Einstein

Albert Einstein is possibly one of the most incredible and renowned scientists the world has ever known. Born in 1879, Einstein lived a long and successful life of 76 years until he died of heart failure on April 16th of 1955. Though his death was mourned by millions because of the incredible amount of scientific discoveries he made in his lifetime, what he is remembered for, in respect to the Cold War, was a letter he wrote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on august 2nd of 1939. He begins this letter by stating that “some recent work…leads [him] to believe that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future.” He continues to explain how a nuclear chain reaction can be set up in a large mass of uranium, in other words, his discoveries led to the construction of the most powerful and destructive bomb the world has ever known. Within this well written and thought-out letter, Einstein delves into any complications that may occur, and he also continues to explain certain methods to go about in constructing and setting off this bomb. Without Albert Einstein and his seemingly unlimited amount of knowledge, the Atomic Bomb would have never been constructed. This is the bomb that officially ended WWII; it was also the bomb that demonstrated the infinite amount of power that the United States maintained. This set the standard for every country around the world, and allowed America to become nothing short of a superpower. If Einstein had never made these discoveries, it is possible that the cold War would have never begun, or there is potential that we could have lost in WWII. In short, Albert Einstein, with the assistance of other scholars, prevented a seemingly detrimental situation through his discovery of Uranium. Out of all of his accomplishments, this could possibly be the most important in respects to the past, present, and future of America.