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The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc. "Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project" |
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Manhattan Project History
Early Government Support
National Defense Research Committee
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Vannevar Bush - President of Carnegie Institution - Director; Frank Jewett - President of Bell Telephone Laboratories and the National Academy of Sciences; James B. Conant - President of Harvard; Richard Tolman - Theoretical Physicist from Caltech; and Karl Compton - President of M.I.T. |
June 1940
| "It was during the period of the 'phony war'. We were agreed that the war was bound to break out into an intense struggle, that America was sure to get into it in one way or another sooner or later, that it would be a highly technical struggle, that we were by no means prepared in this regard, and finally and most importantly, that the military system as it existed, would never fully produce the new instrumentalities which we would certainly need". - Vannevar Bush; President - Carnegie Institution; 1940 |
| Shortly after World War II began with
the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Vannevar Bush,
president of the Carnegie Foundation, became convinced of the need for
the government to marshal the forces of science for a war that would
inevitably involve the United States.
With the imminent fall of France undoubtedly on Roosevelt's mind, it only took a short time for Bush to obtain the President's approval for the establishment of a national science organization. In June of 1940, the National Defense Research Committee, with Bush as its head, reorganized the Uranium Committee into a scientific body and eliminated military membership. Not dependent on the military for funds, as the Uranium Committee had been, the National Defense Research Committee had more influence and more direct access to money for nuclear research. In the interest of national security, Bush barred foreign-born scientists from committee membership and blocked the further publication of articles on uranium research. In addition, funding for continued research into uranium isotope separation and chain reactions was approved for the remainder of 1940.
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