The a-Bomb: Planned, or a Reaction?
Joel Schleicher
Wool
US history 173
11/30/12
The United States practiced isolationism for many years before entering World War II, until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Government funded atomic weaponry research had begun not long before the attack, and this has led people to believe that the Manhattan Project, a descendent of the program, was a knee-jerk reaction to the bombing. According to writer Brenda Wilmoth Lerner in her article on the Manhattan Project for the Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, Roosevelt ordered, in December of 1941, that research was to begin regarding the plausibility of building an atomic weapon, just following the bombing of Pearl Harbor (246). Although misconceptions exist that the Manhattan Project was a direct response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was not, as shown by the initiation of early government funded atomic research; the beginning of atomic weapons research well before the attack; and the establishment of the Manhattan Project significantly post Pearl Harbor.
In order to stay uninvolved in future wars, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed the Neutrality Acts, a series of laws intended to aid in maintaining the United States’ neutral position, between the years of 1934 and 1939. These laws enacted multiple regulations, such as embargos against trading all armaments or materials for the construction of weapons for any and all parties of wars the United States were not involved with. Later, changes allowed for warring nations to purchase US manufactured weapons if and only if they paid in cash and transported the goods themselves. These policies, however, were ended by Congress following the sinking of the Reuben James on October 31st, 1941, the first American Navy ship sunk in World War II.
World War II began with the German Invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939. Two days after the invasion, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Two months prior
Wool
US history 173
11/30/12
The United States practiced isolationism for many years before entering World War II, until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Government funded atomic weaponry research had begun not long before the attack, and this has led people to believe that the Manhattan Project, a descendent of the program, was a knee-jerk reaction to the bombing. According to writer Brenda Wilmoth Lerner in her article on the Manhattan Project for the Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, Roosevelt ordered, in December of 1941, that research was to begin regarding the plausibility of building an atomic weapon, just following the bombing of Pearl Harbor (246). Although misconceptions exist that the Manhattan Project was a direct response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was not, as shown by the initiation of early government funded atomic research; the beginning of atomic weapons research well before the attack; and the establishment of the Manhattan Project significantly post Pearl Harbor.
In order to stay uninvolved in future wars, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed the Neutrality Acts, a series of laws intended to aid in maintaining the United States’ neutral position, between the years of 1934 and 1939. These laws enacted multiple regulations, such as embargos against trading all armaments or materials for the construction of weapons for any and all parties of wars the United States were not involved with. Later, changes allowed for warring nations to purchase US manufactured weapons if and only if they paid in cash and transported the goods themselves. These policies, however, were ended by Congress following the sinking of the Reuben James on October 31st, 1941, the first American Navy ship sunk in World War II.
World War II began with the German Invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939. Two days after the invasion, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Two months prior
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