‘In no sense vital and actually not even important’? Reality and Perception of Britain's Contribution to the Development of Nuclear Weapons

Abstract

Common perception of the Manhattan Project is that of an American success story of the development of atomic weapons. Although research at Los Alamos was carried out by an international community of researchers, non-American contributions to the development appear to have been neglected and the post-war nuclear monopoly was an American one. The article investigates the interplay between an international scientific community pushing the boundaries of science and political decision makers with their national security priorities. Furthermore, it discusses the validity of claims of Britain having ‘invented’ the atom bomb against other assessments of the British contribution being insignificant for the overall success of nuclear research on the Hill.