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Manhattan Project History Early Government Support June 28, 1941 "Whenever the U. S. program bogs down in bureaucratic doubt, Hitler and his war machine rescue it." - Unknown By the time that Vannevar Bush received the second of three reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), he had assumed the position of director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Established by an executive order from the President, the OSRD strengthened the scientific presence in the federal government. Bush, who had lobbied hard for the new setup, now reported directly to President Roosevelt and could evoke the prestige of the White House in his dealings with other federal agencies. The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), now headed by James B. Conant, president of Harvard University, became an advisory body responsible for making research and development recommendations to the OSRD. The Uranium Committee, still under Lyman Briggs, was renamed the Office of Scientific Research and Development Section on Uranium and was codenamed "S-1" Note: The National Academy of Sciences was a well established organization that had been the "center of scientific thought" in the United States for many years. It was headed at the time by Frank Jewett, President of Bell Telephone Labs. The NAS issued three reports between May 17, 1941 and November 9, 1941 dealing with the "uranium question." The third and final report to the OSRD "agreed with the essence of the MAUD report from Britain that an atomic bomb WAS feasible." This 3rd NAS report was forwarded to President Roosevelt on November 27, 1941.
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