MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF WAR ATOMIC FISSION BOMBS I. PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENT The successful development of the Atomic Fission Bomb will provide the United States with a weapon of tremendous power which should be a decisive factor in winning the present war more quickly with a saving in American lives and treasure. If the United States continues to lead in the development of atomic energy weapons, its future will be much safer and the chances of preserving world peace greatly increased. L.R. Groves Major General, U.S. Army WAR DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON 26 June 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF WAR: Many of the scientists who have been working on 8-1 (reference to testing location) have expressed considerable concern about the future dangers of the development of atomic power. Some are fearful that no safe system of international control can be established. They, therefore, envisage the possibility of an armament race that may threaten civilization. One group of scientists, working in the Chicago Laboratories, urges that we should not make use of the bomb, so nearly completed, against any enemy country at this time. They feel that to do so might sacrifice our whole moral position and thus make it more difficult for us to be the leaders in proposing or enforcing any system of international control designed to make this tremendous force an influence towards the maintenance of world peace rather than an uncontrollable weapon of war. George L. Harrison (Advisor to the Secretary of War) Using the documents, answer a, b, and c. a. Briefly explain the point of view about the atomic bomb expressed by the first text excerpt. b. Briefly explain the point of view about the atomic bomb expressed by the second text excerpt. c. Briefly explain ONE event or idea from the period 1939–1945 that could be used to support or refute the views expressed in the documents. Your responses: a. b. c. “In the 1950s this America worried about itself, yet even its anxieties were products of abundance…. [T]he nation’s problems were no longer a matter of basic human needs, of food, shelter, and clothing. Now they were seen as qualitative, a question of learning to live decently amid luxury. While this discussion was carried on, there existed another America. In it dwelt somewhere between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 citizens of this land. They were poor. They still are. To be sure, the other America is not impoverished in the same sense as those poor nations where millions cling to hunger as a defense against starvation. This country has escaped such extremes. That does not change the fact that tens of millions of Americans are, at this very moment, maimed in body and spirit, existing at levels beneath those necessary for human decency. If these people are not starving, they are hungry, and sometimes fat with hunger, for that is what cheap foods do. They are without adequate housing and education and medical care. The Government has documented what this means to the bodies of the poor . . . . But even more basic, this poverty twists and deforms the spirit. The American poor are pessimistic and defeated, and they are victimized by mental suffering to a degree unknown in Suburbia.” —Michael Harrington, from The Other America, 1962 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Using the excerpts, answer a, b, and c. a Briefly explain the point of view about poverty in America expressed by the text excerpt. b Briefly explain the relationship between the chart data and the War on Poverty. c Briefly compare the War on Poverty of the 1960s to the New Deal of the 1930s. Your responses: A B C
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