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EMERGENCY COMMITTEE of ATOMIC SCIENTISTS INCORPORATED ROOM 288, 90 NASSAU STREET PRINCETON , NEW JERSEY

August 6th, 1947

Trustees ALBERT EINSTEIN Chairman HAROLD C. UREY Vice-chairman HANS A. BETHE T.R. HOGNESS PHILIP M. MORSE LINUS PAULING LEO SZILARD V.F. WEISSKOPF

I am writing to you as a friend who helped us last year. It is a difficult moment at which to write. All about us we see the wreckage of great hopes which mankind held for the building of peace. The gulf between East and West is close to widening daily. Some people believe that no reconciliation is possible and that another World War must decide the issue; we scientists reply that it is not longer possible to decide any issue by such means - an atomic war will bring no real decision but only unprecendented death and devastation on both sides. Such a time in history breeds defeatism and despair. But there are those among us who believe that man has within him the capacity to meet and overcome even the great tests of our times. What we must not lose, or we lose all, is our willingness to seek the truth and our courage to act upon the truth. If we maintain these, we cannot despair. We scientists believe upon ample evidence that the time of decision is upon us- that what we do or fail to do within the next few years will determine the fate our our civilization. That is the gist of the enclosed statement of this committee which was published on June 30th, 1947. We call for a higher realism which recognizes that ...... our fate is joined with that of our fellowmen throughout the world. Great ideas may often be expressed in very simple words. In the shadow of the atomic bomb, it has become apparent that all men are brothers. If we recognize this as truth and act upon this recognition, mankind my go forward to a higher plane of human development. If the angry passions of a nationlistic world engulf us further, we are doomed. The task of the scientists, as we conceive it , is untiringly to explain these truths, so that the American people will understand all that is at stake. We believe that with such understanding, the