Einstein did not expect that the letter he sent to the US president warning of the danger of Nazi Germany developing a nuclear bomb would lead to tragedy.
When he heard that the US had dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Albert Einstein, the famous German physicist, exclaimed, "Oh, poor me!"
In his 1950 book Out of My Later Years , he wrote, "If I had known that the Nazis would never build an atomic bomb, I would never have done it."
Einstein referred to a letter he sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, urging the activation of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.
Physicist Albert Einstein (left) and Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard. Photo: March Of Time
Scientists in Germany and Switzerland discovered nuclear fission in December 1938. The discovery quickly fueled international discussion among scientists about whether nuclear reactions could be used to develop new energy sources or weapons.
"It was clear to good physicists everywhere that this reaction had the potential to form the basis for the development of weapons of extraordinary destruction," wrote Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bombs .
Einstein was born into a Jewish family in Germany in 1879. In February 1933, while visiting the United States, Einstein decided not to return to Germany because the Nazi Party led by Hitler had come to power. He stayed in several countries before becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1940.
In 1939, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, a refugee in the United States, spoke to Einstein about his fears that Nazi Germany was developing an atomic bomb. Szilard wrote a letter to Roosevelt and persuaded Einstein to sign it, believing that he was the scientist most influential with the American president. The letter was also signed by two other Hungarian physicists, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner,
The letter warned that Germany might attempt to acquire enough uranium to create a bomb powerful enough to destroy a port. Einstein sent the letter through an intermediary in August 1939, and it reached the US president in October of that year. By then, Adolf Hitler had invaded Poland and World War II had begun.
Although the United States had not yet entered the war, Einstein's letter prompted President Roosevelt to convene the Advisory Committee on Uranium in October 1939. The following year, he approved the creation of the National Defense Research Committee, which was renamed the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941. These groups marked the beginning of the U.S. nuclear program.
A major turning point came in the summer of 1941, when British scientists outlined plans for building an atomic bomb. Vannevar Bush, head of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development, met with President Roosevelt in October 1941 to discuss the British report. The US president asked Bush to begin research and development of the atomic bomb and that he would seek to secure funding for its construction.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drew the United States into the war, making the quest for nuclear weapons more urgent. A month after the attack, Roosevelt officially approved the Manhattan Project, the secret American program to develop the world's first atomic bomb. The project cost $2.2 billion and employed 130,000 workers, not all of whom knew what they were building.
A major factor in the creation of the Manhattan Project was the fear that the Nazis would create an atomic bomb first. However, Germany's nuclear efforts did not go far.
By 1944, Germany was weakened and scientists in the United States and Britain were becoming increasingly concerned about the impact the American bomb was developing. Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who worked on the Manhattan Project, met with President Roosevelt in August 1944 to discuss concerns that the bomb might spark a nuclear arms race. He suggested that an international plan be developed to control nuclear weapons after the war.
When Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in September 1944, the two discussed whether the United States and Britain should tell the world they were developing an atomic bomb. In a memorandum of the meeting, the two leaders agreed to keep the bomb a secret.
In March 1945, Einstein sent a second letter to President Roosevelt at Szilard's urging. The Hungarian physicist, who worked on the Manhattan Project, was increasingly concerned about the impact of nuclear weapons on the world.
In the letter, Einstein wrote about Szilard's concerns about the lack of communication between the scientists working on the bomb and the government officials who would decide how to use it. He urged the president to meet with Szilard so the physicist could discuss his concerns further.
To ensure that the president did not miss the letter, Einstein sent a copy of it to the first lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. She scheduled a meeting between Szilard and the president for May 1945. But the meeting never took place, because on April 12, 1945, Mr. Roosevelt died of a stroke.
Hiroshima city devastated after the bombing on August 6, 1945. Photo: AP
In August 1945, after becoming President of the United States, Harry Truman ordered the US military to attack Japan with new weapons. Two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945, killing about 200,000 people. A few days after the bombing, Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II.
Einstein considered his first letter to President Roosevelt a "big mistake".
In fact, Einstein had only an indirect role in promoting the bomb, he was not directly involved in the development of the weapon. Einstein was not allowed to work on the Manhattan Project because he was considered a major security risk. He was both German and known as a left-wing political activist.
"I was well aware of the terrible danger to humanity if these experiments were successful. But the risk of Germany developing weapons first prompted me to do so. I saw no other solution, although I have always considered myself a pacifist," Einstein wrote in a Japanese magazine in 1952.
In a letter he wrote to a Japanese friend published in 2005, he said "I have always condemned the use of atomic bombs in Japan but could do nothing to stop that decision".
Thanh Tam (According to History, Insider, Counterpunch )
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