On April 25th, 1945, President Harry S. Truman was briefed on the full details of the Manhattan Project.
The Manhattan Project consisted of scientists attempting to create the first atomic bomb. This information would give Truman a momentous decision on whether or not to use the world's first weapon of mass destruction.
In 1939, America began the secret development of the atomic bomb with the support of then President Franklin D Roosevelt. This project was so secret that Roosevelt did not inform his vice president, Truman, that it existed.
On April 12th, 1945, when President Roosevelt died, Truman was immediately sworn in. A short time after being sworn in, Truman was informed by Roosevelt's Secretary of War, Harry Stimson of a new and terrible weapon being developed by physicists in New Mexico.
In a diary post from that night, Truman would write that he had been informed that the U.S. was perfecting an explosive great enough to destroy the whole world.
On April 25th, 1945, Truman received a full briefing from Stimson and the army general in charge of the project, Leslie Groves. They gave him a file full of reports and details on the Manhattan Project. They also discussed if they should make allies aware of the project and if so, which allies should be told.
Truman authorized the continuation of the project and agreed to form an interim committee that would advise the president on using the weapon.
On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb exploded on Hiroshima. The second bomb was dropped on August 9th, on Nagasaki. To this day, Truman remains the only world leader to have ever used an atomic bomb against an enemy.
By - SC
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