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This letter was very interesting to me for a variety of reasons. First of all, it
provides a contradiction to the letter from Philip B. Fleming, which is important if we are
to see the two sides of the beginning of the atomic age. The atomic age is the aftermath
of Hiroshima.
Another thing about the letter is how it has a surprising amount of ethnocentric
language. The Department is bashing Russian intelligence and ingenuity, while at the
same time claiming that the United States produces the greatest machines on the world.
It is a unique look into the casual disregard of the ability of the Soviet Union to compete
on an international scale.
Another little thing is that this is a letter that, in its day, would have been nigh
impossible to read (unless you were a high-ranking government official). This gives it a
certain amount of intrigue and feeling of importance. Maybe that’s just for personal
reasons.
Why I Chose
Letter to the President from Philip B. Fleming concerning peacetime development of Atomic Energy
This letter provides a strict juxtaposition to the previous letter. That is the main
logical. Perhaps if the president had followed General Fleming’s advice, the Cold War
could have been avoided (perhaps not). The wisdom in trying to placate the Russian bear
cannot be denied either way (unfortunately, our government has long held a policy that
The main flaw in the logic is another reason why I chose to use this document as a
Primary Source (for the sake of irony). Fleming believes that it is only a matter of time
until the Soviet Union obtains nuclear secrets and tells the President that they should give
the Soviets our atomic secrets, making the United States, Great Britain and the USSR the
only nations to hold nuclear secrets. He believes that because the three largest world
powers hold secrets of the atom, the rest of the world will be held off. Here’s the
inherent flaw: how could we keep nuclear secrets from China, Japan, and Germany
forever when we couldn’t with Russia? If Fleming’s goals had been realized, history
jingoistic stance much like in the letter from the Dept. of Agriculture.
Why I Chose
[The] White House press release announcing the bombing of Hiroshima
This was the first document I sought out and for obvious enough reasons. Within
this press release, one finds the official stance of the White House (in 1945) on the
atomic bomb. The stance of the Truman Administration is that the bomb was developed
out of necessity, as an “if we hadn’t, someone else would have” type of argument,
making the bomb not something which was developed with the sole intent of killing vast
The document also explained what exactly had happened to end the war, and
began to press upon the public the tremendous power that had been unleashed. The
carefully chosen language used within sidesteps mentioning the vast amount of civilians
Another function of the letter, and a reason why I chose it, is it gives a vague
future outlook for peacetime use of atomic energy. This could be used to compare what
This letter from the renowned scientist Albert Einstein to President FDR may be
the reason that the government provided financial backing to likes of Szilard and Fermi.
It suggests that FDR should pull some strings and make is so that the aforementioned
scientists can work away with some assistance and without worrying about funds. The
successful development of a way to harness atomic energy could (and did) set America
up as “the” world leader. It is essential to include this letter if we are to understand the
This document seems to me essential. When I first saw that I could use the actual
text (translated anyway) I knew that I had to have it. It is a very factual account of what
was to happen. It states simply that the United States is in possession of a hell of a bomb,
and it may or may not be used on any given city. To think that someone in Nagasaki
might have read it only hours before the second atomic bomb dropped is mind-boggling
to me.