Existing comment:
Manhattan Project scientists' petition to President Truman
July 17, 1945
By mid-1945, following the Allied victory over Germany, some Manhattan Project scientists were advocating an international demonstration of the atomic bomb instead of using it against Japan. In the wake of the Trinity test, Leo Szilard, who had drafted Einstein's 1939 letter to Roosevelt, circulated a petition urging President Harry S. Truman not to authorize its use in combat unless Japan were publicly informed of the terms of surrender and given the opportunity to accept. As many as 150 signed various drafts of the petition. Military and political leaders apparently never forwarded them to the president. |