Source: Einstein Oppenheimer, Wikimedia

In the following section, you will read a primary source document on the opinion of many key members of the scientific community who developed the atomic bomb on whether or not it should be used. A group of scientists, led by Leo Szilard, one of the chief brains behind the bomb, sent a petition to the president in April 1945.

Six years earlier, many of these same people (including Albert Einstein, who did not sign the petition because it was classified), urged President Roosevelt to develop the atomic bomb particularly because Germany was working on it. Now, with it complete, they sent the following letter to President Truman.

Read the petition and answer the questions that follow in your notes. Make specific reference to the text in your answer.

1. What is the primary opinion of the scientists? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

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   It is important that the United States carefully consider how it uses the atomic bomb because with its use it will be "opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale." In their opinion, unless conditions are met, the use of the atomic bomb "on Japan could not be justified."
2. Under what circumstances could the dropping of the atomic bomb be used? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

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   The United States should use the atomic bomb if there is a fear that the United States may be attacked by an atomic bomb, "and that her only defense may very well be an effective method of warfare." Additionally, the atomic bomb should be used to bring the war to a quick and successful end.
3. If the scientists had doubts about the use of the atom bomb, why did they work on it? What had changed in the war by the time they sent the letter? Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

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   At the beginning of the war, the scientists feared that Germany might develop the bomb and the U.S.' "only defense might lie in a counterattack by the same means." In other words, the Allies needed a bomb to prevent an attack from a Nazi bomb. However, by the time the petition had been sent, Germany had surrendered and the U.S. no longer faced a threat of nuclear attack. (Very few people, including those scientists, realized that Japan actually had a small nuclear weapons program, but it never got far and certainly she posed no nuclear threat to the U.S. Japan still does not possess a nuclear weapon.)