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Ben McCarthy
Professor Kimberly Lark
History 153
11 June 2015
The Manhattan Project: A Guarded Secret
During the course of the Second World War, many different approaches were taken by warring nations. Some continued to fight through trench warfare, air battles, and underwater escapades. Others, on the other hand, began to develop new technologies that gave them the upper hand in battle. There were new innovations in war machines such as guns, tanks, aircrafts and other common weapons. As the war continued, victory seemed as if it were a distant hope for both sides. It was then that the United States government, along with the help of the British, decided to take action to end this deadly disaster as soon as possible. It had been recently discovered that there was one weapon that stood out from the others like a sore thumb, and that was the atomic bomb. The United States decided to embark in the process of making atomic bombs, choosing New York as their headquarters for the project, hence the commonly used name
“The Manhattan Project.” This project was meant to be extremely deadly, and only used if necessary. Therefore, the upmost secrecy and protection was used when dealing with the bombs.
The Allies did not want the Axis powers to find out about this project, or gain any information on the development and construction of the deadly weapons of mass destruction. The Manhattan project ended up being one of the best and the worst kept secrets during World War Two.
Espionage was also major component during this war. As the British and the Americans thought and tried hard and long to keep the secrets of the bomb from reaching the hands of the

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Nazis, they continued to strengthen their strict security protocols. There was a tight series of federal actions taken towards keeping the project a classified secret. As the months continued, federal agents would target and survey Nazi sympathizers and do constant routine security checks on every employee building the bomb. This allowed the workers to continue their research without losing the information to a treacherous coworker. New York Times journalist
Sam Roberts wrote about how in order to counter any espionage, federal agents would also create dummy companies such as insurance companies and other businesses to gain as much information about possible threats to the project and the nation.
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These security measures were put in place and they were followed. Engineers working on the bombs were not allowed to speak of their work, or take any of it home. Professor Albright, one of the engineers involved in the creation of the bomb, mentioned in his memoir how there were ten to twelve engineers and they were taken into different wings every so often.
2 As the project progressed they were given deeper and deeper credentials and authorization to work on more dangerous aspects of the bomb, with constant checks and secrecy contracts being signed along the way.
The government was able to keep this secret from spilling into the hands of the Germans, but there were some occasional leaks to the public. These leaks, however, were mostly taken as false rumors created by the general public and the government liked to keep them that way. As great and secret as the
United States and the British were able to keep the creation of the bomb and development information from the Germans, they soon began to realize just how much they accidentally left for the Russians to pick up.
The Second World War prompted many alliances, with the Allies and the Axis being the big two. The Axis were composed of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Allies were Britain,
America, and the USSR and although they were Allies, the Americans and the Brits decided not

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Russia in the dark. Lucky for them, Russia didn’t trust them either, and during World War Two they embarked in one of their biggest and most expansive series of foreign espionage in their history. The Russian government decided to spy constantly on both the Americans and the
British, making massive security and scientific information readily available to themselves.
According to an article from the Smithsonian, they were able to find out about the decision to make the nuclear bomb within days, thanks to an informant within the British.
3 They were also able to encounter and infiltrate the workforce involved with the research. With a tight connection of spies and sources near the creation of the bomb. According to an article from the
Department of Energy, there were a few notable spies during this time, such as Klaus Fuchs and
Theodore Hall. These two were supporters of Russia and worked in Alamos during the tesing of the Atomic bombs. They would constantly relay information through different middleman sources and get the intelligence into the hands of the Soviets.
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With the information being disclosed to the Russians so easily, the Manhattan project ended up being a very unsuccessful secret from them.
During the time that the Manhattan Project was going on, the main goal was to prevent
Nazi Germany from gaining any information. In that, the United States and the British
Governments succeeded, and allowed for the creation of the bomb and the prevention of an even longer war. In stopping the Soviets from getting involved and finding out about their scientific discoveries and creations, they failed. With this, it can be concluded that the Manhattan Project was one of the best kept secrets from Germany, but one of the most infiltrated ones from the
Soviets.

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Endnotes
1.
For a better look at tacticts used by federal agents, see Roberts, Sam. "The Difficulties of
Nuclear Containment." The New York Times
2.
An in depth look at working on the nuclear bomb, see Albright, Lyle F., Prof. "Prof.
Albright's Memoir of the Manhattan Project."
3.
Holmes, Maria S. "Spies Who Spilled Atomic Bomb Secrets." Smithsonian .
4.
For a list of Soviet Spies, see Fehner, Terrence R. "Manhattan Project: Espionage and the
Manhattan Project, 1940-1945." Manhattan Project: Espionage and the Manhattan
Project

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Annotated Bibliography
Albright, Lyle F., Prof. "Prof. Albright's Memoir of the Manhattan Project." - Chemical
Engineering . Purdue University, 13 May 2005. Web. 11 June 2015.
<https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/AboutUs/News/ProfAlbrightsmemoiroftheManhattanP roject>. The content in this source described the security measures and the steps taken in order to maintain the engineers working on the project safe. This source is a firsthand account from one of the engineers involved in the creation of the Atomic Bomb.
Roberts, Sam. "The Difficulties of Nuclear Containment." The New York Times . The New York
Times, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 June 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/science/espionage-threatened-the-manhattan-projectdeclassified-report-says.html>. This Historical Newspaper article provided information on how federal agents were able to catch any Nazi supporter to prevent the Germans from gaining access to the nuclear bomb.
Holmes, Maria S. "Spies Who Spilled Atomic Bomb Secrets." Smithsonian . Smithsonian
Institution, 19 Apr. 2009. Web. 11 June 2015.
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/spies-who-spilled-atomic-bomb-secrets-
127922660/?no-ist>. This article from a US government magazine provided information about espionage and access to information from the Soviets on the Manhattan Project.
Fehner, Terrence R. "Manhattan Project: Espionage and the Manhattan Project, 1940-1945."
Manhattan Project: Espionage and the Manhattan Project, 1940-1945 . The Department of

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Energy, n.d. Web. 11 June 2015. <https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-projecthistory/Events/1942-1945/espionage.htm>. This information is direct from the Department of Energy of the United States of America. It was used to provide examples of spies and espionage during the development and testing of the atomic bomb