The American Atomic Bomb, Atomic Energy Commission, and McCarthyism (10/8)

The era of the atomic bomb can be characterized by much mistrust. Americans believed that the Germans would make an atomic bomb first. Americans felt like the Communists were invading every part of the United States. We thought that our government’s top-secret agencies were full of spies. In light of these fears, officials in the United States made sure we were as strong and powerful a country that we said we were.

Mistrust and suspicion of other countries’ weapon arsenals and political tactics were surely driving factors behind the creation of the atomic bomb. For example, one of the questions in American physicists minds was “Could the Germans have built an atomic bomb?” Discussions at Farm Hall gave us insight into what the leading physicists in Germany were thinking. These discussions are very frank and are so valuable because they were recorded without the subjects knowing. Oddly, but very much with a nationalist fervor, the Germans thought that they were ahead of the Americans in their development of an atomic bomb. It is the tendency of every country, however, to think that it is the best at everything.

However, no one truly knew how evolved the Germans bomb project was. No matter if it was completed or far from working, the potential of a rival obtaining the technology before the US was frightening. Everyone was caught up in war fever, including Albert Einstein, a pacifist who lent his name to the Manhattan Project in hopes to build the atomic bomb. It is easy to follow our emotions and forget the reasons behind them and the effects of them. Instead, we just get caught up, not taking even a second to stop and think. This is a large part of what happened with the atomic bomb. The scientists seem to justify their actions as they’re going along, instead of first trying to figure out why they want to or should build an atomic bomb.

I was very intrigued by this concept of mistrust, which I felt permeated all parts of American life during this time. With McCarthyism, the driving force of mistrust behind everything became even more apparent. It certainly motivated scientists to create and use a destructive atomic bomb, the likes of which the world had never seen. The arms race was thus sparked. This suspicion affected the lives of regular people just as much. After reading, I called my dad and asked him questions concerning the “A-bomb,” as he calls it. He was born in 1952 after the development of the atomic bomb and through the conflicts of the Cold War. He is still alive in 2007 amongst current nuclear issues. With his responses, it is easy to see how even ordinary Americans were in a state of fear and doubt. He was truly afraid of nuclear disaster. When he was in grade school, the school conducted fire, air raid, and nuclear drills on a daily basis. They hid under school desks, waiting for the signal to move to the closest fallout shelter. This was more important after the launch of Sputnik by the Russians when he as well as others believed nuclear weapons could be launched from space. Listening to my dad, it is so clear that he was scared to death as a child. This fear was so deeply instilled that my dad, to this day, still believes that we were correct in using the atomic bomb against the Japanese and promotes the development of nuclear arms. In his words, “We have to maintain it [nuclear weapons], of course, because we surely can’t predict the future, or what knucklehead country might attack us, even thought we never mention this when dealing with other nations.” This type of thinking fueled the creation of the atomic bomb and is pertinent in nuclear issues in the present.