“A Petition to the President of the United States” was written on 3 July, 1945 amidst the chaos of World War II. The threat of nuclear proliferation was at an all time peak in the world, all while the advancement of nuclear power was expanding more rapidly than ever in the United States and the scientists who developed such capabilities were well aware. The United States had already been at war with Japan a few months shy of 4 years, and the Japanese were showing no willingness to surrender. Leo Szilard and those others who signed Szilard’s Petition to the President, did so with the intentions of persuading President Harry S. Truman to use his authority as Commander-in-Chief and avoid the use of atomic bombs against Japan at the current time in the war. Although this petition is written differently than I would a college essay, the basic fundamentals of writing a paper are generally in place. …show more content…
Armed Forces and prohibit the use of atomic bombs against the Japanese at the specific time in the war. Szilard goes on to reiterate in the introduction the fact that the scientists who signed the petition are very familiar with nuclear power, insinuating their judgement is valid and should not be ignored. Granted, readers unlike myself may find the introduction to be an effective attention grabber, however; my attention would have been better retrieved had the opening paragraph begun with a visual depiction of the chaos that will go hand in hand with the use of atomic bombs at this point in the