Why We Made the Bomb

Why did we make the Bomb? The question is, of course, naïve. There was no single reason. Nor could there be a one-word answer, such as fear or deterrence, or a two-word answer, for example, unjustified fear, that would be informative. The simplest and most frequent answer seems to be “as a deterrent or counter-weapon to the threatened Nazi bomb.” And this was the most common reply in the 1940s, too. The impression was widespread that the Allied forces were in a race with the Germ...