Manhattan Project essays

Manhattan Project essays "Nor do I take into account a danger of starting a chain reaction of a scope great enough to destroy part or all of the planet ... But it is not necessary to imagine the earth being destroyed like a nova by a stellar explosion to understand vividly the growing scope of atomic war and to recognize that unless another war is prevented it is likely to bring destruction on a scale never before held possible, and even now hardly conceived, and that little civilization would survive it." Albert Einstein Since the beginning of time men have found cause to go to war with one another. War has built nations into great powers while bringing others to great ruin. Because of the threat of war, and the possibility of being conquered, countries put great importance on the strength of their military. In an attempt to gain the edge against their enemies they constantly try to have the most effective weapons so they can inflict the most possible damage on the opponent while minimizing their own damage sustained. New weapons have revolutionized the state of warfare throughout history, and caused great concern. For example, there was widespread concern with the advent of the crossbow in the Middle Ages; an untrained peasant was now able to kill a knight who had been trained in the art of warfare his entire life. The crossbow changed the way battles had to be fought. There have been many new weapons of war that have been so influential that they have changed the way wars were fought. Ho wever, no weapon in history has been as influential as the nuclear bomb developed by the United States in 1945. While other revolutionary new weapons might turn the tide of battle and may even cause entire countries to be defeated, if two countries ever became involved in a full scale nuclear war, the world would end as we know it. In 1939 the world was on the brink of war. Germanys war machine was on the move and its best and brightest scien...