Obviously the first draft would not be the final one, but the Russians should be made to feel that the World Government would assure them their security. That action should help to dispel the distrust which the Russians already feel because the bomb is being kept a secret, chiefly to prevent their having it. Since the United States and Great Britain have the secret of the atomic bomb and the Soviet Union does not, they should invite the Soviet Union to prepare and present the first draft of a Constitution for the proposed World Government. The fact that there are only three nations with great military power should make it easier rather than harder to establish such a government. All three of them should commit to this World Government all of their military strength. This government should be founded by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain -the only three powers with great military strength. The secret of the bomb should be committed to a World Government, and the United States should immediately announce its readiness to give it to a World Government. ![]() The second man might choose to start a rival enterprise, when what was wanted was his coöperation. Either course would be like the action of a man with capital, who, wishing another man to work with him on some enterprise, should start out by simply giving his prospective partner half of his money. I do not believe that it should be given to the Soviet Union. I do not believe that the secret of the bomb should be given to the United Nations organization. Perhaps two thirds of the people of the earth might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored. I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. What has been changed is the destructiveness of war. That fact was true before the atomic bomb was made. That statement is not an attempt to say when war will come, but only that it is sure to come. As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable. One could say that it has affected us quantitatively, not qualitatively. ![]() It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. THE release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. Here, in these words recorded by Raymond Swing, he explains how mankind must control atomic power. It was Einstein’s daring formula, E equals mc², which led to the concept that atomic energy would some day be unlocked. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port, together with some of the surrounding territory.” Einstein went on: “This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future.” Dr. ![]() The letter was addressed to President Roosevelt, and it starts with the sentence: “Some recent work by E. Einstein wrote a letter which made history. On August 2, 1939, just a month before the outbreak of World War II, Dr. Driven into exile by Hitler’s advent to power, Professor Einstein came to this country in 1933, was appointed for life a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and became an American citizen in 1940. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Editor’s Note: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879.
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