the principal reasons that the Germans did not initiate a aggressive atomic bomb project. A huge facility was built an Oak Ridge, Tennessee to separated the U-235 isotope needed for the bomb from the more common U-238 isotope. The ratio in nature is 1 to 29. Separating U-235, however, is an enormously difficult undertaking. Two methods were developed, electro-magnetic and gaseous diffusion. The first step in building the bomb was to build the plants needed to produce bomb-grade uranium. Here the scientists initially eared by estimating 200 kg of uranium was needed. This was 10 times the amount needed. The wartime emergency was so great that construction of the calutrons at Oak Ridge were begun even before the plans were finished. There was no time for pilot plants. As a result, numerous problems were encountered such as electro-magnets pulling nails out of the wall. The plant using electro-magentas was Y12. Because the output of a calutron was only a few months, 1,152 calutrons were eventually built. Another facility, K25 used the gaseous diffusion method. The plant was to have the largest area of any building ever constructed--2 million square feet. The energy demands were staggering, for a time 10 percent of the entire electrical output of the United States. The Hanford Engineer Works was built in Washington to produce plutonium.
Groves chose Los Alamos, New Mexico as a location to actually develop and assemble the bomb or "gadget" a it was called. This isolated town had by March 1943 been turned into a high-technology boomtown. The technical difficulty associated with building the bomb were enormous. By early 1945 (February and March) the Los Alamos scientific team had assembled both U-235 and Plutonium bombs. The Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge provided the bomb-grade U-235 used for the Little Boy bomb. The Harford plant provided the Plutonium used in the Fat Man bomb.
The Manhattan Project was the greatest American secret of World War II. Even Vice President Truman was not told about it, until President Roosevelt died. Ironically Stalin knew about it before Truman.
Widely publicized spy cases during the Cold war added to the American public concern about an internal Communist threat. Two of the most important involved involving Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. At the time the degree to which the Soviets had penetrated the Manhattan Project was not known. Only later were the Verona Intercepts lead to a fuller understanding of the Soviet spy network. Later Robert Oppenheimer himself came under suspicion. The Rosenbergs were not the most harmful spies. There were others, including Klaus Fuchs who provided much more useful information. There is no doubt, however, Julius Rosenberg was a Soviet spy and was guilty of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. While the Rosenbergs provided information of only limited value, they proved to be enormously effective in Soviet propaganda to condemn the United States. Rudolf Abel was the Soviet master spy in America during the Cold War. He operated under the name of William Fischer. He entered the United States in 1948 and set up an effective ring of agents. His primary assignment was nuclear weapons. He worked with both the Cohens and the Rosenbergs.
The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945 at Trinity Site near Alamogordo. Trinity Site was named after a poem by John Dunn describing how God destroys to renew.
Black, Conrad. Franklin Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom (Public Affairs: New York, 2003), 1280p.
Corwell, John. Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact (Viking, 2004), 535p.
Goudsmit, Samuel. ALSOS (1947).
Klotz, Irving M. "Captives of Their Fantasies: The German Atomic Bomb Scientists" Chem. Educ. 1997 74 204.
Morgan, Ted. FDR: A Biography (Simon & Schuster: New York, 1985), 830p.
Overy, Richard. Why the Allies Won.
Pais, Abraham. Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Oxford University Press, 1991).
Powers, Thomas. Heisenberg's War (Knopf, 1993).
Rhodes, Richard. The Making Of The Atomic Bomb.
Walker, Mark. "The German Atomic Bomb" from "Heisenberg, Goudsmit and the German Atomic Bomb," Physics Today (January 1990).
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