Compare And Contrast Louis Szilard And Eugene Vignat

On July 16, 1939, at the insistence of Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner, physicist Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning the President of Nazi Germany's scientific research of the atomic bomb. His letter would acknowledge Roosevelt of the importance and the danger of this type of weapon in the hands of Adolf Hitler. Roosevelt immediately created the Advisory Committee on Uranium. After some time had passed, Einstein was forced to send another letter to Roosevelt because the government was not fully funding the committee because Leó Szilárd and Eugene Wigner were both born outside of the U.S. and were considered possible security risks. Roosevelt immediately ordered the government to give them the needed funds, and this brought about the Manhattan Project. After realizing the bomb would likely be used, Einstein regretted sending the letters to Roosevelt. Although a pacifist,

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay flew over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb ever. The city went up in flames caused by the immense power equal to about 20,000 tons of TNT. The project was a success. They were an unprecedented assemblage of civilian, and military scientific brain power-brilliant, intense, and young, the people that helped develop the bomb. Unknowingly they came to an isolated mountain setting, known as Los Alamos, New Mexico, to design and build the bomb that would end World War 2, but begin serious controversies concerning its sheer power and destruction. I became interested in this topic because of my interest in science and history. It seemed an

“We believe that . . . an early unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable. If the United States were to be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race for armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons. Much more favorable conditions could be created if nuclear bombs were first revealed to the world by a demonstration in an appropriately selected uninhabited area.” The initial test for the atomic bomb was dropped in Alamogordo, Mexico with experts observing more than 20 miles away. The explosion was estimated to be a blast of about 10,000 tons of TNT. The Atomic bomb’s intense and destructive power frightened many scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project (Knebel 78). Including the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer felt as if he had created something that would bring forth destruction to the world, instead of using his brilliant scientific mind to improve and usher the world into an era of peace like he intended to. In fact, many scientists within the Manhattan Project were shocked and against using such a powerful weapon as the atomic bomb against other humans, so much that a group of scientists and

Before the bombs were set off over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a test bomb was detonated in the desert lands of New Mexico. The scientists involved in the research and fruition of this weapon were holding their breaths to see if it worked. They were not concerned with how many potential lives their creation could end, they were only interested in seeing if all of their hard work and two billion dollars in funding would pay off. Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer was credited with the idea of using the atomic bomb as a military weapon. If the bomb worked the intention was to use it to end lives, but as they watched in anticipation to see if the

Technology has allowed for the furtherance of warfare, from the invention of gun powder to the splitting of the atom. These findings have propelled the leap of numerous nations’ in the ability to wage war against each other. Of these discoveries, the splitting atom spawned an invention that would hurl the world from conventional warfare into the nuclear age. These ideals were the brainstorming of some of the greatest minds in America and abroad. These scientists began to formulate the creation of the atomic bomb, a device that would change the world in ways that had never been imagined before.

The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear engineers; the name of this research was called, “The Manhattan Project”. On July 16, 1945, the detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb was detonated, it sent shock-waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would forever change the meaning of war.

On August 2, 1938, in the heat of World War II, Albert Einstein, a physicist born in Germany, sent a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. The letter suggested America to build an atomic bomb before the Nazi Germany does. However, it took more than two months for the letter to reach Roosevelt. On October 19, 1938, Roosevelt agreed, replying, “I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board … to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium” (“President Roosevelt's response to Dr. Einstein”). As a result, America held a secret program, code named Manhattan Project, and started to build new, destructive weapons in a laboratory in Los Alamos,

July 16, 1939 began as a rather ordinary day for Einstein. Two former students, now colleagues came to visit. Through this visit Einstein learned that nuclear fission was not simply theoretically possible, but a reality. He immediately recognized the repercussions; both good and evil. He realized that if he did nothing, Germany (Hitler) would be able not only to build an atomic bomb, but also to monopolize all known all sources of the precursor materials. Thus, to do nothing, would be to aid the Nazis. To write a letter, use his influence, to make sure the United States would have access to uranium (from Belgium), he was encouraging the development of a device whose sole purpose would be a weapon more devastating than any other ever imagined.

In A Petition to the President, Szilard and his cosigners, used their knowledge about atomic bombs to try and persuade the President of the United States, to not to allow the authorization of atomic bombs during the war. They write about the destruction caused by using an atomic bomb and the potential fall out from using such a weapon. Before the devastating bomb dropped on Japan by America, there were scientists who tired to bring awareness of such an event.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 Bomber that was names Enola Gay had flew over the City of Hiroshima Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb to have ever been made. The motive for the creation and research of the bomb was a direct result of the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbor. When the bomb was finalized after all the research of splitting atoms and combining plutonium and uranium and knowing what to use, many tests were done and the bomb was presumed ready. But no one could have guessed the magnitude of this bomb. The city was engulfed in flames as the power of the bomb being equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT being dropped exploded. There was much work that went into making this project a success amongst all others. There was a wide variety of scientific brain knowledge, civilian knowledge and much military knowledge and assembly to make this project happen.

September 1, 1939, marked the beginning of World War II. The war was long fought involving the three axis powers and several allied powers. Among those were Japan and the United States following Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (Praino, 2015). Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost amongst the battles from each side of the war. In 1939, Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi fled to America and informed the elected officials that Germany had discovered new outbreaks in splitting atoms, which was one step closer to the creation of destructive weapons for the Axis power. With that news, American facilities launched a program that would later be codenamed “The Manhattan Project” which was the birthplace of the first nuclear atomic reactions. After the first reaction was created, it was a vicious cycle from there that continued to escalate. With the war reaching an all-time high in casualties, Truman was faced with a big decision as the programs had finally experienced breakthroughs to the atomic bomb. He could choose to remain in conventional war tactics and continue to prolong the war until Japan was ready to surrender, or attempt to save the lives of many American soldiers and citizens by dropping the atomic bombs onto two major cities in Japan (Praino, 2015). By choosing the latter, an estimated 225,000 Japanese lives were lost (Perkins, 2016) and the ethical merits of Truman’s decision are still questioned today while some views remain confident in the choice.

On the 2nd of August, 1939 Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard wrote President F.D. Roosevelt a letter alerting him to the possibility of the creation of atomic bombs (Einstein, 1939). This letter ultimately lead to the creation of the bomb. While Szilard continued to work on the bomb as part of the ‘Manhattan Project’, Einstein’s only involvement was the writing of these letters. Einstein was notoriously left wing and was considered a security risk by the military (American Museam of Natural History, n.d.). Despite only being involved in the most basic way he felt a large amount of regret, stating that “I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt.” (Pauling, 1954). Einstein spent the rest of his life condemning the bombs, proving that he did not think their use was justified. These views are mirrored in those of Leo

In early 1939, the world’s scientific community revealed that German physicist had learned the secret of splitting uranium atoms. A fear that the Nazis might attempt to manipulate an advancement to advance their domination of Europe arose. To exacerbate the situation, Pearl Harbor would be bombed in December 1941. This initiated not only the American efforts to discover the secrets of atomic energy, but also race prejudice of a plot among Japanese-Americans to sabotage war efforts. As panic spread across America, drastic decisions would transpire.

Early in 1939, the scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets to splitting a uranium atom. The fears of Nazi scientists using that energy to produce a bomb soon spread all over the United States. Scientist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to fund research for building the first atomic bomb. Roosevelt saw the project as unnecessary, but agreed to proceed slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to build the atomic bomb received its code name of the Manhattan Project.

In the summer of 1939, Einstein, along with another scientist, Leo Szilard, was persuaded to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alert him of the possibility of a Nazi bomb. President Roosevelt could not risk the possibility that Germany might develop an atomic bomb first. The letter is believed to be the key factor that motivated the United States to investigate the development of nuclear weapons. Roosevelt invited Einstein to meet with him and soon after the United States initiated the Manhattan Project (M. Talmey).