They Blinded U.S. With Science: Scientific Underpinnings of US Foreign Policy - The Case of the Atomic Bomb.

According to historical records, in August 1939 Albert Einstein warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that work being conducted by German and Austrian scientists on nuclear chain reactions could lead to the development of a new and powerful weapon ? an atomic bomb. The same records suggest that Roosevelt responded to this news by creating what is commonly referred to as the ?Manhattan Project? to further the United States? research efforts in response to this potential shift in the balance of power. Traditional studies often advance the theory that foreign and associated national policies are initiated by those in the executive branches. Closer scrutiny of recently declassified primary documents from this era challenges this, as well as the other established decision-making models. Using archival materials (contracts, memorandum, formal and informal correspondence, and oral histories) from 1933 through 1942, this paper explores the entrepreneurial origins driving the decision making process to build the atomic bomb. This temporal domain was chosen because it represents the early stages of significant United States nuclear policy formulation and will provide the framework of an alternative explanation. It is the hope of the author this case study will not only shed new light on the long-standing historical account of the decision making origins of the atomic bomb, but provide the foundations against which to test this alternative model in national and cross-national defense development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]