---
tags:
  - Project
  - Nuclear
  - World War II
category: "Historical Program"
summary: "The Manhattan Project was the top-secret U.S.-British-Canadian research program (1942-1946) that developed the first nuclear weapons under J. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos and other facilities, culminating in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
start: 1942
end: 1947
---
The [[Manhattan Project]] was a top-secret research and development undertaking by the [[United States]] with the support of the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Canada]] during World War II. Its primary objective was to produce the first nuclear weapons. [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] was the scientific director of the project, and [[John von Neumann]] was also a key figure.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.