Physicists Predict a Nuclear Arms Race, 1945

Physicists predict a nuclear arms race, 1945

Preliminary statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists, August 1945. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

This declaration of concern, written after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, offers insight into the Manhattan Project, an atomic development program led by the United States. The “Preliminary Statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists” emphasizes the need to control atomic weaponry and acknowledge the consequences of its use. The scientists warn of the havoc that nuclear weapons could wreak if not handled with extreme care and consideration. They also stressed their “very special responsibility to the people of America ... because of our special awareness of the possibilities of atomic energy for the advance of our civilization or its utter destruction.”

A heavily edited draft of the statement was found among the photographs and personal accounts of Mildred Goldberg, a Manhattan Project secretary. Goldberg unknowingly became a key contributor to the development of the atomic bomb as she typed out and organized the scientists’ notes. She described a pleasant work environment and expressed glowing admiration of the men she worked for—including Irving Kaplan, Francis Bonner, Andre J. De Bethune, William Nierenberg, and Howard Levi. This statement’s significance weighs even more heavily when one considers that this warning was written during a time when policies controlling the development of atomic energy were in their infancy.

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Excerpt

We have been made strongly aware of the dangers inherent in the mishandling of this tremendous force by the peoples of the world. We have seen in the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that one crude, pioneering atomic bomb is sufficient to destroy a city of medium size. It is certain that further development will result in bombs of vastly greater destructive potential. The Pearl Harbor attack which destroyed most of Pacific Fleet may be dwarfed in a future war by a disaster in which as much as a quarter of our population and the major part of our industry will suddenly disappear. This may even be a conservative estimate of the damage that will occur before we are in a position to retaliate, if retaliation be any longer possible. It will be a small consolation to have the largest supply of the world’s best bombs; it may be too late to use them. It is possible that we may not even know who our attackers are.

Harry S. Truman responds to McCarthy, 1950

Harry S. Truman to Dean Acheson, March 31, 1950. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

In February 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged in a speech in West Virginia that more than 200 staff members at the Department of State were known to be members of the Communist Party. During Harry Truman’s press conference on March 30, the President characterized McCarthy’s behavior as a Republican attempt to “sabotage the bipartisan foreign policy” and McCarthy as “the best asset that the Kremlin can have.” A transcript of that press conference is available at the American Presidency Project.

In this personal letter to Secretary of State Dean Acheson written the following day, Truman first sent his best wishes for Acheson’s daughter Mary, who was recovering from tuberculosis. Truman concluded the letter with a condemnation of McCarthy and Senator Kenneth Wherry, the Republican leader in the Senate: “I think we have these ‘animals’ on the run. Privately, I refer to McCarthy as a pathological liar, and Wherry as the block-headed undertaker from Nebraska. Of course, we can’t do that publicly, but there’s no doubt that’s exactly what they are.” For Truman, Acheson was a loyal and vital member of the government and McCarthy was merely a partisan bully exploiting Cold War fears. McCarthy’s rampant accusations of disloyalty and communist sympathies continued until his attempt to discredit the US Army backfired. In 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy.

Don’t Buy a Ford Ever Again, ca. 1960

“Don’t Buy A Ford Ever Again” broadside, ca. 1960. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

New Orleans in 1960 was sharply divided over the practice of segregation. The schools were ordered to desegregate, which angered many white people. Members of the Citizens’ Council of Greater New Orleans believed that large companies such as the Ford Motor Company supported efforts to bring about integration in the United States. To influence the policies of such businesses, the Citizens’ Council organized boycotts of the companies’ products. This poster calls on “all white citizens” to stop buying Ford cars and trucks in order to “dry up at least one source of the money that is being used to destroy our Southern way of life.”

Excerpt

NOTICE!

TO ALL WHITE CITIZENS
GREETINGS:

STOP

Buying FORD CARS and TRUCKS
and other Ford Products

For years and years a considerable portion of the profits from the sale of Ford cars, trucks, and other Ford products have been funneled into tax free foundations. MILLIONS and MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars of Ford profits have been distributed to integration and civil rights organizations to fight the white people of the SOUTH, by forcing them to associate with negroes.

It is time to dry up at least one source of the money that is being used to destroy our Southern way of life.

DON’T BUY A FORD
EVER AGAIN

For additional copies of this circular, write
CITIZENS’ COUNCIL OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS, INC.
309 Delta Building New Orleans Louisiana 70112

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961

President John F. Kennedy giving his inaugural address, January 20, 1961 (Army Signal Corps photograph, courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum)

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the thirty-fifth President of the United States. His short, fourteen-minute inaugural address is best remembered for a single line: “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” This call to public service resonated with what JFK called the “new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.” It was virtually the only part of the address to address solely domestic matters and initiatives. The balance of the speech places the United States at the center of worldwide action in facing the challenges of the Cold War in particular, in strong declarative sentences and emotional appeals:

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Excerpts

John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, )

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge—and more.

. . . to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war.

So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. . . .

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. . . .

Robert Kennedy on civil rights, 1963

Robert F. Kennedy’s Report to President Kennedy on civil rights, January 24, 1963. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

At the end of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to compile a report on the Civil Rights enforcement activities of the Justice Department over the previous year. In this report, submitted on January 24, 1963, Robert Kennedy notes “progress” overall, but reminds the President that difficult race problems remain “not only in the South ... but throughout the country.”

Though the year was marked by the deadly riots at the University of Mississippi over the admittance of a black student, Kennedy maintains a sense of optimism and hope for the future. He calls 1962 “a year of great progress in civil rights, in large measure because of the responsibility and respect for law displayed by the great majority of the citizens of the South.” He does not deny, however, that many difficult problems remain, and he cites the disregard of voting rights and regulations in some southern states as a continuing problem desperately in need of reform.

Kennedy also notes progress made in African American employment and the desegregation of schools and public transportation. For these gains he credits the increasing cooperation of the southern people and calls this “the emerging spirit of the South.” Evident throughout his report is his faith that the people and the government of the United States will be able to accomplish their objectives through persistence and compassion. The report reflects the true purpose of the Civil Rights Movement: to fight racism and apathy in order to enact positive change and ultimately gain equal rights.

Kennedy was correct in believing that the Civil Rights Movement would continue to advance. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed racial discrimination and removed many voting obstacles for African Americans.

A full transcript is available

Excerpt

In summary, 1962 was a year of progress for the United States in the field of civil rights. This is not to say the problems are disappearing. They remain, and they remain difficult – not only in the South, with open discrimination, but throughout the country where Negroes are the victims of school “resegregation”, bias in housing, or employment, or other facets of society. Ugly incidents like the Mississippi riot may occur again.

But we are accelerating our progress. Again, let me say this acceleration occurs in large measure because of the emerging spirit of the South. In 1962 this spirit was not the brutal one of rioting and violence at the University of Mississippi. The spirit was that exemplified in Georgia last week by Governor Carl E. Sanders, in his inaugural address.

“We revere the past,” he said. “We adhere to the values of respectability and responsibility which constitute our tradition.” Then he added, “We believe in law and order and in the principle that all laws apply equally to all citizens.”

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, 1963

Dow Jones News Service ticker tape from the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, November 22, 1963. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas. This Dow Jones News Service ticker tape tells the story of that day as it happened. The fifteen sheets span the entire day of the assassination. The tape starts out mundanely enough, noting Kennedy’s morning speech in Fort Worth and his plans to appear in Dallas later in the day.

The reports turn grim, however, reporting the panic, confusion, and tragedy of Kennedy’s murder. An initial report of the shooting describes the scene: “PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS SHOT TODAY JUST AS HIS MOTORCADE LEFT DOWNTOWN DALLASS — MRS KENNEDY JUMPED UP AND GRABBED MR KENNEDY — SHE CRIED OH NO— THE MOTORCADE SPED ON.” Another notes that the President has been taken to a hospital, but “TWO PRIESTS WHO WERE WITH KENNEDY SAY HE IS DEAD OF BULLET WOUNDS.” An update soon confirms the report of the President’s death: “KENNEDY DIED OF A GUNSHOT WOUND IN THE BRAIN AT APPROXIMATELY 1 P M.”

Further updates try to make sense of the events, reporting on the search for an assassin and Oswald’s capture. The tape also reports Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s swearing in aboard Air Force One that afternoon: “MR JOHNSON BECAME THE 36TH PRESIDENT OF THE U S AT 2 39 CENTRAL STANDARD TIME — THE PLANE MARKED AIR FORCE 1 WAS STILL PARKED WHERE IT HAD LANDED TO BRING PRESIDENT KENNEDY TO DALLAS THIS MORNING.”

George Wallace on segregation, 1964

George Wallace to Ms. Martin, April 11, 1964. The name and address of the letter's recipient have been redacted for privacy. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)

In 1958, George Wallace ran against John Patterson in his first gubernatorial race. In that Alabama election, Wallace refused to make race an issue, and he declined the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. This move won Wallace the support of the NAACP. Patterson, on the other hand, embraced Klan support, and he trounced Wallace in the election. In 1962 Wallace, having realized the power of race as a political tool, ran for governor again—this time as a proponent of segregation. He won by a landslide.

In 1964, Wallace decided to make a run for the presidency as a Democratic candidate. The first Democratic primary was held in Wisconsin. Local politicians treated Wallace’s candidacy as a joke, but Wallace shocked his critics when he received 266,000 votes—one-third of the 780,000 votes cast. On April 8, one day after the Wisconsin primary, Michigan resident Ms. Martin wrote to Wallace asking him for literature on segregation.

The sentiments expressed in Wallace’s reply stand in stark contrast to the reality of race relations in Alabama during his time as governor. Between the time of Wallace’s inauguration and his correspondence with Martin, Alabama had seen the bombings in Birmingham as well as Wallace’s face-off with federal forces over the integration of the University of Alabama.

Despite growing conflict over race and civil rights, Wallace wrote Martin that “we have never had a problem in the South except in a few very isolated instances and these have been the result of outside agitators.” Wallace asserted that “I personally have done more for the Negroes of the State of Alabama than any other individual,” citing job creation and the salaries of black teachers in Alabama. He rationalized segregation as “best for both races,” writing that “they each prefer their own pattern of society, their own churches and their own schools.” Wallace assured Martin that Alabamans were satisfied with society as it was and that the only “major friction” was created by “outside agitators.” Increasing racial violence and the Civil Rights Movement, however, pointed toward a changing equilibrium in race relations in Alabama.

A fulltranscriptis available.

Excerpt

White and colored have lived together in the South for generations in peace and equanimity. They each prefer their own pattern of society, their own churches and their own schools—which history and experience have proven are best for best for both races. (As stated before, outside agitators have created any major friction occurring between the races.) This is true and applies to other areas as well. People who move to the south from sections where there is not a large negro population soon realize and are most outspoken in favor of our customs once they learn for themselves that our design for living is the best for all concerned.