Editing Atomic Age (section)

== World War II ==

The phrase ''Atomic Age'' was coined by [[William L. Laurence]], a [[journalist]] with ''[[The New York Times]]'', who became the official journalist for the [[Manhattan Project]] which developed the first nuclear weapons.<ref name="laurence19450926">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2fpLSlthuEMC&pg=PA10 | title=Drama of the Atomic Bomb Found Climax in July 16 Test | work=The New York Times | date=26 September 1945 | author=Laurence, William L.| isbn=9781434405302 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=ATOMIC TRUTHS PLAGUE PRIZE COVERUP |last=Gonzalez |first=Juan |work=New York Daily News |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2005/08/09/2005-08-09_atomic_truths_plague_prize_c.html |date=9 August 2005 |quote=Laurence, the only journalist the U.S. government permitted to witness the bombing of Nagasaki, is also the reporter who first coined the term "Atomic Age." ...  Nagasaki, Laurence launched his Times series, where he extolled the bomb and sought to discredit other accounts about effects of the bomb. }}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He witnessed both the [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity test]] and the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|bombing of Nagasaki]] and went on to write a series of articles extolling the virtues of the new weapon. His reporting before and after the bombings helped to spur public awareness of the potential of nuclear technology and in part motivated development of the technology in the U.S. and in the Soviet Union.<ref>On this incident, see David Holloway, ''Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994): 59–60.</ref> The Soviet Union would go on to test [[RDS-1|its first nuclear weapon]] in 1949.

In 1949, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission chairman, [[David Lilienthal]] stated that "atomic energy is not simply a search for new energy, but more significantly a beginning of human history in which faith in knowledge can vitalize man's whole life".<ref>John Byrne and Steven M. Hoffman (1996). ''Governing the Atom: The Politics of Risk'', Transaction Publishers, p. 85.</ref>