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EARLY GOVERNMENT SUPPORT (1939-1942)
Events
As the news of the fission breakthrough spread from Berlin in
early 1939, many physicists within the United States (and
elsewhere) immediately realized the potential danger posed by
atomic energy. Especially concerned were
émigré physicists who had fled their native
countries because of the expansion of Nazi Germany and sought
to obtain governmental support for further, secret nuclear
research. Convincing busy government officials of the
seriousness of this esoteric new scientific development was at
first slow going. One month before the Second World War
formally began with the September 1, 1939, invasion of
Poland by Nazi Germany, Leo Szilard enlisted the help of
Albert Einstein in
personally calling President Franklin Roosevelt's
attention to the matter. Roosevelt responded by creating a government
committee to coordinate and provide modest funding for
early uranium research. Work also proceeded during this period on the
design of an atomic pile
that could demonstrate the potential of atomic energy and
possibly provide a second path to the atomic bomb besides
uranium.
Following the rapid successes of the German armies in Europe
in 1940, many scientists felt that it was only a matter of
time before the United States became involved in the
war. They argued that
reorganization and acceleration of atomic
research
was vital if a bomb was to be produced in time to affect the
war. This belief was strengthened by
the MAUD Report, the latest and most influential in a series of studies that
argued that an atomic bomb was feasible. The surprise
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941,
catapulted the United States into the war, and the following
month Roosevelt secretly gave his
tentative approval to proceed with the construction of an
atomic bomb.
To learn more about any of these events associated with early
government support of atomic research, choose a web page from
the menu below. To continue with a quick overview of the
Manhattan Project, jump ahead to the description of the
"Difficult Choices"
that had to be made in 1942 regarding what would soon be known
as the "Manhattan Project.
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Sources and notes for this page.
The text for this page is original to the Department of
Energy's
Office of History and Heritage Resources. The photograph of Albert Einstein with
Leo Szilard is courtesy the
Federation of American Scientists. Click
here for information on the photograph of the 1940 meeting at Berkeley.
The photograph of President Franklin Roosevelt signing the
declaration of war on Japan, December 8, 1941, is courtesy the National Archives.
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