The Atomic Bomb

27 October 2004 (Lecture #26)

• The Manhattan Project – atomic bomb program
• Technology important to the war – radar, sonar, and communications
• Germans made significant process on the atom bomb

o Not successful because Germany had driven off many of its best scientists

o Also, because once the US knew what was critical to the program they bombed those resources (ie heavy water)

• Leaders

o GEN Grover – director

o Dr. Oppenheimmer – 2^nd in Harvard class (graduated in three years); lead scientist

§ Had communist sympathies – three communist relatives

o COL _____ - leader of the bombing group who would drop the bomb

• The Trinity – three ideas for making U-235 (before there had only been a few atoms – they needed pounds of it)

o Each cost about $500M

o Whole project cost $2B and 250,000 employees

o Most workers focused on a small piece and did not know the final goal

Conclusions

• Huge impact on world opinion
• Nuclear weapons made future wars seem catastrophically destructive
• It ended WWII and began a new era of warfare and politics