Szilard’s campaign against dropping the atomic bomb
Question one
It was a challenging experience for me to locate the required primary sources. In the beginning, I thought that t had located the sources only for me to realize that there were not actual and did not contain the exact information I was looking for. However, the previous research that I have done was less complicated compared to this exercise.
Question two
I was able to locate the interview with Tom Evans who was a close ally of President Truman as they combined efforts to have Truman support their campaign against the use of atomic bombs. It was easy to locate the interview from the Truman Library Archives using the search terms “Tom Evans Interview”. The search brought about several links all titled “Oral History Interview with Tom L. Evans” with different dates. Since I was sure on the right link, I chose the oldest which happened to be the exact one that I was looking for. The page contained hyperlinks that had various subjects among them “Atomic Bomb.” The link was: https://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/evans.htm.
Question three
It was not difficult to locate the petition against the use of atomic bomb circulated by Szilard directed towards President Truman as it was in the National Security Archive. I used several search terms that seemed to lead nowhere. However, when I specified my search to include “nuclear vault” I was directed to an NSA webpage was turned out to be useful. The page contained a hyperlink “Atomic Archive” which when I used the terms “Leo Szilard Petition” resulted in the exact document I wanted. The link was https://www.atomicarchive.com/Dos/ManhattanProject/petition.shtml.
Question four
I managed to locate the interview with Lilli Hornig who was the scientist that signed Szilard’s petition against the use of atomic bomb. The search terms; “Lilli Hornig interview, atomic bomb” were crucial in the search. The link for the interview is https://manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/lilli-hornigs-interview.