On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay flew over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb ever known to this world. In result of the immense power withheld in the twenty thousand tons of TNT Hiroshima went up in flames. For the United States government the project was a success. The Atomic Bomb ended World War II, but began serious controversies concerning its power and destructive potential. In this paper the question of what led to the development and use of the A-bomb will be answered.
             The Manhattan Project became the code name for the Top Secret US effort to produce an atomic bomb during WWII. It was named after the Manhattan engineer district of the US army, because a large amount of the early research for the bomb was done in New York City. According to The first idea for the bomb came from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 by German Scientists, when many US scientists became fearful with the idea that Hitler might attempt to build a fission bomb. (The Manhattan Project, P. 24) Upset by the idea that Germany would be farther advanced than the US, in the building of a bomb, Leo Szilard wrote a letter to Albert Einstein. The idea was for Einstein to use his influences in Science to write a letter to the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the letter Einstein pleaded for the support to further the research on the power of nuclear fission. The letters were completely successful, and President Roosevelt granted funding to begin the Manhattan Project. (Day of the Bomb, Pgs. 26-30)
             On October 21, 1939, just 10 days after FDR received the letter about the idea for the A-bomb, the first advisory meeting of the Briggs Uranium Committee was held in Washington DC upon President Roosevelt's order. But once the meeting took place the interest in the idea slowly diminished in the US. (URL, The Manhattan Project. P.2) So most of the furth...