Manhattan Project Significance

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There were many factors that gave the United States the upper hand in World War 2. One of the biggest ones was the Manhattan Project, which was the program that developed the first atomic bomb that began in 1939. But what is the Manhattan Project? Who was involved? Where and when did they actually use a perfected version of the Atom bomb and what was the aftermath? Though some of this may have been lost in history by the brilliant minds behind the project, we do know some very important information about this topic. It starts in the scene of global war and destruction, the United States had to find a way to level the playing field against the growing Axis crisis in Europe and Asia. The United States had just entered the war from the horrific …show more content…
After we conquered the enemy at Normandy, the Nazi forces came to a halt and surrendered after Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. However, the Japanese had different ideas, after defeating them in multiple battles, they still would not surrender, so the United States had to take drastic action to stop them from killing more troops. That’s where the Manhattan Project comes in, scientists during all of the preceding events had been working to produce a bomb that was powered by the science of splitting nuclei within certain elements (Encyclopedia of U.S. History 950). The project was started in secret by the president of the time, Franklin Roosevelt. This continued unknown to the public and even for a brief period, the next president, Harry Truman. After the Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, informed Mr. Truman about their secret, he was very cautious and down to earth about his decision to use it.
The Manhattan Project was the United States answer to the growing Nazi forces. America was fearful that Germany might develop an atomic bomb (Encyclopedia of U.S. History 950). The atomic bomb was based off the science of nuclei splitting. This is also known as nuclear fission, using the …show more content…
The two scientists that convinced Roosevelt to change the atomic energy to a more militarized form were the Chairman of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), Dr. Vannevar Bush and the Chairman of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), Dr. James B. Conant (Groves xvi). The man behind the purpose was Dr. Arthur H. Compton, a Nobel Prize winner for his new discovery, the Compton Effect, which was the way that cosmic waves react, was the head scientist of the Chicago campus study team (Groves xvi). He stated that the purpose of the research was to build understanding required to design and construct and operate a plant for the transformation of uranium to plutonium. Once Roosevelt came to the conclusion that this weapon had to be created before Hitler’s forces beat him to it, he was the one that gave the project much needed funding and support to continue. Luckily, FDR did not have to use it against Nazi Germany. But when the next president, Harry S. Truman, took the office and all the responsibilities of the Manhattan Project, he decided to use two against Japan after many verbal warnings and demands for them to surrender. Since they had carried out a devastating attack on the U.S. Navy and after the Nazi forces had already surrendered. As pilot Enola Gay flew over the small island of Japan he released the first nuke, the Fat Man, onto the Japanese town

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