The Manhattan Project was a military project to secretly produce the first U.S. nuclear weapon during WW2. It all started in 1942 when the U.S. feared Nazi Germany would create and use a nuclear weapon during the war. The 3 main figures in this project were President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Albert Einstein (even though he didn’t get cleared by security to work on it) and Robert Oppenheimer who was a physicist and professor. The Manhattan Project was a big step forward in the history of science in the United States. It put us ahead science wise because other countries didn’t have the expertise we had in order to build an atomic bomb. FDR was the thirty-second president of the United States and the only U.S. president to be elected for …show more content…
Roosevelt was a politician, lawyer and statesman. He went to Harvard and graduated in 1903 then attended Columbia Law School. On March 17, 1905 president FDR got married to Anna “Eleanor” Roosevelt. Together they had 6 children. Their children were named: Anna Eleanor, James, Franklin Delano Jr., Elliot, Franklin Delano Jr., and John Aspinwall. I imagine FDR had a very stressful life because of all the events that happened and all of the policies/acts etc. that he set up during his presidency like the New Deal, Social Security act, Court packing plan, World War 2 (of course) and the Yalta …show more content…
This project also involved Albert Einstein’s friend who was a hungarian physicist, Leo Szilard. He was the one to realize that this bomb could actually be built. When President FDR received a letter that was sent from Albert Einstein through Alexander Sachs that Germany might actually be building a nuclear weapon the U.S. knew they had to hurry up and beat them to it. So, FDR set up an advisory committee in response to the letter. The committee did have doubts about what Einstein was telling them but soon after, Einstein sent two more letters to FDR persuading him to start research on the nuclear weapons. After the committee met with the British scientist working on the atomic bomb and read the Military application of Uranium Detonations in 1941 they were finally convinced. Soon the bomb started being built. Britain helped the U.S. with the project even though they had a more advanced one developing. This project employed about 130,000 people and if anybody let the secret out they would be charged a $10,000 fine or serve 10 years in jail/prison. Since this project was so secretive there were many lie detection tests given out and other safety measures practiced. They couldn’t risk anyone letting this secret get out. There were also frequent nose swabs because of the danger working with the Uranium and Plutonium. Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin both died from radiation poisoning