  Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard worked together at Columbia in 1939-40, just
after nuclear fission was discovered, to ascertain the feasibility of a nuclear
chain reaction, and then on the construction of the first nuclear reactor.
Szilard believed a nuclear bomb could be built, and that the Germans may be
doing so, but Fermi was sceptical. The Anglo-American project to build a bomb
began late in 1941 after Oliphant brought the Frisch-Peierls memorandum to the
attention of U. S. physicists. Szilard recalled "On matters scientific or
technical there was rarely any disagreement[but] Fermi and I disagreed from the
very start of our collaboration about every issue that involved not science but
principles of action in the face of the approaching war. If the nation owes us
gratitude - and it may not - it does so for having stuck it out together as
long as was necessary." As the war with Germany was drawing to a close and the
successful construction of the atomic bombs was well underway, these two men
took opposing positions regarding use of the bombs.
