Click2History - Einstein's Letter, DECISION TO BOMB, Chapter 7

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>EINSTEIN’S LETTER</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 7 - DECISION TO BOMB</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">By the end of July the bomb was ready to use. <a target="_blank" href="images/henry_stimson.gif"><b>Henry Stimson</b></a>, the Secretary of War, sent Truman an urgent <a target="_blank" href="images/message7.gif"><b>message</b></a>:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>The time schedule on Grove’s project</i></b> [i.e. the bomb] <b><i>is progressing so rapidly that it is now essential that statement for release by you</i></b> [the press release to be issued after the bomb was dropped] <b><i>be available not later than Wednesday, 1 August.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">The President, who was at the <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-dpl/hd-state/potsdam.htm" target="_blank"><b>Potsdam Conference</b></a> in Germany, responded in a <a target="_blank" href="images/handwritten_note.gif"><b>handwritten note</b></a> on the back of Stimson’s letter. It is believed to be the only publicly available document in which Truman gives permission to drop the bomb:</p> <center><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>Reply to your 41011<br> Suggestions approved<br> Release when ready<br> but not sooner than August 2.<br><br> HST</i></b></font></center> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">On the 24th of July, while <a target="_blank" href="images/at.gif"><b>at</b></a> the Potsdam Conference, <a target="_blank" href="images/truman_told.gif"><b>Truman told</b></a> Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, that America had a "new weapon of unusual destructive force." With seemingly little interest, Stalin told the president he hoped the United States would make “good use of it against the Japanese.” Truman believed he had given Stalin new information. He was wrong. Through <a href="http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/espionage.htm" target="_blank"><b>his spies</b></a>, Stalin had known about the nuclear-weapon project since 1941.</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/small/mb10.htm" target="_blank"><b>press release</b></a> was soon finalized - except for <a target="_blank" href="images/the_city.gif"><b>the city</b></a> where <a target="_blank" href="images/the_bomb.gif"><b>the bomb</b></a> ("L-11") would be dropped. That most important detail was decided last.</p> <p>It would be <a target="_blank" href="images/hiroshima.gif"><b>Hiroshima</b></a>.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="einsteins_letter_ch6.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="einsteins_letter_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="einsteins_letter_ch8.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>