Editing Leslie Groves (section)

== After the war ==
[[File:Army-Navy E Award Ceremony 68997.jpg|thumb|right|Presentation of the [[Army-Navy "E" Award]] at Los Alamos on 16 October 1945. Standing, left to right: [[J. Robert Oppenheimer|Oppenheimer]], unidentified, unidentified, [[Kenneth Nichols]], Groves, [[Robert Gordon Sproul|Robert Sproul]], [[William Sterling Parsons|William Parsons]].|alt=Men in suits and uniforms stand on a dais decorated with bunting and salute.]]
Responsibility for [[nuclear power]] and [[nuclear weapons]] was transferred from the Manhattan District to the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] on 1 January 1947.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|1985|pp=596–601}}</ref> On 29 January 1947, the Secretary of War, [[Robert P. Patterson]], and the [[Secretary of the Navy]], [[James V. Forrestal]], issued a joint directive creating the [[Armed Forces Special Weapons Project]] (AFSWP) to control the military aspects of nuclear weapons. Groves was appointed its chief on 28 February 1947. In April, AFSWP moved from the New War Department Building to the fifth floor of the Pentagon. Groves had already made a start on the new mission by creating [[Sandia Base]] in 1946.<ref>{{harvnb|Norris|2002|pp=490–491}}</ref>

The [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army]], [[General of the Army (United States)|General of the Army]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], met with Groves on 30 January 1948 to evaluate his performance. Eisenhower recounted a long list of complaints about Groves pertaining to his rudeness, arrogance, insensitivity, contempt for the rules, and maneuvering for promotion out of turn. Eisenhower made it clear that Groves would never become [[List of United States Army Corps of Engineers Chiefs of Engineers|Chief of Engineers]].<ref name="Norris 2002 502–504">{{harvnb|Norris|2002|pp=502–504}}</ref>

Groves realized that in the rapidly shrinking postwar military he would not be given any assignment similar in importance to the one he had held in the Manhattan Project, as such posts would go to combat commanders returning from overseas, and he decided to leave the Army.<ref name="Norris 2002 502–504"/> In recognition of his leadership of the Manhattan Project, he received an honorary promotion to [[Lieutenant general (United States)|lieutenant general]] by special Act of Congress,<ref name="Groves_biography">{{cite web |url=https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/leslie-r-groves/ |title=Biographies: Leslie R. Groves |author=<!--Not stated-->|website=National Museum of the United States Army |access-date=July 1, 2023}}</ref> effective 24 January 1948, just before his retirement on 29 February 1948. His date of rank was backdated to 16 July 1945, the date of the [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity nuclear test]].<ref name="Cullum 1950" />