"Mysteries at the Museum" Manhattan Project: Mysteries at the Museum Specials

1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:12,074 Do you want subtitles for any video? -=[ ai.OpenSubtitles.com ]=- 2 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:14,546 When we think of World War II, we think of tanks 3 00:00:14,582 --> 00:00:17,215 and machine guns, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, 4 00:00:17,252 --> 00:00:19,952 Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy, 5 00:00:20,021 --> 00:00:22,554 but hidden from public view, 6 00:00:22,590 --> 00:00:25,424 far away from reporters and cameras, 7 00:00:25,493 --> 00:00:27,960 an enormous, covert operation 8 00:00:28,029 --> 00:00:31,096 was happening right here in America. 9 00:00:31,132 --> 00:00:34,834 Three...two...one... 10 00:00:34,969 --> 00:00:38,704 [ Explosion blasts ] 11 00:00:38,839 --> 00:00:41,440 It was the largest and most secret project 12 00:00:41,442 --> 00:00:43,909 ever undertaken by the U.S. Government. 13 00:00:43,945 --> 00:00:47,112 It was an extraordinary collaboration between 14 00:00:47,148 --> 00:00:50,449 the U.S. military and the world's greatest scientific minds, 15 00:00:50,485 --> 00:00:54,787 with entire cities built and run in secret. 16 00:00:54,789 --> 00:00:57,857 SMITH: Fifth largest city in the state of Tennessee, 17 00:00:57,859 --> 00:00:59,859 and it wasn't on any map. 18 00:00:59,861 --> 00:01:03,596 WILDMAN: Top-level facilities infiltrated by spies, 19 00:01:03,598 --> 00:01:06,465 and its outcome was arguably the most 20 00:01:06,501 --> 00:01:09,068 controversial event of the 20th century. 21 00:01:09,070 --> 00:01:12,738 Oh, my God. What have we let loose on the world? 22 00:01:12,873 --> 00:01:16,341 WILDMAN: And an outcome that would threaten 23 00:01:16,377 --> 00:01:18,811 the world's very existence. 24 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,947 It was a race to create the world's first nuclear bomb. 25 00:01:21,983 --> 00:01:24,683 How did they do it? 26 00:01:24,752 --> 00:01:26,819 How did they keep it under wraps? 27 00:01:26,888 --> 00:01:29,421 Who was stealing top-secret information? 28 00:01:29,457 --> 00:01:32,692 And why would the world never be the same again? 29 00:01:37,298 --> 00:01:39,432 [ Explosion blasts ] Ooh! 30 00:01:42,503 --> 00:01:44,436 I'm Don Wildman. 31 00:01:44,505 --> 00:01:46,772 I've explored the world's greatest mysteries, 32 00:01:46,907 --> 00:01:49,642 examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. 33 00:01:49,644 --> 00:01:51,310 That is unbelievable. 34 00:01:51,445 --> 00:01:53,446 Now, I'm digging deeper into some of the most 35 00:01:53,581 --> 00:01:56,315 perplexing and famous cases in history. 36 00:01:56,317 --> 00:01:59,184 My goal -- to get closer to the truth. 37 00:01:59,220 --> 00:02:02,321 Let's burn this place down. Let's burn it down. 38 00:02:02,323 --> 00:02:05,658 On this special episode of "Mysteries at the Museum: 39 00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:07,793 the Manhattan Project." 40 00:02:11,265 --> 00:02:13,299 [ Horns honking ] 41 00:02:15,336 --> 00:02:17,269 [ Horns honking ] 42 00:02:17,338 --> 00:02:19,338 The Manhattan Project was an American effort 43 00:02:19,473 --> 00:02:21,474 that would alter the course of history 44 00:02:21,609 --> 00:02:24,543 and ultimately jeopardize the future of humanity. 45 00:02:24,579 --> 00:02:27,679 It was a high-stakes story of secret cities, 46 00:02:27,749 --> 00:02:31,517 technological revolution, and world-changing decisions. 47 00:02:34,589 --> 00:02:37,757 In 1942, the Second World War was in its fourth year 48 00:02:37,892 --> 00:02:41,293 and was fast-becoming the deadliest war in history. 49 00:02:41,362 --> 00:02:43,095 Not to win... 50 00:02:43,230 --> 00:02:45,097 WILDMAN: The U.S., led by President Roosevelt, 51 00:02:45,133 --> 00:02:47,700 was fighting alongside its allies, Britain, France, 52 00:02:47,702 --> 00:02:49,702 and the Soviet Union. 53 00:02:49,771 --> 00:02:51,771 Together, they opposed the Axis powers -- 54 00:02:51,906 --> 00:02:54,573 Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan. 55 00:02:54,609 --> 00:02:57,642 But while the headlines covered the major battles, 56 00:02:57,679 --> 00:03:00,846 away from the news, a top-secret project 57 00:03:00,981 --> 00:03:03,582 was about to begin that would dramatically change 58 00:03:03,651 --> 00:03:06,251 the course of the war -- it was called 59 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:08,787 the Manhattan Project. 60 00:03:08,790 --> 00:03:12,124 Many people associate Albert Einstein, 61 00:03:12,193 --> 00:03:14,860 the famous physicist, with the Manhattan Project, 62 00:03:14,995 --> 00:03:16,929 and not without reason. 63 00:03:16,998 --> 00:03:19,799 When Einstein was told that German scientists had 64 00:03:19,934 --> 00:03:21,867 discovered how to split the atom, 65 00:03:21,936 --> 00:03:24,469 he realized that this process could be harnessed 66 00:03:24,505 --> 00:03:27,206 to make a devastatingly powerful weapon. 67 00:03:27,208 --> 00:03:31,210 Along with other renowned scientists, Einstein, 68 00:03:31,212 --> 00:03:34,079 who had escaped Nazi Germany and lived in America, 69 00:03:34,115 --> 00:03:36,349 signed a letter to President Roosevelt 70 00:03:36,484 --> 00:03:39,151 warning that the United States could not afford to wait 71 00:03:39,286 --> 00:03:42,154 while the Nazis might be developing a bomb 72 00:03:42,156 --> 00:03:45,023 more destructive than any seen before. 73 00:03:45,059 --> 00:03:49,495 This letter would be the trigger for the Manhattan Project, 74 00:03:49,564 --> 00:03:52,231 but that's when Einstein leaves the story. 75 00:03:52,366 --> 00:03:56,034 His only real role was to help bring the project into existence. 76 00:03:56,104 --> 00:03:59,038 From then on, it was in the hands of two men -- 77 00:03:59,173 --> 00:04:02,174 General Leslie Groves and Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. 78 00:04:02,176 --> 00:04:05,043 So who were these guys, 79 00:04:05,079 --> 00:04:07,413 and what was the Manhattan Project? 80 00:04:16,924 --> 00:04:19,391 Alex, how you doin'? Hi, real pleasure. 81 00:04:19,394 --> 00:04:21,927 WILDMAN: Alex Wellerstein is a historian and professor 82 00:04:21,996 --> 00:04:24,530 who specializes in the history of nuclear weapons 83 00:04:24,665 --> 00:04:26,832 and nuclear secrecy. 84 00:04:26,868 --> 00:04:29,268 Today, we're meeting on the roof of the original 85 00:04:29,270 --> 00:04:31,470 headquarters of the Manhattan Project. 86 00:04:31,605 --> 00:04:33,805 This is a nice view. 87 00:04:33,875 --> 00:04:36,342 So this is why it's called the Manhattan Project. 88 00:04:36,344 --> 00:04:38,944 It wasn't a secret codename, it was because it was 89 00:04:39,079 --> 00:04:41,580 located right here in Manhattan in New York City. 90 00:04:44,719 --> 00:04:46,952 So what was the Manhattan Project? 91 00:04:46,988 --> 00:04:49,688 The Manhattan Project was the program during 92 00:04:49,690 --> 00:04:52,024 World War II to actually build nuclear weapons 93 00:04:52,159 --> 00:04:54,627 that you could drop on another country 94 00:04:54,629 --> 00:04:56,829 by the end of the war. So they were building a bomb. 95 00:04:56,964 --> 00:04:59,298 They were building a bomb, and it wasn't a research program, 96 00:04:59,300 --> 00:05:01,766 it wasn't a figure out could the bomb be built, 97 00:05:01,802 --> 00:05:04,970 it was actually making military weapons, uh, 98 00:05:05,006 --> 00:05:07,906 but also having to figure out a lot of the science at the exact same time. 99 00:05:07,942 --> 00:05:10,709 You can think of the Manhattan Project as the creation of 100 00:05:10,745 --> 00:05:13,845 an entirely new industry in only about three years. 101 00:05:13,915 --> 00:05:16,648 Why did they want nuclear weapons? What was the point? 102 00:05:16,717 --> 00:05:20,386 They started this with the fear that the Nazis were gonna 103 00:05:20,388 --> 00:05:23,255 make nuclear weapons first, that they were in a race. WILDMAN: Yeah. 104 00:05:23,291 --> 00:05:26,324 And the idea of Adolf Hitler with an atomic bomb 105 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,328 was the end of civilization. Wow. 106 00:05:29,397 --> 00:05:32,998 WILDMAN: The task of creating the first nuclear weapon 107 00:05:33,133 --> 00:05:35,601 was assigned to the U.S. military, 108 00:05:35,603 --> 00:05:37,803 and the man in charge of this mammoth operation 109 00:05:37,938 --> 00:05:39,872 was Leslie Groves. 110 00:05:39,874 --> 00:05:42,941 He was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer 111 00:05:43,010 --> 00:05:45,945 who had successfully headed large projects in the past, 112 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,880 including the construction of the Pentagon, 113 00:05:48,916 --> 00:05:52,417 but this would be a bigger challenge than any he'd faced before. 114 00:05:52,486 --> 00:05:55,955 So the guy in charge of this is General Leslie Groves. 115 00:05:56,090 --> 00:05:59,290 Yes, and he...essentially, 116 00:05:59,327 --> 00:06:03,095 uh, is in some ways the most important person on the whole project. 117 00:06:03,097 --> 00:06:05,631 If you don't have Groves, the bomb doesn't get built. 118 00:06:05,700 --> 00:06:08,167 And why? What was his -- what were his qualities? 119 00:06:08,169 --> 00:06:10,102 He was a total jerk. 120 00:06:10,237 --> 00:06:13,172 He was unlovable, he was abrasive, 121 00:06:13,307 --> 00:06:17,109 and so when they want, uh, somebody who's gonna be able 122 00:06:17,178 --> 00:06:20,112 to build what are going to be at the time some of 123 00:06:20,247 --> 00:06:22,314 the largest factories in the world, 124 00:06:22,316 --> 00:06:24,183 General Groves is the guy you want in charge. Right. 125 00:06:24,185 --> 00:06:26,252 Did he have an understanding of the secrets at hand here? 126 00:06:26,387 --> 00:06:28,721 He wouldn't have a very detailed understanding. 127 00:06:28,723 --> 00:06:30,856 For that he needed an actual specialist. 128 00:06:30,925 --> 00:06:33,125 This is why he went with Oppenheimer. 129 00:06:33,226 --> 00:06:36,394 WILDMAN: J. Robert Oppenheimer was an ambitious 130 00:06:36,430 --> 00:06:38,797 and brilliant young physicist when he joined 131 00:06:38,833 --> 00:06:40,999 the Manhattan Project in 1942. 132 00:06:41,068 --> 00:06:44,803 He had a ferocious intellect, wide-ranging interests, 133 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:47,605 and was exactly the type of scientist that 134 00:06:47,642 --> 00:06:50,008 General Groves and his military team needed 135 00:06:50,044 --> 00:06:53,145 to head the project's secret weapons laboratory. 136 00:06:53,147 --> 00:06:55,481 So how did they do this -- tell me about the blueprint 137 00:06:55,616 --> 00:06:57,416 of building this industry. 138 00:06:57,485 --> 00:07:00,619 So the basic sketch of the main Manhattan Project -- 139 00:07:00,688 --> 00:07:03,689 Oak Ridge, Tennessee, they are enriching uranium. 140 00:07:03,691 --> 00:07:06,291 This requires multiple gigantic factories, 141 00:07:06,427 --> 00:07:08,360 just one of which is the largest factory 142 00:07:08,429 --> 00:07:11,029 in the world at the time, so at Hanford, Washington, 143 00:07:11,098 --> 00:07:13,666 they build three industrial-size nuclear reactors. 144 00:07:13,768 --> 00:07:16,101 Then you need the scientists to figure out how do you 145 00:07:16,170 --> 00:07:18,169 put this together in a way that can fit inside 146 00:07:18,205 --> 00:07:20,506 a World War II airplane? 147 00:07:20,508 --> 00:07:22,641 That's being done at Los Alamos, mainly, 148 00:07:22,710 --> 00:07:24,175 and they're all working simultaneously. 149 00:07:24,211 --> 00:07:26,578 Nobody has time to wait till one group figures out 150 00:07:26,614 --> 00:07:28,781 how to do it to start -- they're starting 151 00:07:28,783 --> 00:07:30,416 while they're still learning how to do it. 152 00:07:34,388 --> 00:07:37,456 The Manhattan Project had a mammoth task ahead of them. 153 00:07:37,458 --> 00:07:39,858 They had to create a brand-new weapon, 154 00:07:39,927 --> 00:07:42,661 a whole new technology, from scratch, 155 00:07:42,730 --> 00:07:45,197 all the while with a fear that Hitler's scientists 156 00:07:45,199 --> 00:07:47,799 back in Germany were already way ahead of them. 157 00:07:47,835 --> 00:07:49,935 But just how different was this new device 158 00:07:50,070 --> 00:07:52,270 from what was already available? 159 00:07:52,339 --> 00:07:54,873 And just how powerful was this new bomb gonna be? 160 00:07:59,413 --> 00:08:02,347 Before the Manhattan Project, conventional explosives, 161 00:08:02,383 --> 00:08:05,350 such as incendiary bombs, were the most powerful weapons 162 00:08:05,419 --> 00:08:07,953 available to the U.S. military. 163 00:08:08,088 --> 00:08:10,789 But they were about to get an upgrade. 164 00:08:14,762 --> 00:08:16,695 The nuclear bombs the Manhattan Project 165 00:08:16,764 --> 00:08:19,164 planned to produce would be the most devastating weapons 166 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,101 the world had ever seen -- if they could harness 167 00:08:22,236 --> 00:08:24,703 the power of the atom, the U.S. would have 168 00:08:24,772 --> 00:08:27,439 in its arsenal a weapon of unrivaled might, 169 00:08:27,574 --> 00:08:29,975 but even the experts weren't completely sure 170 00:08:30,110 --> 00:08:33,045 how big a blast they'd be able to create. 171 00:08:33,180 --> 00:08:36,615 Just how powerful was this new technology? 172 00:08:44,525 --> 00:08:45,990 Van? Hey, Don! 173 00:08:46,027 --> 00:08:48,260 Welcome to New Mexico Tech. 174 00:08:48,362 --> 00:08:51,530 WILDMAN: Dr. Van Romero is a well-known explosives expert. 175 00:08:51,599 --> 00:08:54,466 He's the chief operating officer at the New Mexico 176 00:08:54,468 --> 00:08:56,801 Institute of Mining and Technology -- 177 00:08:56,837 --> 00:08:59,671 the place to go if you want to test a bomb. 178 00:08:59,673 --> 00:09:02,074 Well, this is, uh, quite remote out here. 179 00:09:02,076 --> 00:09:04,676 This is our explosive test lab that we have here at New Mexico Tech, 180 00:09:04,812 --> 00:09:06,544 and yes, it is remote. 181 00:09:06,580 --> 00:09:09,147 We blow things up, and so we want to make sure 182 00:09:09,150 --> 00:09:11,750 we're far away from anybody. So what are we doing today? 183 00:09:11,885 --> 00:09:14,153 We're gonna detonate a ton of explosives for ya. Literally? 184 00:09:14,288 --> 00:09:16,155 Literally a ton. Wow, that's big, right? 185 00:09:16,290 --> 00:09:17,689 It's big, yeah, not the biggest one 186 00:09:17,758 --> 00:09:19,758 we've done, but it's a big one. Okay, all right. 187 00:09:23,431 --> 00:09:25,396 Are we literally taking that off and putting it on the pallet? 188 00:09:25,433 --> 00:09:27,132 Yeah. Is that the idea? 189 00:09:27,168 --> 00:09:30,301 WILDMAN: This demonstration of a one-ton fertilizer bomb 190 00:09:30,337 --> 00:09:33,038 is the closest we can get to the nuclear blasts 191 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:35,507 the Manhattan Project hoped to produce. 192 00:09:37,311 --> 00:09:39,278 [ Indistinct talking ] 193 00:09:41,248 --> 00:09:43,749 [ Creaking noise ] 194 00:09:45,919 --> 00:09:48,520 All right. So that's the bomb site. 195 00:09:48,589 --> 00:09:50,255 Yeah, that's a video of the bomb site. 196 00:09:50,257 --> 00:09:51,857 Okay, and I'm looking at it here. 197 00:09:51,926 --> 00:09:54,459 These guys are highly trained experts. 198 00:09:54,595 --> 00:09:58,263 They've been working for hours to set up this experiment safely. 199 00:09:58,265 --> 00:10:01,532 All right, can I do the honors? Please do. 200 00:10:01,569 --> 00:10:03,668 Woody, you ready? Ready. 201 00:10:03,704 --> 00:10:05,670 I'm a little nervous, quite honestly. Let's do it. 202 00:10:05,706 --> 00:10:08,340 All right, on one... Here we go. 203 00:10:08,475 --> 00:10:10,876 Five, four, three, 204 00:10:11,011 --> 00:10:12,878 two, one... 205 00:10:13,013 --> 00:10:15,080 [ Click ] 206 00:10:15,082 --> 00:10:18,217 [ Explosion blasts ] 207 00:10:24,491 --> 00:10:26,358 That's a big explosion. 208 00:10:26,493 --> 00:10:28,159 Oh, my goodness, I saw a big flash. 209 00:10:28,229 --> 00:10:29,961 Probably. Yeah. 210 00:10:29,997 --> 00:10:33,365 We'll have to see if we got a mushroom cloud or not. It's like a catastrophe there. 211 00:10:33,434 --> 00:10:36,634 If I had been standing outside, am I dead? You'd be gone. 212 00:10:36,670 --> 00:10:37,969 Really. Oh, yeah. 213 00:10:38,005 --> 00:10:40,839 Wow. Yeah. 214 00:10:40,841 --> 00:10:43,308 WILDMAN: While this one-ton bomb can do some serious damage, 215 00:10:43,443 --> 00:10:46,044 the weapons being developed by the Manhattan Project 216 00:10:46,046 --> 00:10:49,447 would be 20,000 times more powerful. 217 00:10:49,483 --> 00:10:53,785 That's enough to vaporize anything in its path. 218 00:10:53,787 --> 00:10:57,022 [ Explosion blasts ] 219 00:10:59,994 --> 00:11:03,528 The explosion I just witnessed was mind-blowing in scale, 220 00:11:03,597 --> 00:11:06,731 but that blast pales in comparison 221 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:09,000 to what the Manhattan Project was working up. 222 00:11:09,069 --> 00:11:12,871 So how did they achieve such an enormous increase in power, 223 00:11:12,873 --> 00:11:15,807 and how did they keep the whole thing top-secret? 224 00:11:15,876 --> 00:11:19,177 [ Explosion blasts ] 225 00:11:34,962 --> 00:11:36,828 The Manhattan Project was America's 226 00:11:36,964 --> 00:11:39,764 wartime effort to beat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis 227 00:11:39,833 --> 00:11:42,634 at creating the world's first nuclear bombs. 228 00:11:42,636 --> 00:11:45,037 At the point General Leslie Groves 229 00:11:45,039 --> 00:11:47,372 took charge of the project in 1942, 230 00:11:47,408 --> 00:11:50,975 work had mostly been small-scale experiments in labs, 231 00:11:51,011 --> 00:11:54,980 but Groves quickly realized that to achieve the goal 232 00:11:55,115 --> 00:11:58,249 of building such a weapon of mass destruction, 233 00:11:58,319 --> 00:12:00,652 he needed to go big. 234 00:12:00,654 --> 00:12:04,589 Once the U.S. committed to building the first nuclear bombs, 235 00:12:04,725 --> 00:12:06,991 they got to work fast. 236 00:12:07,027 --> 00:12:09,661 In theory, nuclear weapons could be made, 237 00:12:09,697 --> 00:12:12,998 but attempting to do so would require an enormous effort, 238 00:12:13,133 --> 00:12:15,867 the biggest science project in history. 239 00:12:15,869 --> 00:12:18,136 But how big are we talking about? 240 00:12:18,138 --> 00:12:20,939 What kind of scale of operation was needed 241 00:12:20,941 --> 00:12:23,075 to produce a working nuclear bomb? 242 00:12:31,485 --> 00:12:34,086 General Groves initiated the construction of huge 243 00:12:34,221 --> 00:12:37,288 factories and research facilities across the country. 244 00:12:37,324 --> 00:12:40,024 The biggest and most striking of these 245 00:12:40,094 --> 00:12:43,428 was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where I am today. 246 00:12:43,464 --> 00:12:46,230 More than 50 percent of the revenues spent 247 00:12:46,266 --> 00:12:49,967 on the entire Manhattan Project went to this clandestine city. 248 00:12:50,004 --> 00:12:52,571 This was the heart of the operation. 249 00:12:52,573 --> 00:12:55,507 By the end of the war, Oak Ridge was consuming 250 00:12:55,576 --> 00:12:58,577 nearly 15 percent of all the electrical power 251 00:12:58,579 --> 00:13:01,112 produced in the entire United States. 252 00:13:01,181 --> 00:13:04,582 So how did they keep this giant operation secret? 253 00:13:04,652 --> 00:13:06,852 Ray, how you doin'? Hi, I'm good, how are you? 254 00:13:06,854 --> 00:13:08,186 Nice to meet you. 255 00:13:08,188 --> 00:13:10,455 WILDMAN: Ray knows everything about Oak Ridge. 256 00:13:10,524 --> 00:13:13,458 He has lived and worked in the area for nearly 50 years. 257 00:13:13,593 --> 00:13:15,627 [ Creaking noises ] 258 00:13:18,198 --> 00:13:20,866 Wow. Look at that. 259 00:13:24,204 --> 00:13:25,804 This was buzzing with people back then. 260 00:13:25,873 --> 00:13:29,607 SMITH: Sure, 75,000 people living in the city of Oak Ridge. 261 00:13:29,643 --> 00:13:31,943 Fifth largest city in the state of Tennessee, 262 00:13:32,012 --> 00:13:34,279 and it wasn't on any map. 263 00:13:38,418 --> 00:13:40,285 WILDMAN: While each of the Manhattan Project's locations 264 00:13:40,420 --> 00:13:43,622 had a specific purpose, the secret city of Oak Ridge 265 00:13:43,757 --> 00:13:46,758 had perhaps the most challenging task of all. 266 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:49,093 A nuclear reaction 267 00:13:49,129 --> 00:13:51,830 is caused when a neutron is fired at the nucleus 268 00:13:51,832 --> 00:13:53,998 of an atom, splitting it. 269 00:13:54,068 --> 00:13:56,901 When the atom splits, it releases energy. 270 00:13:56,970 --> 00:13:59,104 If a chain of these reactions can be triggered, 271 00:13:59,239 --> 00:14:02,841 this can release enough energy for an enormous explosion -- 272 00:14:02,976 --> 00:14:05,376 a nuclear blast. 273 00:14:05,412 --> 00:14:08,380 Not every atom can be split this way, 274 00:14:08,382 --> 00:14:11,349 but uranium can, especially a rare form of it 275 00:14:11,385 --> 00:14:13,918 called Uranium-235. 276 00:14:13,954 --> 00:14:17,655 So here at Oak Ridge, there was one primary goal -- 277 00:14:17,691 --> 00:14:20,792 figure out how to produce enough of the right type 278 00:14:20,861 --> 00:14:23,362 of uranium to make a nuclear bomb. 279 00:14:27,935 --> 00:14:30,602 This enormous facility was just one of several 280 00:14:30,737 --> 00:14:33,204 built exclusively for the Manhattan Project. 281 00:14:33,273 --> 00:14:36,007 The race to build a nuclear bomb had spawned 282 00:14:36,076 --> 00:14:39,477 an industry as big as the automobile business at the time, 283 00:14:39,546 --> 00:14:42,881 but what's truly amazing is that this entire 284 00:14:43,016 --> 00:14:46,284 sprawling operation was classified. 285 00:14:46,286 --> 00:14:49,287 The other fact of this that amazes me is how much 286 00:14:49,423 --> 00:14:53,358 a top-secret operation happened on a huge scale. 287 00:14:53,427 --> 00:14:55,426 How would you keep this secret? 288 00:14:55,462 --> 00:14:58,696 Many cases, and General Groves did this, 289 00:14:58,766 --> 00:15:01,967 he compartmentalized to where people only worked 290 00:15:02,102 --> 00:15:04,702 on what they were assigned. I see. 291 00:15:04,772 --> 00:15:07,705 They weren't even allowed to go in other parts of the building. 292 00:15:07,741 --> 00:15:10,575 They actually had bands on their arms that would say, 293 00:15:10,644 --> 00:15:13,111 "This person can be in this part of the building 294 00:15:13,180 --> 00:15:14,846 Mmhm. but not in others." 295 00:15:27,594 --> 00:15:29,728 Nearly 500,000 people 296 00:15:29,863 --> 00:15:32,730 worked on the Manhattan Project in secret cities 297 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,333 and on secret jobs -- it was truly 298 00:15:35,369 --> 00:15:37,802 an enormous endeavor, but not everyone 299 00:15:37,871 --> 00:15:40,138 kept quiet about their work. 300 00:15:40,273 --> 00:15:42,274 Hidden deep within the Manhattan Project, 301 00:15:42,409 --> 00:15:44,342 there were spies. 302 00:15:44,411 --> 00:15:46,144 So who were these spies, 303 00:15:46,279 --> 00:15:49,347 and how did their espionage change the course of history? 304 00:16:03,564 --> 00:16:05,964 WILDMAN: 1944. 305 00:16:05,966 --> 00:16:08,432 While the fighting in World War II intensified 306 00:16:08,468 --> 00:16:11,503 overseas, thousands of Americans at home were 307 00:16:11,638 --> 00:16:14,105 racing to complete a top-secret mission -- 308 00:16:14,174 --> 00:16:16,641 creating the first nuclear weapon. 309 00:16:16,710 --> 00:16:19,644 At Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a team of scientists 310 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,113 were trying to produce the fuel that could create 311 00:16:22,115 --> 00:16:24,382 a nuclear blast -- meanwhile, 312 00:16:24,451 --> 00:16:26,718 across the country, in a secluded lab 313 00:16:26,854 --> 00:16:29,854 in the mountains of New Mexico, another team was closing in 314 00:16:29,923 --> 00:16:32,324 on a workable bomb design. 315 00:16:32,459 --> 00:16:34,860 With its broad scope and multiple sites, 316 00:16:34,995 --> 00:16:37,395 the Manhattan Project revolutionized the way 317 00:16:37,431 --> 00:16:39,798 classified projects were conducted. 318 00:16:39,933 --> 00:16:43,000 However, it was not a leak-proof system. 319 00:16:43,036 --> 00:16:46,471 The Manhattan Project was infiltrated by spies. 320 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:55,947 Even the highest levels of security weren't 321 00:16:55,983 --> 00:16:58,950 able to stop a determined group of spies. 322 00:16:58,952 --> 00:17:02,687 Three committed individuals were working for the same people 323 00:17:02,756 --> 00:17:06,024 at the same time in the same location 324 00:17:06,026 --> 00:17:08,026 here in Los Alamos. 325 00:17:08,028 --> 00:17:10,161 Who were these spies? 326 00:17:10,163 --> 00:17:12,496 And how were they able to steal the U.S. Government's 327 00:17:12,532 --> 00:17:14,199 biggest secret? 328 00:17:18,238 --> 00:17:20,237 For the answer, where better to go 329 00:17:20,274 --> 00:17:23,241 than the site of the original Los Alamos Weapons Lab? 330 00:17:23,243 --> 00:17:26,444 How every good spy story begins, huh? 331 00:17:26,513 --> 00:17:28,779 On a park bench. Absolutely. Welcome. 332 00:17:28,815 --> 00:17:31,516 So this is Los Alamos, huh? This is it. 333 00:17:31,585 --> 00:17:33,251 Can we take a look around? Sure. 334 00:17:35,923 --> 00:17:37,922 WILDMAN: Alan B. Carr is the historian for 335 00:17:37,925 --> 00:17:40,191 the Los Alamos National Laboratory. 336 00:17:40,260 --> 00:17:42,394 He knows exactly what people were working on here 337 00:17:42,529 --> 00:17:45,463 and the identities of the spies working against them. 338 00:17:45,598 --> 00:17:48,867 So back in the day, 1940s, 339 00:17:48,869 --> 00:17:51,536 Los Alamos Laboratories were headquartered right here. 340 00:17:51,538 --> 00:17:53,137 That's right. Right here. These were all of 341 00:17:53,206 --> 00:17:55,406 the main administration buildings, technical buildings. 342 00:17:55,475 --> 00:17:58,476 This is where a lot of the action went down. All right. 343 00:17:58,478 --> 00:18:01,145 Oppenheimer, the first director, his office would have been 344 00:18:01,214 --> 00:18:04,149 just right along the banks of this pond that we're walking Okay. 345 00:18:04,284 --> 00:18:06,618 across right now, and so this really was 346 00:18:06,620 --> 00:18:09,153 the center of the laboratory. 347 00:18:09,256 --> 00:18:13,158 WILDMAN: The role of Los Alamos was to figure out 348 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:16,494 how to design, build, and deliver the nuclear bomb. 349 00:18:16,496 --> 00:18:18,697 And the man charged 350 00:18:18,832 --> 00:18:22,033 with leading this operation was J. Robert Oppenheimer. 351 00:18:22,069 --> 00:18:26,037 Only Oppenheimer and his top-notch team of scientists 352 00:18:26,073 --> 00:18:29,374 had the inventive know-how to take all the different 353 00:18:29,509 --> 00:18:32,243 components and assemble the final product. 354 00:18:32,312 --> 00:18:34,779 It was a dangerous proposition, 355 00:18:34,848 --> 00:18:37,115 but the eager, brilliant, determined scientist 356 00:18:37,250 --> 00:18:39,517 was up to the task. 357 00:18:39,553 --> 00:18:42,520 Tell me about Oppenheimer. Still an enigma, right? 358 00:18:42,589 --> 00:18:45,723 Oppenheimer is a fascinating historical character. 359 00:18:45,792 --> 00:18:48,860 He was a genius, and, you know, that's not a term Yeah. 360 00:18:48,995 --> 00:18:50,995 that -- that I throw around very lightly. 361 00:18:51,031 --> 00:18:53,331 Oppenheimer was the real deal. 362 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:55,734 He could be intense, he was bright. 363 00:18:55,736 --> 00:18:58,269 Oppenheimer is complex. 364 00:18:58,338 --> 00:19:01,272 WILDMAN: But while Groves ran Oak Ridge like a military base, 365 00:19:01,408 --> 00:19:04,342 Oppenheimer encouraged collaboration. 366 00:19:06,813 --> 00:19:09,681 So he has his teams working with each other, 367 00:19:09,816 --> 00:19:13,551 not siloed, right? That's right. 368 00:19:13,587 --> 00:19:16,287 People from different organizations were generally 369 00:19:16,289 --> 00:19:19,624 allowed to talk to each other. Did they get in a room together and just talk? 370 00:19:19,693 --> 00:19:22,427 They did have conferences, and that was something 371 00:19:22,429 --> 00:19:24,162 that Oppenheimer had to fight for. 372 00:19:24,231 --> 00:19:26,964 Oppenheimer said, "Look, this is not the way science works." 373 00:19:27,067 --> 00:19:30,235 And so there was communication across division. 374 00:19:30,370 --> 00:19:33,371 WILDMAN: Little did Oppenheimer know, but this method 375 00:19:33,373 --> 00:19:35,840 of collaboration, scientists helping each other out, 376 00:19:35,975 --> 00:19:39,477 turned into an opportunity to sabotage the project. 377 00:19:39,479 --> 00:19:42,380 The information shared at these meetings 378 00:19:42,515 --> 00:19:45,316 was being stolen by the Manhattan Project's 379 00:19:45,452 --> 00:19:47,919 most devastating spy. 380 00:19:47,988 --> 00:19:50,521 Wow, this place is grand. 381 00:19:50,557 --> 00:19:52,923 It's beautiful. 382 00:19:52,959 --> 00:19:55,993 So this is the actual -- 383 00:19:56,029 --> 00:19:58,529 this is the social hall, right? CARR: That's right. 384 00:19:58,565 --> 00:20:00,931 Back during the war, the scientists gathered here. 385 00:20:00,967 --> 00:20:02,667 It was often used as a cafeteria, 386 00:20:02,802 --> 00:20:05,003 so there would be table with numerous scientists 387 00:20:05,005 --> 00:20:07,539 sitting around, having conversations, enjoying their meal. 388 00:20:07,541 --> 00:20:10,475 This is the vulnerability, isn't it? That these guys 389 00:20:10,477 --> 00:20:13,210 are all talking among themselves, and people can listen. 390 00:20:13,246 --> 00:20:17,148 The main motivation for the Manhattan Project's 391 00:20:17,150 --> 00:20:21,152 extreme secrecy was to keep Nazi Germany from finding out 392 00:20:21,221 --> 00:20:23,554 what the secret labs were working on. 393 00:20:23,623 --> 00:20:27,158 No one knew for sure how close the Nazis were 394 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:29,493 to building their own nuclear weapons, 395 00:20:29,529 --> 00:20:31,563 and the thought of Hitler with a nuclear bomb 396 00:20:31,565 --> 00:20:33,298 was terrifying. 397 00:20:36,970 --> 00:20:40,238 The real threat has always been the insider threat. 398 00:20:42,976 --> 00:20:44,575 The spies who were here during the war, 399 00:20:44,611 --> 00:20:46,511 they were staff members -- they weren't sneaking in 400 00:20:46,580 --> 00:20:49,247 through fences or things like that -- they were invited in, 401 00:20:49,382 --> 00:20:51,049 and they were trusted with clearance. 402 00:20:51,051 --> 00:20:53,384 And where there are open lines of communication, 403 00:20:53,420 --> 00:20:56,254 there are spies. Unfortunately, that was the case. 404 00:20:56,323 --> 00:20:57,989 Let me show you something. 405 00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:02,327 Wow, look at this. This is mysterious. 406 00:21:02,462 --> 00:21:05,529 Yeah, so in the briefcase, we've got several documents 407 00:21:05,565 --> 00:21:08,533 pertaining to espionage activities here 408 00:21:08,535 --> 00:21:10,735 at the laboratory during World War II. 409 00:21:10,870 --> 00:21:13,270 Really? The original documents. These are the original documents. 410 00:21:13,306 --> 00:21:14,873 Oh, that's so cool. That's right. 411 00:21:15,008 --> 00:21:18,142 The most devastating, by far, 412 00:21:18,211 --> 00:21:20,879 of the spies who were here at Los Alamos 413 00:21:21,014 --> 00:21:23,881 was Klaus Fuchs. WILDMAN: Klaus Fuchs, a German. 414 00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:27,351 CARR: He was German-born. In 1933, he fled Germany. 415 00:21:27,420 --> 00:21:30,955 He was a high-end scientist -- I mean, this guy was the real deal. 416 00:21:30,957 --> 00:21:33,625 By the time he was at Los Alamos, that's right. 417 00:21:33,627 --> 00:21:36,694 He's a young, brilliant theoretical physicist... 418 00:21:36,763 --> 00:21:39,364 and a communist. This is the delicate thing, right? 419 00:21:39,366 --> 00:21:42,033 The spying that's being done here is not necessarily 420 00:21:42,102 --> 00:21:45,303 by the Nazis, our enemy, but rather by the communists, 421 00:21:45,438 --> 00:21:47,238 by the Soviets. That's right. 422 00:21:50,177 --> 00:21:52,443 WILDMAN: Klaus Fuchs was born in Germany, 423 00:21:52,512 --> 00:21:54,512 but he was no Nazi -- in fact, 424 00:21:54,647 --> 00:21:56,981 he was a committed communist, which is why he fled 425 00:21:57,050 --> 00:21:58,983 the country when Hitler came to power. 426 00:21:59,052 --> 00:22:01,719 Fuchs was not spying for his homeland 427 00:22:01,854 --> 00:22:03,888 but for the Soviet Union. 428 00:22:06,426 --> 00:22:09,127 Though the Soviets and the U.S. were both on the Allied side 429 00:22:09,129 --> 00:22:11,462 during World War II, there was little trust 430 00:22:11,598 --> 00:22:13,798 between the two countries. 431 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:16,801 In fact, the Soviets had planted spies within America 432 00:22:16,936 --> 00:22:19,938 long before the war had begun and had become 433 00:22:19,940 --> 00:22:22,807 aware of the secret weapons project when it began. 434 00:22:22,942 --> 00:22:25,877 They wanted their own nuclear weapon 435 00:22:26,012 --> 00:22:29,781 for when the war was over and the U.S. was no longer its ally. 436 00:22:32,552 --> 00:22:34,685 There is Klaus. Yes. There he is, yeah. 437 00:22:34,721 --> 00:22:38,222 K.E.J. Fuchs. Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs. 438 00:22:38,291 --> 00:22:41,159 I have to say, he looks a little bit like a spy. 439 00:22:41,161 --> 00:22:43,894 How many spies were here? 440 00:22:43,930 --> 00:22:46,898 There were three identified spies who were here 441 00:22:46,900 --> 00:22:48,433 at Los Alamos during the war -- 442 00:22:48,568 --> 00:22:51,970 Theodore Hall, Klaus Fuchs, and David Greenglass. 443 00:22:51,972 --> 00:22:54,572 And did they know about them while they were working here? 444 00:22:54,608 --> 00:22:57,842 No, and the three spies didn't even know about each other. 445 00:23:03,383 --> 00:23:05,583 Klaus Fuchs was one of the few people working here 446 00:23:05,652 --> 00:23:07,117 to have his own car. 447 00:23:07,153 --> 00:23:09,920 It's said that he used his old Buick to sneak 448 00:23:09,956 --> 00:23:12,490 secret documents out of Los Alamos. 449 00:23:15,729 --> 00:23:17,928 [ Horn honks once ] 450 00:23:17,964 --> 00:23:21,065 Fuchs and the other spies here enabled the Soviets 451 00:23:21,167 --> 00:23:23,601 to expedite their nuclear weapon development 452 00:23:23,670 --> 00:23:25,803 by at least two years. 453 00:23:25,839 --> 00:23:29,207 Spies weren't the only thing working against the Manhattan Project. 454 00:23:29,209 --> 00:23:31,743 This was the height of World War II. 455 00:23:31,745 --> 00:23:33,944 Time, money, and materials 456 00:23:33,980 --> 00:23:37,214 were all in short supply as they raced to ready the bomb. 457 00:23:37,284 --> 00:23:40,084 With so many obstacles working against it, 458 00:23:40,219 --> 00:23:42,486 was the Manhattan Project about to become 459 00:23:42,522 --> 00:23:45,189 the biggest failure in U.S. history? 460 00:24:04,166 --> 00:24:07,267 WILDMAN: 1945 -- World War II continued to rage 461 00:24:07,336 --> 00:24:09,269 in both Europe and the Pacific, 462 00:24:09,338 --> 00:24:11,671 and the Manhattan Project was in full swing, 463 00:24:11,673 --> 00:24:14,340 but while the secret work of General Leslie Groves 464 00:24:14,409 --> 00:24:17,410 and scientist Robert Oppenheimer was progressing, 465 00:24:17,412 --> 00:24:20,146 they were still not quite sure when or if the bomb 466 00:24:20,282 --> 00:24:22,281 would be complete. 467 00:24:22,317 --> 00:24:25,151 And then, two new developments shocked the world. 468 00:24:25,220 --> 00:24:28,888 First, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the long-time U.S. leader, 469 00:24:28,890 --> 00:24:32,425 died, making way for Harry Truman to become president. 470 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,295 Just weeks later, 471 00:24:35,297 --> 00:24:38,832 Nazi Germany surrenders. 472 00:24:38,967 --> 00:24:41,100 With the Nazis out of the war, 473 00:24:41,136 --> 00:24:43,436 what will become of the Manhattan Project? 474 00:24:43,505 --> 00:24:47,440 With so many factors working against it, 475 00:24:47,509 --> 00:24:50,110 the project could easily have fallen apart. 476 00:24:50,112 --> 00:24:53,513 Not only were spies feeding information to the Soviets, 477 00:24:53,648 --> 00:24:57,317 the war effort was devouring money and resources. 478 00:24:57,319 --> 00:25:00,053 The Manhattan Project was perhaps the biggest 479 00:25:00,188 --> 00:25:02,588 and most expensive gamble of the war. 480 00:25:02,624 --> 00:25:05,425 The question was -- would it pay off? 481 00:25:07,963 --> 00:25:09,929 By the summer of 1945, 482 00:25:09,965 --> 00:25:12,064 it was time to find out. 483 00:25:12,100 --> 00:25:15,135 In the remote New Mexico desert, a site with the code name 484 00:25:15,270 --> 00:25:18,271 Trinity was chosen for the first full-scale test 485 00:25:18,273 --> 00:25:21,942 of a nuclear weapon, and that's where I'm headed today. 486 00:25:27,148 --> 00:25:29,682 Morning, Jim, how you doin'? Good morning, Don. 487 00:25:29,718 --> 00:25:32,786 Glad to see you could make it. This place is an epic site. 488 00:25:35,557 --> 00:25:37,424 WILDMAN: Expert Jim Eckles has been coming to this site 489 00:25:37,559 --> 00:25:39,426 for over 40 years. 490 00:25:39,561 --> 00:25:41,961 It was right here on this spot, 491 00:25:41,997 --> 00:25:44,564 on July 16, 1945, 492 00:25:44,566 --> 00:25:47,801 that the first ever test of a nuclear weapon took place. 493 00:25:57,612 --> 00:26:00,580 It's really quite, uh, simple, isn't it? 494 00:26:00,582 --> 00:26:03,316 Well, we've tried to preserve kind of what it was like 495 00:26:03,451 --> 00:26:06,186 in 1945. 496 00:26:06,188 --> 00:26:09,188 WILDMAN: Awesome. There it is. 497 00:26:09,224 --> 00:26:12,325 Yep, exact ground zero. 498 00:26:12,327 --> 00:26:16,262 Standing in the middle of this gigantic expanse 499 00:26:16,298 --> 00:26:19,132 of land, you kinda get the sense of how important 500 00:26:19,201 --> 00:26:22,402 this one spot is -- I mean, this changes 501 00:26:22,537 --> 00:26:25,805 everything in the 20th century and possibly forever, right? 502 00:26:25,807 --> 00:26:28,007 Yes, the genie's out of the bottle. 503 00:26:28,043 --> 00:26:30,543 So tell me physically, on the day, 504 00:26:30,579 --> 00:26:32,612 what I'd be looking at here. 505 00:26:32,614 --> 00:26:34,680 Well, there'd be a tower standing here, 506 00:26:34,716 --> 00:26:37,350 a 100-foot steel tower. WILDMAN: Okay. 507 00:26:37,485 --> 00:26:41,020 And why was that there? They wanted to explode the bomb 508 00:26:41,022 --> 00:26:43,889 at an aerial location, WILDMAN: Okay. 509 00:26:43,925 --> 00:26:46,225 not on the ground, they didn't drop it, 510 00:26:46,294 --> 00:26:48,428 but they put it on top of this 100-foot tower 511 00:26:48,563 --> 00:26:50,964 to simulate an aerial burst. 512 00:26:51,099 --> 00:26:54,901 So how many people were present that day, 513 00:26:54,903 --> 00:26:57,036 roughly speaking? Several hundred. 514 00:26:57,105 --> 00:26:58,371 Oh, really? Yes. 515 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,573 All hiding... Most of them at base camp. 516 00:27:00,708 --> 00:27:02,775 WILDMAN: Okay. ECKLES: Over 150 people down there. 517 00:27:02,844 --> 00:27:05,578 WILDMAN: Uh-huh. ECKLES: A handful at the control bunker, 518 00:27:05,580 --> 00:27:08,581 and we had photo bunkers, 'cause that's the closest 519 00:27:08,716 --> 00:27:10,717 anybody was, and they were supposed to be Yeah. 520 00:27:10,852 --> 00:27:13,586 in these bunkers except for a few people given permission 521 00:27:13,655 --> 00:27:16,188 to be outside. Where was Groves at this point? 522 00:27:16,224 --> 00:27:19,592 Groves was at base camp 10 miles away. 523 00:27:19,661 --> 00:27:22,328 The rule was that Groves and Oppenheimer as the top 524 00:27:22,364 --> 00:27:24,797 two guys in this couldn't be in the same place 525 00:27:24,866 --> 00:27:27,700 for something dangerous. Hm. 526 00:27:30,238 --> 00:27:32,472 WILDMAN: This was the first ever attempt at detonating 527 00:27:32,607 --> 00:27:34,407 a nuclear weapon, and not even 528 00:27:34,476 --> 00:27:36,609 the Manhattan Project's two main architects 529 00:27:36,744 --> 00:27:39,178 knew exactly what would happen. 530 00:27:39,181 --> 00:27:42,148 Nuclear fission had never been tested on this scale. 531 00:27:42,217 --> 00:27:44,951 Some feared the test would ignite the atmosphere 532 00:27:45,020 --> 00:27:47,319 and cause global destruction. 533 00:27:47,355 --> 00:27:49,622 Others doubted it would work at all. 534 00:27:49,624 --> 00:27:52,959 General Groves had plans for all eventualities, 535 00:27:53,028 --> 00:27:55,961 including evacuating nearby towns and implementing 536 00:27:55,997 --> 00:27:58,765 marshal law should anything go horribly wrong. 537 00:27:58,900 --> 00:28:03,236 For Oppenheimer, he was tense, hardly breathing, unsteady. 538 00:28:03,305 --> 00:28:06,172 He knew the dangers behind the weapon's science 539 00:28:06,241 --> 00:28:07,907 better than anyone. 540 00:28:11,179 --> 00:28:13,779 The pressure's unbelievable. Right. 541 00:28:13,848 --> 00:28:16,916 And even when you read their accounts, as they say, 542 00:28:17,051 --> 00:28:19,318 the tension, you could cut it with a knife. Mmhm. 543 00:28:19,354 --> 00:28:22,188 Everybody is uptight about what's gonna happen. Right. 544 00:28:22,257 --> 00:28:24,923 When you're talking about brand-new technology 545 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,194 on this kinda scale, how do you even know 546 00:28:28,263 --> 00:28:31,864 when you're ready to do it? At some point, you gotta push the button and go. 547 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,133 And they pushed it right here. Right. 548 00:28:34,169 --> 00:28:37,604 WILDMAN: The closest places 549 00:28:37,739 --> 00:28:39,805 from which people could view the test 550 00:28:39,875 --> 00:28:41,941 were three concrete bunkers. 551 00:28:42,010 --> 00:28:45,144 Each was located six miles away from the detonation site. 552 00:28:47,249 --> 00:28:49,282 What's this? So this is one of the bunkers? 553 00:28:49,284 --> 00:28:52,719 This is West 10,000, which was a camera bunker. Ah, okay. 554 00:28:52,821 --> 00:28:56,355 So cameras were pointed out up to ground zero, 555 00:28:56,424 --> 00:28:59,025 which is straight east, back up the hill, 556 00:28:59,094 --> 00:29:02,428 and that's ground zero where we just were. Oh, I see. There we go. Okay. 557 00:29:02,464 --> 00:29:06,099 So these guys, 5 and 1/2 miles away had a really good view of it. 558 00:29:09,370 --> 00:29:11,804 Wow, you can imagine the view right there. 559 00:29:17,245 --> 00:29:19,178 WILDMAN: At 5:29 a.m., 560 00:29:19,247 --> 00:29:21,981 in a brilliant burst of catastrophic power... 561 00:29:21,983 --> 00:29:25,118 [ Explosion blasts ] 562 00:29:25,253 --> 00:29:28,087 ...theory became reality. 563 00:29:31,593 --> 00:29:34,660 The tangle of wires, switches, levers, 564 00:29:34,663 --> 00:29:37,263 and detonators all worked in perfect unison 565 00:29:37,398 --> 00:29:40,867 to produce an explosion that burned brighter than the sun. 566 00:29:43,705 --> 00:29:46,472 A massive cloud billowed up to an elevation of some 567 00:29:46,508 --> 00:29:50,643 40,000 feet -- the light was seen nearly 200 miles away. 568 00:29:53,214 --> 00:29:55,481 Radioactive fallout was recorded as far as 569 00:29:55,550 --> 00:29:57,816 30 miles from ground zero. 570 00:29:57,852 --> 00:30:01,153 The first ever nuclear weapon had successfully detonated 571 00:30:01,189 --> 00:30:04,123 and was even more powerful than predicted. 572 00:30:07,695 --> 00:30:10,096 So what was the reaction to the explosion? 573 00:30:10,231 --> 00:30:12,365 I mean, how did people react? That's kind of complicated, 574 00:30:12,500 --> 00:30:14,900 because depending on your personality, 575 00:30:14,936 --> 00:30:16,702 there's a whole range of possibilities. 576 00:30:16,771 --> 00:30:19,105 Some people are very excited because it's a success. Right. 577 00:30:19,107 --> 00:30:21,441 All that work has worked. Right. 578 00:30:21,576 --> 00:30:24,777 Other people seeing the immediate results 579 00:30:24,813 --> 00:30:27,580 and realizing how big it is are a little more introspective, 580 00:30:27,715 --> 00:30:29,982 and they're thinking, "Oh, my God, Right. 581 00:30:30,018 --> 00:30:32,184 what have we let loose on the world?" 582 00:30:32,253 --> 00:30:34,921 WILDMAN: Groves, obviously, 583 00:30:35,056 --> 00:30:37,523 the military man, this is a major success. Right. 584 00:30:37,592 --> 00:30:39,591 I think his -- he's all practical. 585 00:30:39,628 --> 00:30:42,462 He looks at it as, "We succeeded. 586 00:30:42,464 --> 00:30:44,530 Next step, let's move on." 587 00:30:44,566 --> 00:30:47,400 WILDMAN: But not everyone involved in the project 588 00:30:47,469 --> 00:30:49,601 could just move on -- many reacted 589 00:30:49,637 --> 00:30:52,404 with fear and awe at what they'd created. 590 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:55,475 Famously, Oppenheimer described his reaction 591 00:30:55,576 --> 00:30:58,411 by using a phrase from Hindu scripture -- 592 00:30:58,546 --> 00:31:02,548 "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." 593 00:31:02,683 --> 00:31:05,752 [ Explosion blasts ] 594 00:31:09,124 --> 00:31:11,090 Right here, this barren, dusty desert, 595 00:31:11,225 --> 00:31:14,093 is the birthplace for the nuclear age. 596 00:31:14,162 --> 00:31:17,362 What began as an experiment three years earlier 597 00:31:17,399 --> 00:31:20,033 had produced a working nuclear bomb. 598 00:31:20,168 --> 00:31:22,502 The most powerful weapon of mass destruction 599 00:31:22,504 --> 00:31:25,304 was now in the sole control of the United State Government. 600 00:31:25,307 --> 00:31:28,141 So what should be done with it? 601 00:31:42,891 --> 00:31:45,658 On July 16, 1945, 602 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,127 the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert 603 00:31:48,196 --> 00:31:51,197 shook those in attendance to their very core. 604 00:31:51,266 --> 00:31:53,665 With a violent flash... 605 00:31:53,701 --> 00:31:55,935 [ Explosion blasts ] 606 00:31:56,070 --> 00:31:58,804 ...the world had unknowingly entered the Nuclear Age. 607 00:32:01,843 --> 00:32:04,743 War with Nazi Germany was over, 608 00:32:04,779 --> 00:32:07,146 but Japan refused to surrender. 609 00:32:07,281 --> 00:32:09,414 The choice of what to do next 610 00:32:09,451 --> 00:32:11,851 was now up to President Harry Truman. 611 00:32:17,625 --> 00:32:19,759 The Manhattan Project had delivered on its promise 612 00:32:19,761 --> 00:32:23,629 and given President Truman a weapon of unrivaled ferocity. 613 00:32:23,698 --> 00:32:27,032 Now Truman had to answer perhaps the most difficult 614 00:32:27,068 --> 00:32:29,434 question of his presidency and his life. 615 00:32:29,470 --> 00:32:32,438 Should these nuclear weapons be used in war? 616 00:32:35,476 --> 00:32:37,843 For a sense of what was going through Truman's mind 617 00:32:37,979 --> 00:32:40,980 at the time, I'm meeting someone with a unique perspective. 618 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:53,926 Clifton. Don. 619 00:32:53,995 --> 00:32:55,460 How you doin'? All right, how are you? 620 00:32:55,497 --> 00:32:57,263 Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. 621 00:32:57,332 --> 00:33:00,733 WILDMAN: Clifton Truman Daniel is the honorary chairman 622 00:33:00,802 --> 00:33:03,468 of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library 623 00:33:03,504 --> 00:33:06,138 and Museum here in Independence, Missouri. 624 00:33:06,274 --> 00:33:08,774 He's also President Truman's grandson. 625 00:33:15,149 --> 00:33:18,017 So set the scene for me -- 1945, the Trinity site 626 00:33:18,152 --> 00:33:21,353 test has been a success, so... Right. 627 00:33:21,389 --> 00:33:23,355 ...where is your grandfather then? 628 00:33:23,391 --> 00:33:27,092 Grandpa is in Potsdam with Stalin and Churchill, 629 00:33:27,128 --> 00:33:30,730 meeting to figure out how to end the war with Japan. Yeah. 630 00:33:34,302 --> 00:33:37,169 WILDMAN: In the summer of 1945, Japan and the U.S. 631 00:33:37,238 --> 00:33:39,438 were locked in fierce fighting, 632 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,441 and although Japan was being bombarded by relentless 633 00:33:42,477 --> 00:33:45,511 air raids, the Japanese refused to surrender. 634 00:33:45,646 --> 00:33:48,647 After the Trinity test is successful, 635 00:33:48,716 --> 00:33:51,183 what's Truman thinking? Two main options. 636 00:33:51,185 --> 00:33:53,251 One is now he's got the atomic bomb 637 00:33:53,288 --> 00:33:55,554 that he has just found out works. 638 00:33:55,590 --> 00:33:57,723 The other option, which is being discussed 639 00:33:57,725 --> 00:33:59,325 and has been discussed for months 640 00:33:59,394 --> 00:34:02,061 is Operation Downfall, the land invasion of Japan. 641 00:34:02,196 --> 00:34:04,863 But this invasion would be a bloodbath, right? 642 00:34:04,933 --> 00:34:07,133 That was the expectation. 643 00:34:07,268 --> 00:34:10,069 The operation in Japan was called Ketsugo, 644 00:34:10,204 --> 00:34:12,205 the Final Battle. Mmhm. 645 00:34:12,340 --> 00:34:15,674 They were stockpiling arms and equipment, tanks, 646 00:34:15,710 --> 00:34:19,812 airplanes, they were organizing civilian fighting corps. 647 00:34:19,947 --> 00:34:23,281 The expectation was that they were going to meet 648 00:34:23,318 --> 00:34:25,351 resistance from every quarter. Mmhm. 649 00:34:29,557 --> 00:34:31,357 WILDMAN: From the attack on Pearl Harbor 650 00:34:31,359 --> 00:34:33,692 to the kamikaze pilots in the South Pacific, 651 00:34:33,728 --> 00:34:36,962 Japan had proven it would do anything to win the war. 652 00:34:36,965 --> 00:34:40,165 Soldiers and civilians were now being trained 653 00:34:40,234 --> 00:34:42,902 in what amounted to suicide tactics. 654 00:34:43,037 --> 00:34:45,705 The Japanese were fully anticipating the invasion, 655 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:49,308 and the Americans suspected they would fight to the last man. 656 00:34:49,443 --> 00:34:52,845 Operation Downfall, the invasion of the Japanese 657 00:34:52,847 --> 00:34:56,048 home islands, would be the largest military endeavor 658 00:34:56,050 --> 00:34:57,650 in U.S. history. 659 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,986 The enormous operation would dwarf the D-Day invasions 660 00:35:00,989 --> 00:35:03,455 and would possibly extend World War II 661 00:35:03,491 --> 00:35:05,157 by several years. 662 00:35:07,628 --> 00:35:10,496 Wow! So this is a replica 663 00:35:10,531 --> 00:35:12,397 of Truman's Oval Office. Correct. 664 00:35:12,433 --> 00:35:14,399 It's beautiful, huh? 665 00:35:14,435 --> 00:35:16,735 But everything in here is as it was in the day. 666 00:35:16,804 --> 00:35:18,470 That's the actual chair he used. 667 00:35:18,539 --> 00:35:22,007 Not only does Truman have to take over the presidency, 668 00:35:22,043 --> 00:35:24,210 you know, in the middle of World War II, 669 00:35:24,212 --> 00:35:26,612 but he also finds out he now owns 670 00:35:26,614 --> 00:35:30,283 the most destructive weapon in the history of mankind. 671 00:35:30,418 --> 00:35:33,352 Right, this is unprecedented. 672 00:35:33,388 --> 00:35:36,689 The idea of nuclear weapons, known only to the scientists 673 00:35:36,824 --> 00:35:39,291 known to the Manhattan Project, now he's got 674 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,561 this enormous weapon at his disposal. Yeah. 675 00:35:42,697 --> 00:35:44,296 So what does he do? 676 00:35:44,332 --> 00:35:47,566 For him, the decision -- I can't say 677 00:35:47,568 --> 00:35:50,035 it was an easy decision, but his overriding concern, 678 00:35:50,071 --> 00:35:53,172 end the war as quickly as possible and with as little 679 00:35:53,174 --> 00:35:55,507 possible loss of life on the American side. 680 00:35:55,576 --> 00:35:58,844 WILDMAN: Truman's decision would change the world forever. 681 00:36:15,804 --> 00:36:18,737 WILDMAN: July 26, 1945. 682 00:36:18,773 --> 00:36:21,807 The United States is still at war with Japan, 683 00:36:21,843 --> 00:36:24,276 and President Truman must decide whether to use 684 00:36:24,345 --> 00:36:27,813 his new weapon, a nuclear bomb, against the Japanese. 685 00:36:27,849 --> 00:36:31,416 Truman issues a warning to the Japanese -- 686 00:36:31,453 --> 00:36:35,153 surrender or face prompt and utter destruction. 687 00:36:35,190 --> 00:36:38,357 Japan did not surrender. 688 00:36:38,393 --> 00:36:42,061 Just after 2:30 a.m. 689 00:36:42,130 --> 00:36:44,763 on August 6, 1945, 690 00:36:44,799 --> 00:36:47,700 a B-29 Superfortress bomber launched 691 00:36:47,835 --> 00:36:49,902 from the Pacific island of Tinian. 692 00:36:49,904 --> 00:36:52,739 [ Propellers whirring ] 693 00:36:55,443 --> 00:36:57,510 At 8:15 a.m., 694 00:36:57,579 --> 00:36:59,512 a single bomb was released, 695 00:36:59,581 --> 00:37:01,647 and the city of Hiroshima became the first 696 00:37:01,649 --> 00:37:03,716 victim of a nuclear weapon. 697 00:37:12,793 --> 00:37:15,661 Those closest to the blast were killed instantly. 698 00:37:15,730 --> 00:37:18,130 Others would suffer for weeks and months 699 00:37:18,166 --> 00:37:20,933 before succumbing to the effects of radiation. 700 00:37:20,969 --> 00:37:24,002 Three days later, 701 00:37:24,038 --> 00:37:27,206 Japan had still not surrendered, and so a second bomb 702 00:37:27,242 --> 00:37:30,309 was dropped, this time, on the city of Nagasaki. 703 00:37:41,956 --> 00:37:44,290 The combined death toll from the two nuclear bombs 704 00:37:44,425 --> 00:37:47,660 was at least 200,000 people. 705 00:37:49,497 --> 00:37:51,763 When word of the extent of the devastation spread, 706 00:37:51,799 --> 00:37:54,233 shock resonated around the world. 707 00:37:54,235 --> 00:37:57,169 Einstein was appalled and regretted having 708 00:37:57,238 --> 00:37:59,639 any role in its creation. 709 00:37:59,774 --> 00:38:01,840 Oppenheimer confessed to the president 710 00:38:01,910 --> 00:38:04,177 that he felt he had blood on his hands. 711 00:38:07,815 --> 00:38:10,449 Little more than a week after the first 712 00:38:10,485 --> 00:38:13,586 nuclear bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 713 00:38:13,588 --> 00:38:16,322 the people of Japan heard their emperor's voice 714 00:38:16,457 --> 00:38:18,857 on the radio for the first time. 715 00:38:18,893 --> 00:38:21,394 He was announcing Japan's surrender. 716 00:38:21,529 --> 00:38:24,130 The Second World War was over, 717 00:38:24,132 --> 00:38:27,733 but the age of nuclear warfare had only just begun. 718 00:38:27,802 --> 00:38:30,803 History is full of what-if moments 719 00:38:30,872 --> 00:38:33,538 that leave people wondering, and the Manhattan Project 720 00:38:33,574 --> 00:38:35,875 is no exception -- what if the bombs 721 00:38:35,877 --> 00:38:37,476 had been ready earlier? 722 00:38:37,545 --> 00:38:39,278 Would they have been used on Germany? 723 00:38:39,413 --> 00:38:41,280 What if the Nazis had their own bomb? 724 00:38:41,415 --> 00:38:43,482 Was this even a possibility? 725 00:38:43,484 --> 00:38:46,319 And what if the weapons had never been used at all? 726 00:38:51,993 --> 00:38:55,294 For answers, I'm meeting again with Dr. Alex Wellerstein. 727 00:38:55,330 --> 00:38:59,365 So did the Manhattan Project succeed in what it was trying to do? 728 00:38:59,367 --> 00:39:03,035 It really depends on what you mean by success. 729 00:39:03,071 --> 00:39:06,171 In the sense that, yes, they made atomic bombs 730 00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:09,976 that were ready to be used in war and were usable 731 00:39:10,111 --> 00:39:13,045 before the end of the war, in that sense, total success. 732 00:39:13,081 --> 00:39:16,048 Uh, did it end the war, 733 00:39:16,050 --> 00:39:19,718 did it change the world after war in a positive way? 734 00:39:19,754 --> 00:39:22,321 This really depends on who you ask. Mmhm. 735 00:39:25,593 --> 00:39:27,727 WILDMAN: Many people believe that dropping the nuclear bombs 736 00:39:27,862 --> 00:39:30,396 on Japan was what ended World War II, 737 00:39:30,531 --> 00:39:32,732 but maybe that's not completely true. 738 00:39:32,734 --> 00:39:36,134 Some historians argue that it was Russia's attack 739 00:39:36,170 --> 00:39:39,138 on Japan that hastened their surrender. 740 00:39:39,207 --> 00:39:42,341 The first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th. 741 00:39:42,343 --> 00:39:44,477 The second one was dropped on August 9th. 742 00:39:44,479 --> 00:39:46,945 Just before the second one is dropped, the Soviet Union 743 00:39:46,981 --> 00:39:49,749 declares war on Japan, so there is some evidence 744 00:39:49,884 --> 00:39:51,884 that that played a lot of role. 745 00:39:52,019 --> 00:39:54,086 Now did it -- was it that and the atomic bombs? 746 00:39:54,155 --> 00:39:56,689 How can you know? We can't rerun history. 747 00:39:59,627 --> 00:40:01,293 WILDMAN: People working on the Manhattan Project 748 00:40:01,296 --> 00:40:03,562 believed they were in a race against the Nazis, 749 00:40:03,564 --> 00:40:05,831 but was that ever really true? 750 00:40:05,900 --> 00:40:09,301 So in the end, how far did the Germans really get 751 00:40:09,304 --> 00:40:12,305 in developing a bomb? At the same time that 752 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:14,307 the United States was starting the Manhattan Project, 753 00:40:14,442 --> 00:40:16,041 the Germans decided not to do it. 754 00:40:16,077 --> 00:40:19,645 They decided to research instead nuclear reactors with the idea 755 00:40:19,780 --> 00:40:21,781 that maybe you could use them as a propulsion device, 756 00:40:21,916 --> 00:40:24,783 but it was a very small program. Wow, it was never a threat really. 757 00:40:24,852 --> 00:40:26,519 It never was a threat. 758 00:40:26,521 --> 00:40:28,987 So even this narrative of it being this race with Germany, 759 00:40:29,023 --> 00:40:31,457 it's something that the United States believed 760 00:40:31,459 --> 00:40:34,193 for a while, but it was never really true -- it's not a race 761 00:40:34,328 --> 00:40:36,595 if only one person is running. Right. 762 00:40:36,731 --> 00:40:38,797 WILDMAN: But it wasn't long 763 00:40:38,866 --> 00:40:40,799 before the U.S. lost their nuclear monopoly. 764 00:40:40,868 --> 00:40:44,469 Just four years later, with help from the information 765 00:40:44,505 --> 00:40:46,805 gleaned by spies, the Soviet Union 766 00:40:46,874 --> 00:40:49,675 successfully tested their first nuclear device. 767 00:40:56,818 --> 00:40:58,884 In the years that followed, seven more nations 768 00:40:59,020 --> 00:41:00,753 would join them. 769 00:41:00,888 --> 00:41:03,122 The Manhattan Project may have ended one war 770 00:41:03,191 --> 00:41:07,159 only to start another -- the Cold War. 771 00:41:07,195 --> 00:41:09,495 So where does the Manhattan Project land us today? 772 00:41:09,497 --> 00:41:12,164 We essentially in the United States are 773 00:41:12,233 --> 00:41:15,234 a sort of post-Manhattan Project country. 774 00:41:15,236 --> 00:41:17,969 Many of the things that were started and were novel 775 00:41:18,006 --> 00:41:20,372 in the Manhattan Project had become a normal way 776 00:41:20,408 --> 00:41:23,642 of life for Americans -- uh, spending huge amounts 777 00:41:23,645 --> 00:41:25,377 of money on science and technology, 778 00:41:25,446 --> 00:41:28,381 the secrecy, the sense that there's stuff going on 779 00:41:28,516 --> 00:41:30,716 behind the scenes, all of those things 780 00:41:30,718 --> 00:41:32,718 sort of start with the Manhattan Project, 781 00:41:32,787 --> 00:41:34,253 and then they persist. 782 00:41:38,593 --> 00:41:41,727 Although the Manhattan Project is long since passed, 783 00:41:41,862 --> 00:41:44,864 the reality it created, one in which weapons 784 00:41:44,866 --> 00:41:47,533 of unfathomable force exist, 785 00:41:47,602 --> 00:41:50,069 is the reality we live in today. 786 00:41:50,071 --> 00:41:52,938 The bombs it produced annihilated the Japanese 787 00:41:52,974 --> 00:41:55,140 cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 788 00:41:55,209 --> 00:41:58,410 To this day, these remain the only wartime uses 789 00:41:58,446 --> 00:42:00,946 of nuclear weapons, but it ushered in 790 00:42:01,082 --> 00:42:04,150 a new age, one in which nations raced 791 00:42:04,285 --> 00:42:06,752 to create their own nuclear arsenals. 792 00:42:06,821 --> 00:42:10,489 Today, nine countries control their own nuclear weaponry, 793 00:42:10,491 --> 00:42:13,025 enough to kill millions of people and destroy 794 00:42:13,094 --> 00:42:15,227 countless cities and towns. 795 00:42:15,362 --> 00:42:18,764 The Manhattan Project no doubt changed the world forever, 796 00:42:18,766 --> 00:42:21,100 but whether it was for the better or worse 797 00:42:21,235 --> 00:42:24,503 remains fiercely debated and always will be. 797 00:42:25,305 --> 00:43:25,393