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The Manhattan Project was formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the
Germans. The Army appointed General Leslie Groves, the engineer responsible for
building the Pentagon, to head the effort. At first, the research took place at
several university laboratories. Soon after Enrico Fermi (see
December 1942
) achieved a sustainable nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago,
the Manhattan Project built a top-secret complex of nuclear production and
research facilities across the country, employing 300,000 workers. The
Manhattan District of the Army Corps of Engineers built production facilities
and towns for workers and scientists in Tennessee, Washington, and New Mexico
and funded research in university laboratories from Columbia, New York, to
Berkeley, California. Secrecy was so complete that the hundreds of thousands of
employees didn't know what they were working on until they heard about the
bombing of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
On August 12, 1945, President Truman released the Smyth Report to the American
public. The report contained information on the Manhattan Project, without
revealing any atomic secrets. The American public was astounded to learn of a
top-secret operation with the payroll, facilities, and labor force comparable
in size to the American automobile industry
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