The Manhattan Project
The United States in late 1941 established a secret program, which came to be known as the Manhattan Project, to develop an atomic bomb, a powerful explosive nuclear weapon. The aim of the project, directed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was to build an atom bomb before Germany did.
Featured Documents
1942 Compton's Memon on plant site selection- 1943 Oppenheimer's Invitation to Fermi
- 1943 Los Alamos Conference Summary
- 1943 Roosevelt's letter to Groves
- 1943 Oppenheimer's Travel Guidance
- 1943 The Quebec Agreement
- 1944 The Roosevelt-Churchill "Tube Alloys" Deal
- 1944 Memorandum on Test of Implosion Gadget
- 1944 Memorandum on Port Chicago Disaster
- 1944 Niels Bohr's Memorandum to President Roosevelt
- 1944 Bush's Memo of Conference
- 1944 Memorandum to Dr. Conant, September 23
- 1944 Memorandum to Dr. Conant, September 25
- 1945 Interim Committee's Report
- 1945 Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting
- Summary of Target Committee Meetings
- 1945 Memorandum on the use of S-1 Bomb by Ralph Bard, Undersecretary of the Navy
- 1945 Petition Request from Leo Szilard to Edward Teller
- 1945 Edward Teller's Reply to Szilard's Request
- 1945 A Petition to the President of the United States (July 3)
- 1945 A Petition to the President of the United States (July 17)
- 1945 Report of the Committee on Political and Social Problems (The Franck
Report)
- 1945 Einstein's Second Letter to President Roosevelt
- 1945 Poll Results of the Chicago Scientists
- July 25, 1945 (Bombing Order) General Handy, memorandum for General Spaatz
- 1945 Oppenheimer's Farewell Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists
1945 Atomic Energy for Military Purposes (The Smyth Report)
- Los Alamos: Beginning Of An Era 1943 -1945
The Oppenheimer Years (LOS ALAMOS SCIENCE Winter/Spring 1983) (1.1 Mb PDF)- The British Mission (LOS ALAMOS SCIENCE Winter/Spring 1983) (400k PDF)
After Otto Hahn's and Fritz Strassman's discovery [nuclear fission] it became evident that sooner or later some country would make an atom bomb