The race for nuclear arms is often framed as a race between two men, lead German scientist Werner Heisenberg, and lead American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The two men became acquainted many years before the war when they both attended the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1926. Both became distinguished nuclear physicists in their careers before the war. Each man was tasked with taking a lead position in their respective countries nuclear program, both of which were created in 1939. Up until this point, both countries were at a similar level of advancement toward building the bomb. In late 1938 German scientists discovered nuclear fission, the core concept of a nuclear weapon. British scientist Niels Bohr brought this information with him to America, and shortly after in January of 1939 the first successful nuclear fission test in the US was completed at Columbia University. It was with this information that each country realized the destructive force capable of a nuclear device, and decisions had to be made on how far the technology should be pursued.
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