Hes held appointments at the corridors of fun visiting dutch fund. O at the cardozo berkeley,ght at uc princeton, dartmouth and the university of pennsylvania. Hes received fellowships from the Macarthur Guggenheim sloan and Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the humanities. He was a visiting scholar at the in 2007, heer was inducted into the American Academy of arts and sciences. Please join me now in a warm welcome for professor martin sherwin. [applause] sherwin thank you. Is it working . Yeah . Good. Thank you, ruth. My mother wrote that in introduction. I hope you liked it. [laughter] prof. Sherwin it was more wholesome because my father didnt get a chance to edit it. Here toly glad to be speak about this topic. Subjectit is a kind of that needs to be reviewed again and again and again. Because, unfortunately, the Nuclear Issue is still with us and it looks like it will be with us for a very long time. Ive had a chance to chat with a few of you. That those ive chatted with have a particular interest in all broad aspects of the Manhattan Project. Give,alk im going to however, focuses on the subtitle , visions of the nuclear future. That is it focuses on the people whatere thinking about Nuclear Weapons would do not only for the war in the but for the postwar period. That is one of the themes of this talk tonight. Nuclear weapons were from the very beginning not just a weapon that was thought about with respect to the war, but the implications of such a powerful transformative weapon was automatically folded into ideas about what effect it would have on the postwar period. Many of you no doubt are interested in the views of people like oppenheimer and and hanz beta and many other participants in the project. I would like to suggest to you that if you want to follow up future andhe nuclear the voices that are the subject of tonights discussion, that you go to Manhattan Projectvoices. Org. The Atomic Heritage Foundation has a wonderful website with lots of interviews. Some of which i did. Lots of other interviews that withdone by other people the major figures in the Manhattan Project. Sayink its not too much to the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki structured the future of not only the atomic age and how the atomic tom was thus bomb the atomic bomb was seen and valued but also the future of civilization. We are talking about a very big subject here. Effect has changed over time in terms of our views of the major issues. 70 years ago, there was a certain consensus on a view. Morears ago, there was diverse the abuse about the issues. Are many, many, many, many views. One of the interesting things is that the atomic bomb, although it was not predicted 100 years before it was developed, the idea that science would conditionthe human was something that people thought about even in the 19th century. One of my favorite quotes with respect to that issue was by Henry Brooke Adams in a book he wrote in 1862 where he says the following. And has mounted science now run away with. I firmly believe that before many centuries more, science will be the master of men. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control. Theday, science may have existence of mankind in its power. And the human race commit suicide by blowing up the world. That is 1862. The beginning of the nuclear age when thatt possibility emerged. No matter how devastating, no matter how terrible previous weapons were, there is that compareshing to the transformative effective Nuclear Weapons. Affect of Nuclear Weapons. Now, im going to talk about the period from the discovery of Nuclear Fission to the postwar period. Im hoping we will be able to expand that discussion beyond to presentday. , iveanize the talk divided it into four pieces. Ive divided the pie in quarters. The first section of the talk is about possibilities. N Nuclear Weapons were when fission was first discovered and its implications were thought about. What were the possibilities . Tot runs from about 1939 1941 to the time in which the United States entered the war. After pearl harbor. The Second Period is from pearl harbor to about the time president roosevelt died in april 1945 and president truman took office. That was a time of panic. Especially at the beginning of that period. And then about the time that truman comes in, we start to talk about promotion. That is, how is the bomb going to be promoted to the world . How is it going to be revealed . Are we going to have just a test . Are we going to use it on the japanese . Re not going to use it at all are we not going to use it at all . These were the issues that were discussed in visions of the nuclear future. Peally come in the postwar riod, we are talking about soul eminence. The United States the sole possessor of this credible force. This incredible force. Lets start at the beginning with the discovery of Nuclear Fission. I may be revealing something that most of you know. Weapons Nuclear Fission was discovered in germany. It was discovered by two chemists. To and fritz. They were doing a series of experience where they were bombarding the element the atoms of elements in the pure attic table with neutrons to see what could happen. ,hey got to the 92nd element uranium, and they bombarded with a neutron and the most amazing thing happened. Uraniumed up not with but with barium. Atomic number 56. And, some leftover elements of uranium. So, they did it again and the same thing happened. They couldnt figure out what in the world had occurred. They sent their experiment to a jewishcolleague who was and had to leave germany. Lisa was a physicist. Nephew, another physicist, figured out what happened. In uranium atom had split two. When they waived the two elements, the barium and what was left over of the uranium, it weighed less than the uranium atom. How many of you are watching the einstein series on television . Ok. Equals mcared squared. When energy is converted into matter or matter is converted energy can go back and forth. Released inhad been this bombardment. It is gazillion of these atoms time,be split at the same obviously, an unprecedented amount of energy would be released. Scary. S and it was fantastic. In a sense, it transformed the of what cantanding happen in the universe. This was in line with a lot of other transformations that had occurred in the 20th century. We mentioned einsteins theory of relativity and his special theory of relativity. Bohrs conception of the atom and heisenbergs uncertainty principle. Classical physics had been completely transformed by these new insights. And now, this. It was an amazing event with all kinds of not clearly understood possibilities. One being perhaps we could end up with a weapon. You all know about einsteins. Etter to roosevelt friend,s head to his linus, i made one great mistake in my life when i signed the letter to president roosevelt recommending the atomic bomb be made. But, there was some justification. The danger that the germans might get them. Possibility that led to the panic. That letter that einstein wrote to roosevelt was not a letter that said we have to hurry up and make atomic bombs because the germans were ahead of us and they will build atomic bombs. It was much more cautious. It was written by leo, who worked with einstein in berlin years before. Conceivablete it is though much less than fission as a source of power that extremely bombs of a new type powerful bombs of a new type might be constructed. A single bomb of this type carried by boat and exploded in port might very well destroy the whole port together with the surrounding territory. That, letter had ended at it might not have had the effect that it had, which was for roosevelt to say give it to an aid named paul watson and say look into this. But, the last part of the letter was critical. Wrote thatd einstein germany has stopped the sale of czechoslovakian mines, which he has taken over. You can understand that the framework for what would eventually become the Manhattan Project, even in this earliest stage, when nobody knew it was even possible weapon could come out of this discovery but the somethingwas this is really important that can make a difference. Roosevelt well, roosevelt initiated activity. The activity in the United States was basically committees of scientists and some military studying not only the discovery,s of this which, by the way, was published in februaryagazine 1939. The experiment had taken place in december 1938. A couple months later, it is published in nature magazine, which was the premier Science Magazine in the englishspeaking world. So, every physicist around the kneww about this about this and had the same thoughts put into this letter that einstein wrote to roosevelt. Committees in the United States between the spring of 1939, when summer of the letter was sent to roosevelt could not figure a way that it was possible to build a Nuclear Weapon. They looked into all sorts of possibilities. In effect, got nowhere. However, there were two german refugees to refugees from germany, couple of jewish scientists. Nephew, ands lisas rudolph. Theywere in britain and were not allowed to work on the most secret project the british were involved with. Anybody know what that was . Radar. And informed audience. An informed audience. [laughter] prof. Sherwin it was radar. Decided,diately welcome what do we know best well, what do we know best . Nuclear fission. Lets work on that and see it we can figure out if it might be possible how a Nuclear Weapon could be built. Withouttogether, alone a lot of advice from a lot of people, just pouring into the problem using their imaginations , they figured it out. Thatcame to the conclusion if you could collect enough an isotope of , less thannium 238 1 of uranium if there wasnt some way to extract uranium if there was some way to extract uranium 235, it would be possible to build a Nuclear Weapon in two years. Discovery of Nuclear Weapons hadf Nuclear Fission december 1938, published in february 1939. That was more than two years ago. The discovery was made in germany. Conclusion inhe britain two years later that a bomb could be built in two years. Oh, my god. Are the germans well on their way to building an atomic bomb . Possible. At least the thought. The vision of the Manhattan Project. The germans are ahead of us. They must be ahead of us. They have a lot of good physicists who remained in germany. British, who happen agreement with United States to Exchange Information with each other that might be helpful for report effort send the to the United States. That report arrives sometime in the spring of 1941. That was before pearl harbor. And it has a transformative in theon the activities United States. Been over bush vanover bush, who leads the office that oversees all the wartime atomic , gets this memo to henrys a memo simpson come the secretary of war, which also goes to president roosevelt. The reason goes to the secretary of war is the bomb project is gone to be under the secretary of war. Certain. Is ,f such an explosive were made it would be thousands of times more powerful than existing explosives and its use might be determining. Use might be determining. That is the theme of the Manhattan Project. , theis the engine intellectual engine, so to speak , for the vision that drives the project at warp speed. Roosevelt approves the Manhattan Project on december 6, 1941. Very interesting date. The 6, 1941. December 7, at 8 00 and the morning, pearl harbor time, pearl harbor is bombed. The Manhattan Project is underway and the war is underway virtually at the same time. Be remember, the germans may two years ahead of us. Groves is appointed , heun the Manhattan Project is assured that he has the highest priority for material, he has the highest priority for recruiting scientists, he has the highest priority for everything because its use might be determining. Projectthe manhattan toes as fast as possible completion. Now, most studies of the atomic the or the atomic bombing, use of what came out of the Manhattan Project, begin on april 12 1945 when harry truman became president. Thats a big mistake. Because, Franklin Delano roosevelts role is absolutely critical in understanding the attitudes towards atomic weapons that truman inherited when he became president. What happens after pearl harbor in the war . What is the environment in which the Manhattan Project develops . Harbor,hs after pearl re is the great battle navy battles of midway and carl c. The United States defeats the midway andeet at carl sea. That stops the advance of the Japanese Forces towards our country. And it begins the process of turning the war in the pacific difficult, bloody process of Island Hopping but one island battle after another begins. That is just six months after pearl harbor. That is june of 1942. Thats the war in the pacific. It has turned around within six months. The war in europe takes longer. Septemberthat begins of 1939. The United States comes in right after pearl harbor. Stalingrad in the 19421943 stops the german advance and begins the process of turning the war around and moving the soviet forces towards germany. 1943, whichpring of opensctly when los alamos in april of 1943, the war is moving in the direction of victory for the United States. Churchill and roosevelt and the American Military and the British Military believe we are going to win the war. If the British Public and the American Public continue to t,pport this difficult my bloody, awful, global war. We are going to win it. Germans get the bomb first. If the germans get the bomb first, all bets are off. War the weapon could be determining. Roosevelt believed that. Churchill believed that. Military who were about nuclear who were informed and there were very few. It was highly secret. Whoever was informed believes if we got the bomb first, or if no one could build the bomb, we are going to win the war, but if the germans get it first, all bets all bets are off to an assigned off. Course,scientists, of were behind this belief. The spring of 1943, only months after los up, the bomb is seen as this whatever you want to call it and magic bullet. A magic bullet. Thein itself, could win war. This was not a fantastic, offthewall idea. We talked about radar a few moments ago and how important that was to the british war effort. It was the most topsecret fact, i thinkin virtually all historians agree it was the british superiority with its radar that allowed the british to win the battle of britain in the skies over great totain, and turned hitler attack the soviet union, rather than finish off the british, which he couldnt do without air superiority. So, in the period between 1943 and 1944, the Manhattan Project is going at great speed, and press progress is being made. Now, there are two types of bombs that are being developed. The one out of oak ridge, where uranium 235 is being isolated bomburanium 238, and that if we get enough uranium 235 is going to be a very simple device. They called it a guntype bond. Bomb. Thin man was another name. In the front of the bomb there 235 arget of uranium not so much that it would go critical. It was packed loosely enough so it was just sitting there. In the back of the bomb there was a plug or a bullet of uranium 235. Dropped,the bomb was the idea was reach a certain altitude, the ideal altitude for it to explode the bullet in the back would be triggered, fired into the target, and it would blow up. In fact, that was the hiroshima bomb. That was never tested. That bomb they had total confidence that it would work unless somebody forgot to put two particular wires together, or Something Like that, which could always happen, but the theory of it was quite clear. At lost of the work alamos and the next at los alamos isangst at los related to the other type of bomb, thep, plutonium bomb. And peierls said it might be possible to make a plutonium bomb, and plutonium, a manmade element, was easier to hurt his than the uranium uranium 235. The they decided to put some plutonium on the front of the bomb, on the back of the bomb, and they discover they calculated they figured out there was no way the plutonium bullet could be fired fast enough into the plutonium target to make it go up. Active so so much more active than uranium 235 that no matter how fast you fired that bullet, by the time it got halfway, it would start to explode, but it would really sizzle because you wouldnt get le, because you would not get the full effect. So we have this investment, so to speak, in plutonium. How are we going to make it work . They came up with this idea of packingn device the plutonium in, lets say, a andefruitsized ball, designing explosives that were all around the plutonium ball that would go off at once. And when those explosives it was moren or less a square bomb with the plutonium sitt