Ensayo Del Proyecto Manhattan (Inglés)

David Parra Sicari
May 30, 2011
AP World History/English
Research Paper

The Manhattan Engineer District (MED), carried out and financed by the US government from 1942 up to the end of the war and posterior years, was a huge multi-billion dollar plan that its goal was to produce the first atomic bomb before Germany or any other country. To implement such a motley plan in such a reducedtimespan was a feat because of all the impediments encountered. Such obstacles were the extreme secrecy levels in which the project was executed, the overall lack of previous knowledge on the topic and the complexness and vastness of the program that required the intense work hand of more than 125,000 (of which a minimal number actually knew that they were producing a weapon). The achievement of theManhattan Project could only be made by the strict and careful placement of capable military leaders and the intricate research that some of the world’s most reputable scientists of the time performed.

In August 2 of 1939 the Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd sent a letter signed by Albert Einstein to the President at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The letter proceeded to explain to the Presidentwhy it was crucial to immediately invest in a program to start building an atomic bomb. Einstein mentioned how recent discoveries by fellow physicists made the nuclear chain reaction possible with an isotope of uranium liberating energy and transforming this into a bomb. What probably convinced the president was the fact that Germany was years ahead of them and that an important uranium orelocated at Czechoslovaquia was privatized and exports were shut down; a clear foreshadow that Germany was going to need a lot of uranium. Ten days later the Advisory Committee of Uranium was formed. (Einstein's Letters to Roosevelt) The Einstein-Szilárd letter was the main incentive, the factor triggering the launch of the arms race. (The National Defense Research Committee). Bush could addressdirectly to Roosevelt but the program was still very modest in size compared to the Germanic program. (A Push From Lawrence). They made an appeal to the Federal Government urging their requests and divulged some new information provided by the British committee. Before they got an answer from their requests Bush paid a visit to the president and summarized some of the British findings as well asdiscussing the cost and duration of a bomb-production project, especially the skepticism felt by both sides whether or not it would be done on time or not was discussed. The conversation ended by President Roosevelt limiting Bush and his team to continue with their research, he prohibited them to go beyond the stages of research, into production. The predecessor plan for the Manhattan Project once againwas postponed on the production phase. This conversation took place one month and one day away from their attack of Pearl Harbor, November 6, 1941.

By the time Roosevelt contacted Bush, he had set in motion a whole intricate plan involving dozens of scientists to focus on different parts of the production of the atomic bomb (Bush Reports to Roosevelt). He appointed Urey, Lawrence and Compton asthe program’s chiefs. Urey headed the diffusion and centrifuge methods. Lawrence in another hand took responsibilities for the electromagnetic and plutonium factors and Compton becomes the supervisor for the chain reaction and weapon theory programs. What now changed was that the United States was now at war adding that sense of urgency that would give the program the priority it needed. From alow-priority and without budget project it became basically a project limitless in the funds aspect with its goals set clear: produce an atomic bomb but this time instead of lacking capitol they lacked of time. Through the rest of 1941 critical sub-atomic research and discoveries were made until Bush dictated that the production level could no longer be stalled. This decision triggered the...