Controlling the Atomic Bomb - American History, 1493-1945

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The Association of Manhattan District Scientists

August 1945

View the Preliminary statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists in the resource

In 1945 the American air force unleashed the atomic bomb and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people in one stroke. This bomb – developed under the name “Manhattan Project” – had been worked on by thousands of people in the U.S., the majority of whom had no idea what they were working on. Whilst a select number of scientists, military men and politicians could see the whole picture, thousands of workers in their respective factories and offices did their job surrounded by massive security without knowing that they were creating the weapon that would spell a new form of warfare for the future. The Gilder Lehrman collection holds a number of fascinating documents that show the aftermath of the creation of the atomic bomb, focusing mainly on the efforts of the scientists involved to control the new technology in the correct way to ensure peace for the future. Featured here is the ‘Preliminary Statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists’.

Whilst the Manhattan Project had been conducted in top secrecy in the U.S., both the U.K. and Canada were partially involved in the process and had knowledge of their own on the topic, whilst Soviet spies had successfully leaked details of the project to the Soviet Union from the very beginning. Consequently, the impact of the bomb as well as the inner workings of it were known to a number of people before and after the attacks on Japan. To combat this spread of information, a number of proposals were put forward by the U.S. government to ensure their monopoly, and subsequent control, of the technology. The Bill eventually introduced – the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (the McMahon Act) – dealt with the production, control and management of nuclear technology and was the result of discussions and advice given by the Interim Committee, who worked during the war to advise on the use of the bomb and afterwards to advise on the use and control of atomic energy.

‘The Preliminary Statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists’ is a manifesto constructed by a selection of the Manhattan Project scientists in reaction to amendments proposed to the early draft of the Atomic Energy Act (then known as the May-Johnson Bill) that they disagreed with, namely the continued control of the military over the project and the secrecy provisions and punishments proposed. The manifesto outlines their sense of responsibility for the new technology and their stance on the proposed continued secrecy around the atomic science. They argue that if the secrecy continued then scientific research would be compromised and a dangerous precedent would be set for opposing countries to keep their work on atomic energy from each other. Consequently, a dangerous arms race would ensue, with uncertainty and unsatisfactory control over the development of atomic bombs at the forefront of the danger. They predicted that ‘we would live in a world of suspicion, fear and even panic, where the temptation of great initial advantage would be difficult for an aggressively-minded power to resist.’ Their protests were heard and the Atomic Energy Act reflected their arguments, with the control of atomic energy handed to civilians instead of politicians and military men and efforts made for the knowledge to be shared but controlled, though restrictions on information exchange were still in place. Unfortunately, these efforts were not successful and the atmosphere of the Cold War crept ever closer, as the development of atomic bombs by powerful countries created the exact world of suspicion, fear and panic that was predicted by the group of Manhattan Project scientists in 1945.