After the War
After World War II, Leo Szilard continued his activism for peace. Together with Albert Einstein, he co-founded the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS). The Library at Oregon State University holds a large collection on ECAS. Peruse the digitized letters the Committee received from people all over the country.
Founding of the ECAS
1946: Einstein's announcement about the founding of ECAS.
Fellow scientist Hans Bethe recalls Szilard’s energetic engagement for peace (Beam me up!)
"We were convinced that he could be at two places at the same time. You know that. Well, people have said he was incredibly energetic. At the time, the idea was very much in the forefront of making [creating] particles and annihilating particles. And so we said a joke where Szilard is obviously a person who can be annihilated easily at one place and then almost at the same time appear at another place, being recreated."
Hans Bethe interview on ECAS and about Szilard running it; about the founding and demise of ECAS
Hans Bethe recalls how nuclear scientists organized themselves after WWII to advocate for peace. He highlights Szilard’s engagement and points out that “Szilard had the idea that one ought to have a separate organization to collect money and that this separate organization ought to have distinguished scientists on it, so he persuaded Einstein to head that organization, and that was the Emergency Committee [of Atomic Scientists].”