Customer Reviews

Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project (Quality Paperbacks Series)

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I read this book in the early 1960's when it was first published. I was in engineering school then, in India, and my interest in reading the book was to learn the story of the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century. The book is so fascinating and so readable that I read it in four hours without interruption and then went back to the first page and read it again in the next four hours. I wanted to memorize every event in the book, word for word. What fascinated me about the book was not only the scientific aspects of atomic energy and the development of the atom bomb, which are described in layman's terms, but the extraordinary skills and drive of General Leslie Groves in taking the project from concept to fruition, notwithstanding the sinister goal of the project. It is one of the best project management books I have ever read. It built in me a tremendous respect for the ability of Americans to carry out such a complex project in a time critical situation. Oppenheimer got all the glory of being the father of the atom bomb, but it was General Leslie Groves who was the driving force behind it. Without him the project would not have succeeded in such difficult times. I think the book should be a required reading in all business management schools.

Gen. Groves deputy on the Manhatten Project, Gen. Keith Nichols, was once asked what he thought of he thought of Groves. He began by saying "Leslie Groves is the biggest son-of-a $%&%* I ever met in my life" and ended by saying that of all the people he'd met in his life, he didn't think any of them could have done as well as Groves in running the Manhatten Project. I think that if he'd been put in charge in Jan. of '43, instead of Sept., the war probably would have ended earlier, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. This book shows him at his egotistical best and worst, and is essential for understanding how and why the U.S. got the bomb before Japan was invaded. Just don't expect any modesty at all.

I read this book in the early 1960's when it was first published. I was in engineering school then, in India, and my interest in reading the book was to learn the story of the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century. The book is so fascinating and so readable that I read it in four hours without interruption and then went back to the first page and read it again in the next four hours. I wanted to memorize every event in the book, word for word. What fascinated me about the book was not only the scientific aspects of atomic energy and the development of the atom bomb, which are described in layman's terms, but the extraordinary skills and drive of General Leslie Groves in taking the project from concept to fruition, notwithstanding the sinister goal of the project. It is one of the best project management books I have ever read. It built in me a tremendous respect for the ability of Americans to carry out such a complex project in a time critical situation. Oppenheimer got all the glory of being the father of the atom bomb, but it was General Leslie Groves who was the driving force behind it. Without him the project would not have succeeded in such difficult times. I think the book should be a required reading in all business management schools.

General Groves was the head of the Manhattan Project, which developed and built the atomic bomb during World War II. This book is his own version of how it happened. The book certainly confirms the legends about Groves being a colorful and determined individual. Groves shamelessly includes in the book a copy of a memo from a White House official saying that General Groves shouldn't be appointed head of the project, because he "lacked the necessary tact" to deal with the scientists! Groves gives an enjoyable and interesting account of what he did, and why he did it. He is self-serving on rare occasions, but doesn't hesitate to include incidents where he made a mistake. He also includes amusing stories such as the raid on Fort Knox for hundreds of tons of silver for wire to use in a sophisticated machine (copper was too hard to get due to its other uses in the war effort); and the tale of the Treasury Department auditors who required DuPont Corporation to return thirty-one cents of their one dollar profit on their "cost plus a dollar" project to construct a factory costing tens of millions of dollars. The flow of the book occasionally suffers, because Groves will break the continuity to follow a special topic all the way through to the end of the war. However it is still great reading. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject, or anyone interested in management of large projects.

Groves has done a good job describing the aspects of the Manhattan Project outside of the Los Alamos facility. The scale and complexity of the project including material production (Hanford and Oak Ridge), security, air force preparations, etc. are the backbone of this book. If you're interested in the activities at Los Alamos, the immense technical hurdles that were overcome by probably the most brilliant team of scientists and engineers ever assembled, look elsewhere. Graves is also very short on emotion; for example his description of Trinity was like someone giving directions to the local McDonalds.

Groves presents the story of the Manhattan Project from the outset of the project through the bombing of Japan and follows-up with the post-war years. The first third of the book is very dry. There is a lot of discussion about construction and personnel that goes on and on, but don't give up! Once Groves gets past this the book really gets interesting. The workings of the project, the dealings between the scientists and the military men, the description of the lengths they went to to keep this gigantic mission secret are all fascinating. Groves himself comes across as an interesting man. While there is not a lot of emotion expressed, the persistence with which he pursued the goal, and his thinking along the way, say quite a lot about Groves. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the Manhattan Project.

As you can tell from the title this book is the definitive book on the making of the atomic bomb by the man in charge of the project.

I liked this book a lot, but have to admit the project management aspects of it are a little daunting. General Groves spends roughly the first 200 pages explaining how he managed to herd large numbers of people in the private, military and academic world into one project with a limited amount of time and a massive amount of money.

What I thought was fascinating was there was buy in from the private sector with little or no financial gain but rather the great possibility of financial destruction. The DuPont Corporation, to a board member, was willing to accept this risk without hesitation. This was apparently, common among many different companies and organizations throughout the nation.

It was truly a national project the likes of which had never been completed before. It simply makes a person wonder if our nation could ever manage to pull together the people, material and knowledge in the current state of affairs.

Among the most interesting aspects of this book are the descriptions of the Alsos Missions and the coordinated attempt to locate and capture European scientists, their equipment and uranium during the invasion of mainland Europe. This critical mission proved attempted to provide information regarding the status of the German bomb program.

Something else that was interesting occurred when watching the movie Fat Man and Little Boy (a movie loosely built around the making of the bomb) when I realized the movie compresses years of time into 10 minutes worth of viewing. Years of preparation and understanding were compressed into one small scene leaving the viewer with little concept of the mammoth nature of the Manhattan Project.

Ultimately, that is why we read books. So we can get the entire story.

If you liked this book then you might want to read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhoads. Another book, one that truly is one of the best books I've ever read, would be American Prometheus, the biography of Oppenheimer. Both reads are excellent companions to Groves rather interesting book.

`NOW IT CAN BE TOLD
The story of the Manhattan Project' by Leslie R. Groves

Academics record memoirs. So the story of the atomic bomb by and about physicists, mathematicians, and other academics are many. Military people, in comparison, write less frequently. So General Leslie Groves `Now it Can be Told' fills a unique need, particularly for the post-WW2 anti-Vietnam generation.

The philosophical clash is obvious: military discipline v's academic freedom; force of arms v's pursuit of knowledge; free enquiry v's security with "compartmentalization of knowledge"; freedom v's discipline; management v's theoreticians; power v's idealism; or such comparisons.

Groves presents a factual account of the project management being "an even greater adventure into the unknown than the first voyage of Columbus" in which "never in history has anyone embarking ... had so little certainty" as "there has never been an improvement in weapons comparable in degree and sudden impact to the atomic bomb". From grand construction, security, relations with the British, intelligence from Germany and Japan, often minor detail, plus insights of honesty such as General Eisenhower "I have so many things to deal with that it puts an undue burden on me to be given any secret information, as I am forced to think what is secret and what is not."

Groves shoves the physics into place: "The need for a sound knowledge of atomic physics was much less vital..." for "...it is not extraordinarily difficult for anyone who will apply himself ... to understand the basic principles of atomic physics". He describes the priority of the nation to achieve success partly because of the amazing response of USA firms such as du Pont and Allis Chalmers. He dismisses academic anti-management advice. And when it is all over the withdrawal symptoms are clear.

Yet our generation can but wish for more personal detail. Here is a man who dealt with Einstein, Oppenheimer, Teller, etc plus USA presidents and politicians. Here is a disciplined management/military general who intersperses, perhaps surprisingly, at least six welcome humorous paragraphs. It matters not that the neutron waits 55 pages for a fleeting mention. But it is regretful that General Groves neglects his own background, his CV and prior knowledge of physics for example. We wait for the third last paragraph of the book to find:

"When I was a boy, I lived with my father in a number of the Army posts that had sprung up during the Indian wars ... There I came to know many of the old soldiers and scouts who devoted their active lives to winning the West. And as I listened to the story of their deeds, I grew somewhat dismayed, wondering what was left for me to do now that the West was won." Yet he does not mention that his father was a military pastor.

There is sadly no feeling for the inter-relationships between Groves and Oppenheimer who he appointed while "thoroughly familiar with everything that had been reported about [him]" but gives no detail. How theoretical physics cascaded down to management requirements. Or even why 1250 tons of uranium ore had been previously mined in the Belgium Congo. What for? And finally why two bombs, U235 and plutonium, were necessary to end the war and save lives rather than one.

In comparison, Groves gives satisfying detail in describing the reaction of captured German physicists - including Otto Hahn and Werner Heisenberg - to the news "If they have really got it, they must have been very clever in keeping it a secret" ... "That shows the Americans are capable of real co-operation on a tremendous scale".

May be my opinion is a little biased because I am also an engineer, but the concise way this book is written is marvelous. The right ammount of detail so you are informed but not overwhelmed with data. It is interesting because the movies on the theme always focus on parts of the project; Groves, shows the whole picture so you get a technician's idea of how the complete project worked.

After reading the Making of the Atomic Bomb, I thought I would get a view point from on of the actual participants. General Groves had an eclectic story keeping all his crazy scientists in line to meet an objective. Then handing the construction of the facilities and checking on the progress of the Germans.

It was interesting to see how he handeled the new recruites as well as the intelectuals. I enjoyed learning about how Handford was set up to be all automated, most books you only hear about Oak Ridge. I thought their willingness to try every avenue to get to the enrichment process seemed desprate. They were afraid that Germany was so far ahead. They took what they knew and were constantly trying to improve on it.

I like learning about the spys that he had under his command to see where Germany was and not to give up and complete his task when he found out there was not any progress in Germany.

He was an interesting character who got the job done.