# How much did Truman know about the Manhattan project before he became President? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615 "2015-07-19T16:01:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/1 "2015-07-19T16:01:52Z")
Famously as VP Truman and his predecessor were not included in the need to know about the Manhattan project. However, Truman as a Senator in the early part of the war discovered in his role as a committee Chair about some astronomical expenses on some unknown project (which was in fact the Manhattan project) and launched an inquiry. He then spoke to the Secretary of War, who gave him an answer which satisfied him. Anyone know what the Secretary told him? And as a result how much did Truman the man know before his succession as opposed to Truman the VP? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/2 "2015-07-19T16:16:16Z")
The Secretary of War said that the project was the utmost secret of the war and that the White House wanted it to go ahead, but that he couldn’t disclose any information, and so he asked Truman to call off the investigation, which Truman did. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/3 "2015-07-19T17:13:52Z")
So he knew that there was an extremely expensive project, but not what it was for, except perhaps that it was for a new and powerful weapon. Am I correct in guessing that this was more than what he would have told as VP? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/4 "2015-07-19T17:27:12Z")
[This article](http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-is-briefed-on-manhattan-project) implies Truman didn’t know about the atomic bomb project before FDR died. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/5 "2015-07-19T17:30:18Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > So he knew that there was an extremely expensive project, but not what it was for, except perhaps that it was for a new and powerful weapon. > > Am I correct in guessing that this was more than what he would have told as VP? How did they conceal the enormous budget of the Manhattan project? They would up building whole towns (Oak Ridge, Hanford, etc.)-how did Congress vote on all of this without knowing anything? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/6 "2015-07-19T18:01:52Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > … how did Congress vote on all of this without knowing anything? Habit? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/7 "2015-07-19T18:22:15Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > How did they conceal the enormous budget of the Manhattan project? They would up building whole towns (Oak Ridge, Hanford, etc.)-how did Congress vote on all of this without knowing anything? Have you ever looked at a military budget? Here is a pdf of [the request for FY 2016](http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/documents/defbudget/fy2016/fy2016_r1.pdf). It’s a mixture of specific programs and generalities like “research.” The CIA’s budget is hidden in there somewhere. Go through it and tell us exactly where it is. Did you think that in the FY 1943 budget, they had a line item for “build new town to house workers making uranium for atomic bomb?” No, there was a project code-named the Manhattan Engineering District. It could be directly allocated funds and additional money could be allocated from any number of other budget lines without revealing anything at all about what the MED actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/8 "2015-07-19T18:59:43Z")
most of the people working on the manhattan project did not know what it was for. They only knew it was a military project. They used code words such as tubealloy for uranium. They found out what they worked on only after the 1st bomb was dropped. At that point many of them were no longer needed anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/9 "2015-07-19T19:04:17Z")
Like so many questions, this one can be answered in isolation but the overall context is critical. I have to wave the flag again for _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_, Richard Rhodes, 1986. Essential reading for anyone interested in almost any aspect of nuclear weapons, and one of the most lucid and readable technical histories I know of. For good or bad, you’ll never misunderstand how the bomb was developed and first used again. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/10 "2015-07-19T19:36:36Z")
also read Girls of Atomic City which is about Oak Ridge and the lower level workers there, it just came out a few years ago. One of the main Oak Ridge plants K-25 was not shutdown until 1987 but they just tore it down in 2013. It used outdated technology, gaseous diffusion. Now they use centrifuges which are more efficient. ---
**Author:** ![SeniorCitizen007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8baadc/32.png) [@SeniorCitizen007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeniorCitizen007)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/11 "2015-07-19T19:48:34Z")
Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s vice-president up until 1945, leaked information that reached Hitler. Interception of the Japanese ambassador to German’s radio reports back to Japan found that Hitler knew the exact words used in private conversations between Roosevelt and Churchill. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/12 "2015-07-19T19:50:41Z")
as they say 2 people can keep a secret if one is dead ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/13 "2015-07-19T21:25:13Z")
> [@SeniorCitizen007](#): > > Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s vice-president up until 1945, leaked information that reached Hitler. Interception of the Japanese ambassador to German’s radio reports back to Japan found that Hitler knew the exact words used in private conversations between Roosevelt and Churchill. Not disbelieving, but do you have a cite on that? I’m curious about the exact chain of events, since it seems very unlikely that Wallace would have directly leaked anything. (Blabbed to a secretary to impress her, etc. - that would be my thought.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/14 "2015-07-19T21:25:24Z")
> [@SeniorCitizen007](#): > > Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s vice-president up until 1945, leaked information that reached Hitler. Interception of the Japanese ambassador to German’s radio reports back to Japan found that Hitler knew the exact words used in private conversations between Roosevelt and Churchill. Do you have cite for this? Preferably one that doesn’t come from some conspiracy theory glurge? It’s not in _American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace_ by John C. Culver. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/15 "2015-07-19T21:42:42Z")
> [@SeniorCitizen007](#): > > Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s vice-president up until 1945, leaked information that reached Hitler. Interception of the Japanese ambassador to German’s radio reports back to Japan found that Hitler knew the exact words used in private conversations between Roosevelt and Churchill. Rubbish. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/16 "2015-07-19T21:51:49Z")
(Nice progression of replies, there. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/17 "2015-07-19T22:33:04Z")
> [@SeniorCitizen007](#): > > Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s vice-president up until 1945, leaked information that reached Hitler. Interception of the Japanese ambassador to German’s radio reports back to Japan found that Hitler knew the exact words used in private conversations between Roosevelt and Churchill. I believe that was supposed to be Alger Hiss and Josef Stalin. Back to the OP, what Truman knew was that there was an expensive project that he didn’t know anything about. [QUOTE=AK84] So he knew that there was an extremely expensive project, but not what it was for, except perhaps that it was for a new and powerful weapon. [/Quote] Or a bunch of secret battleships. Or a superhighway from California to Hawaii to Tokyo. Or money for every Resistance fighter in Europe. In other words, no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/18 "2015-07-20T00:48:07Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Not disbelieving, but do you have a cite on that? I’m curious about the exact chain of events, since it seems very unlikely that Wallace would have directly leaked anything. (Blabbed to a secretary to impress her, etc. - that would be my thought.) It would be related to the memo of January 11, 1944 listed here: [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no1/html/v09i1a07p\_0001.htm](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no1/html/v09i1a07p_0001.htm) Basically, Henry Wallace’s sister was married to Charles Bruggmann, the Swiss ambassador to the US. In January of 1944, the OSS got hold of a document belonging to the German Foreign Office, which was a report of information the Germans got from the Swiss Foreign Office about a conversation between Wallace and Bruggmann, where Wallace told Bruggman about details of the cooperation agreement between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. Some have suggested that this was one of the reasons Wallace was dropped from the ticket in 1944. That’s discussed briefly in American Dreamer. Regardless, there’s no evidence that Wallace was responsible for Hitler knowing exact conversation between Hitler and Churchill. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/19 "2015-07-20T01:01:34Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > as they say 2 people can keep a secret if one is dead Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. - [Benjamin Franklin](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/benjamin_franklin.html) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615/20 "2015-07-20T01:24:34Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > It would be related to the memo of January 11, 1944 listed here: > > [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no1/html/v09i1a07p\_0001.htm](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no1/html/v09i1a07p_0001.htm) > > Basically, Henry Wallace’s sister was married to Charles Bruggmann, the Swiss ambassador to the US. In January of 1944, the OSS got hold of a document belonging to the German Foreign Office, which was a report of information the Germans got from the Swiss Foreign Office about a conversation between Wallace and Bruggmann, where Wallace told Bruggman about details of the cooperation agreement between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. Some have suggested that this was one of the reasons Wallace was dropped from the ticket in 1944. That’s discussed briefly in American Dreamer. > > Regardless, there’s no evidence that Wallace was responsible for Hitler knowing exact conversation between Hitler and Churchill. IOW, SeniorCitizen007 was correct, aside from every detail being completely false. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-truman-know-about-the-manhattan-project-before-he-became-president/725615.md?page=2)