Editing Albert Einstein (section)

==== World War II and the Manhattan Project ====
{{See also|Einstein–Szilárd letter}}
[[File:Einstein-Roosevelt-letter.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Facsimile of the [[Einstein–Szilard letter]]]]
In 1939, a group of Hungarian scientists that included émigré physicist [[Leó Szilárd]] attempted to alert [[Washington, D.C.]] to ongoing Nazi atomic bomb research. The group's warnings were discounted. Einstein and Szilárd, along with other refugees such as [[Edward Teller]] and [[Eugene Wigner]], {{qi|regarded it as their responsibility to alert Americans to the possibility that German scientists might win the [[German nuclear energy project|race to build an atomic bomb]], and to warn that Hitler would be more than willing to resort to such a weapon.}}{{sfnp|Isaacson|2007|p=630}}<ref name="o4fkQ"/> To make certain the US was aware of the danger, in July 1939, a few months before the beginning of World War II in Europe, Szilárd and Wigner visited Einstein to explain the possibility of atomic bombs, which Einstein, a pacifist, said he had never considered.<ref name="pRqWK"/> He was asked to lend his support by writing [[Einstein–Szilard letter|a letter]], with Szilárd, to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], recommending the US pay attention and engage in its own nuclear weapons research.

The letter is believed to be {{qi|arguably the key stimulus for the U.S. adoption of serious investigations into nuclear weapons on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II}}.<ref name="4Z68g"/> In addition to the letter, Einstein used his connections with the [[Belgian royal family]]<ref name="eZym8"/> and the Belgian queen mother to get access with a personal envoy to the White House's Oval Office. Some say that as a result of Einstein's letter and his meetings with Roosevelt, the US entered the "race" to develop the bomb, drawing on its "immense material, financial, and scientific resources" to initiate the [[Manhattan Project]].

For Einstein, {{qi|war was a disease{{nbs}}... [and] he called for resistance to war.}} By signing the letter to Roosevelt, some argue he went against his pacifist principles.<ref name="z73PK"/> In 1954, a year before his death, Einstein said to his old friend, [[Linus Pauling]], {{qi|I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them{{nbs}}...}}{{Sfnp|Clark|1971|p=752}} In 1955, Einstein and ten other intellectuals and scientists, including British philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]], signed [[Russell–Einstein Manifesto|a manifesto]] highlighting the danger of nuclear weapons.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Einstein |first1=Albert |url=https://pugwash.org/1955/07/09/statement-manifesto/ |title=The Russell-Einstein Manifesto |last2=Russell |first2=Bertrand |date=9 July 1955 |publisher=Pugwash Conferences |location=London |access-date=9 June 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301114337/https://pugwash.org/1955/07/09/statement-manifesto/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1960 Einstein was included posthumously as a charter member of the [[World Academy of Art and Science]] (WAAS),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyko |first1=Hugo |title=Science and the Future of Mankind |publisher=Indiana University Press |page=377 |url=https://www.worldacademy.org/files/publications/Science%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Mankind.pdf}}</ref> an organization founded by distinguished scientists and intellectuals who committed themselves to the responsible and ethical advances of science, particularly in light of the development of nuclear weapons.