Manhattan Project Quotes

Germany had some world class physicists. Our scientists, military intelligence people, and political leadership assumed that the Germans were also seeking to develop the Atomic Bomb. Ironically, it turned out that they were not, and what Truman reported in this quotation was untrue (although that was not fully known at the time.) Einstein and several of the scientists who were early pioneers in modern physics were Jewish, and Hitler referred to the study of nuclear fission and fusion as “Jewish Science.” As a result, the German government did not commit the resources to the development of an atomic bomb. Instead, they were betting on the development of the Jet Airplane which they succeeded in deploying against the Allies at the end of the war. But they did not have enough or enough pilots left alive to fly them, and Germany was overrun by the Allied Troops. Prior to Truman’s erroneous report about the German development of an atomic bomb, there had only been one piece of evidence that the Germans were not developing one. An OSS secret agent, Moe Berg, had talked with Werner Heisenberg, at a Swiss scientific conference during the war. He was going to assassinate the greatest of the German physicists if Berg thought he was working on a nuclear device. Berg concluded from his discussions that Heisenberg did not know enough about nuclear fission to have been working on that. Berg did not kill Heisenberg, and reported that he did not think the Germans were developing a bomb as if they were Heisenberg would have been deeply involved. However, the American intelligence people and the American scientists, did not trust Berg’s analysis and conclusion. Berg was not a trained scientist. He was a professional baseball player—the NY Yankee backup catcher to Bill Dickey. He was a college graduate, a brilliant guy and a very fast learner who had studied physics books and papers before his assignment. Berg turned out to have been right, but that was not confirmed until a few years after the war. Truman had relied on an incorrect intelligence estimate when he made this quotation. It was not the first such error of intelligence analysis in American history and it would not be the last.

This vague criterion was in effect and was initially used to clear scientists at Los Alamos and their spouses who were part of the team that was to develop the Atomic Bomb. The Army security people however had never been in such a situation before. Few distinguished scientists wanted to come to Los Alamos to begin with as once there, they were there for the duration of the war and were cut off from friends and relatives. But there were very few people in the entire country who had the unique education and training. When the security people rejected a candidate before that time, another person was recruited. But for many of the scientists at Los Alamos, they were one of a kind. There were not two Enrico Femi’s or Luis Alverez’s. “Moral fiber” could mean anything and the American academic world has always tolerated a wider variety of behavior then most of the rest of society. Sexual activity, left wing views, parental irresponsibility, failure to pay debts, attacking religion or religious organizations all created problems. But the biggest problem was association with others of “demonstrated weakness in moral fiber” including communists and left wingers. In most university settings, with a norm or tolerance, almost all associated with “undesirables”. As a result many scientists or family members could not get cleared. But the project could not function without them, and if some were fired for that reason, many others might have quit. Finally, General Groves, relaxed the standards, yet the army security officers were constantly suspicious. This criterion was in use as late as the 1960s where a brilliant scientist working in the Executive Office of the President was threatened with dismissal for this reason. She had borne an illegitimate child years earlier.

Dr. Libby worked with Enrico Fermi to create the first nuclear chain reaction to prove the feasibility of a nuclear bomb. She was the only female on the team.

This is an interesting historical quotation because it shows how easily the United States commandeered private property during World War II. All it took was a letter from the Secretary of War. This particular quotation and letter had further historical significance. The school was acquired as the first facility for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. This was where the atomic bomb was built.

The $2 Billion was enormous at that time—the equivalent of $26 Billion in 2010 dollars. This was the first time that all but a handful of Americans knew of the huge sums that had been invested in the Manhattan Project. What made the quotation even more memorable is how President Truman, who himself had only learned about the Manhattan Project with the death of President Roosevelt, framed the event—as a contest between us and Germany as to who would build an atomic bomb first. Actually, although almost no one in the US government realized it then, the Germans had NO PROGRAM of nuclear weapons development at all. Hitler did not trust the Theoretical Physics and Theory of Relativity because Einstein and other Jewish scientists had been instrumental in its development. He derogatorily referred to it as “Jewish Science”. Germany bet its scientific efforts on the V2 Rockets and the Jet Airplane, both of which they were successful with but too late to have any material effect on the war. Ironically, even after most of the great German physicists were run out of Germany, there were still two of the greatest who may well have been capable of nuclear weapons development. But neither Werner Heisenberg or Otto Hahn were inclined to engage in that kind of research, and neither of them were even asked whether or not they thought it was possible. The anti-Semitic Nazis just assumed that it could not be. Truman and his associates did not find out for another year or more that there was no laboratory race. There was one OSS spy, Moe Berg, who had actually talked to Heisenberg in the midst of the war, and concluded that he not only was not working on an atomic bomb, but was not up on the latest pre-war critical research needed to develop a bomb. Hahn knew and had created the first chain reaction for which he later won the Nobel prize but he was a chemist and didn’t really understand the Physics and mathematics involved in making a weapon and was a confirmed pacifist. Ironically, his colleague, Lise Meitner who had done the physics and mathematics on that experiment was Jewish and had to flee Germany. In Denmark she gave the results to Niels Bohr, who shared then with Leo Slizard and Einstein when Bohr came to the United State and that initiated the famous letter that was sent to FDR which triggered the Manhattan Project. The German first nuclear reaction was used by the Americans because the politicians listened to the scientists, while in Germany, the politicians gave no credence to their scientists and their experiments in nuclear fission.

The normally highly individualistic scientists from so many different cultures amazed all, especially the military, with the teamwork and organization of their effort. They all wanted to be sure that the Germans would not first develop the bomb and the refugees from Europe shared experiences that motivated them all. Also, the Army was very ham handed in trying to organize a community of scientists, and there was a great deal of cohesion to keep the army out of their day to day affairs. The other major factor was J. Robert Oppenheier, the scientific director, who despite his lack of managerial or leadership experience, rose to the occasion and became one of the great scientific administrators of all time. Ulam with Edward Teller were the first to design the Hydrogen Bomb.

The bombing of Tokyo to which she referred, killed over 100,000 Japanese in a single raid, more than each of the two atomic bombs. However, those who, in hindsight, raise the issue of the morality of using the atomic bombs, say nothing about the firebombing. The graphic is of Dr. Libby when she was working with Enrico Fermi to create the first nuclear chain reaction to prove the feasibility of a nuclear bomb. She was the only female on the team.

Morrison was then a graduate student of Oppenheimer. The quotation is important, not because it shows how quickly the “father of the atomic bomb” realized that a nuclear bomb could be made and how, but how relatively easy and rapid it was for a competent theoretical physicist could conceptually design a nuclear weapon if they first had knowledge of the Hahn / Strassmann Experiment and the Meitner / Frisch explanation of what had happened ({640924}). Note Leo Szilard’s letter at about the same time--{640925}.

While the President had total faith in American scientists, at the time the state of American physics was not world class in several key areas. Oppenheimer, was for example, the ONLY senior American theoretical physicist at the outbreak of the war, and he had been trained in Germany. What the President did not quite realize was how many of the key scientific positions on the Manhattan Project were foreign refugees who had fled the Nazis in Europe. Many American scientists and engineers did not want to go to Los Alamos where they could not leave for the duration of the war, had to give up their own personal research, and whose relatives who did not accompany them would never know where they were or what they were doing. But there were enough great American scientists who Oppenheimer recruited that combined with the Europeans formed the greatest and most effective concentration of scientific manpower working in history.

Both knew that this proved an atomic bomb was possible. It was Szilard’s message about the possibilities about the atomic bomb that Albert Einstein transmitted to FDR, leading to the American development of the bomb.

Her critics later started to ask whether the same wise God gave the atomic bomb to the Russians, and to the Pakistanis and the North Koreans.

Marshall was Army Chief of Staff at the time. Actually it was the OSS—the precursor to the CIA—that accepted the job of the assassination of Werner Heisenberg, the best physicist left in Germany after so many had escaped from the dictatorship. However, the agent who was to do the assassination made the judgment from actually talking with him and reading all his scientific papers that he was not working on an atomic bomb and really didn’t know of a lot of the critical research that was ongoing. He let the scientist live, and later investigations showed that the agent, Moe Berg, was absolutely right. Neither Heisenberg nor any other German scientists were working on atomic energy. The Germans had put all their scientific eggs in the rocket and jet plane basket.

At the time, surprising to most people now, the use of the atomic bomb was not an issue of controversy at all. There were no Congressman who questioned it, no newspapers which editorialized against the use of the bomb. There were not even any other counties which protested its use. The blessing of ending the war, even at the cost of less than 200,000 deaths seemed a clearly desirable tradeoff when compared with the many millions of deaths that would have occurred had the bomb not been used. As an example, the conventional bombing of Tokyo before the nuclear weapons were used killed as many Japanese as either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

There were some doubts the scientists developed after Germany had surrendered as Hitler had been their greatest fear. So they were briefed on the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland and the military medical preparations for treating and caring for ½ million serious wounded casualties. In addition, given the state of war, there was expected about the same number of American Military deaths. On top of that, there would be many more Japanese military casualties plus even more Japanese civilian deaths and wounded. The use of the Atom Bomb would save all those lives but have casualties of its own, but far fewer. At the time, surprising to most people now, the use of the atomic bomb was not an issue of controversy at all. There were no Congressman who questioned it, no newspapers which editorialized against the use of the bomb. There were not even any other counties which protested its use.