"This weapon [the atomic bomb] has added an additional responsibility—or, better, an additional incentive—to find a sound basis for lasting peace. It provides an overwhelming inducement for the avoidance of war. It emphasizes the crisis we face in international matters and strengthens the conviction that adequate safeguards for peace must be found." -- Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, from his opening address (7 Nov 1945) of Town Hall’s annual lecture series.
Groves led the Army Corps of Engineers' Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bombs dropped 80 years ago this month on August 6 and August 9, 1945, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, killing thousands but bringing a swift end to World War II. Since Groves spoke, the proliferation of nuclear weapons continued and numerous wars using convention weapons were fought, and are being fought to this day.
(photo: Bettman Archives)
Mom and dad worked on the Manhattan Project. My mom was told to make ten copies of the first bomb dropped on Japan. She made 11, and pocketed one. Turned out a Russian spy was in the office next to dad's. A few years later with three babies and the anti commie craze, the FBI shows up and rips the house apart and wants to know what my dad knew about the spy. Cut open mattresses, knocked out plaster walls. The works. They find the film! But after a week or so of tension, the film is returned as it has been playing for years at the movie theater. I of course had the film stolen out of my locker in High School...
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