War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another special episode of Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And for this episode, I'm joined by my good buddy, Sean McIber. This is a World War II

related episode, and it's about a topic that we're also going to discuss a movie about

in the near future. So I thought I'd bring Sean back. Sean, how are you doing, sir?

I'm good well. Good.

That's great to hear.

So this listeners is another one of my requested episodes or requested topics from one of my members on Patreon.com.

You know, of course, my group is called Early's Raiders, and this was suggested by Major Eric Chester.

So, the Manhattan Project, let's talk about it.

We'll jump right into it.

I'm going to give the background, and then Sean will talk about something else.

We're going to go back and forth what I can usually do in our episodes.

So here we go.

For decades, prior to the 1940, scientists had known that great power lay within the nucleus of the atom.

Splitting an atom would release immense quantities of energy. And in the years immediately prior to World War II, physicists discovered that nuclear fission, the splitting of atoms, could result in an explosion with a force equivalent to setting off 20,000 tons of TNT. Some, including Albert Einstein, believed that a bomb could

...