Physicist Herbert Anderson was surprised when he asked about DuPont’s postwar plans.
Narrator: During World War II, many major American corporations supported the war effort. Bechtel built Liberty and Victory ships, Chrysler built Sherman tanks, and DuPont produced plutonium. But as Manhattan Project physicist Herbert Anderson recalls, trust did not come easily to academics and industry.
Herbert Anderson: There were always the academic types who were very suspicious of big industries, felt they were always out for themselves, making profit and so on. The fact of the matter is that the DuPont Company, according to its contractual agreement, said they would be reimbursed for all costs and a one dollar profit. They certainly didn't make any money out of it. I think they looked at the whole enterprise as a public service.
I remember discussing it with Greenewalt, when I traveled to and from Wilmington sometimes with him. I said, “Well, I bet DuPont will go into nuclear energy after the war and make a big thing of it, because you know so much more than anybody else.”
He said, "No, we are not going to do that. We are going to go into nylon, and make nylon stockings. We can make much more money that way.”