second, that in such an event the question whether or not to use atomic bombs be decided by you in the light of the considerations presented in this petition as well as all the other moral responsibilities which are involved." Aftermath In the spring of 1945, Szilárd took the petition to the man who was soon to be named Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, hoping to find someone who would pass on to President Truman the message from scientists that the bomb should not be used on a civilian population in Japan, and that after the war it should be put under international control in order to avoid a post-war arms race. Byrnes was not sympathetic to the idea at all. Thus, President Truman never saw the petition prior to the dropping of the bomb. Szilárd regretted that such a man was so influential in politics, and he appeared to also be despondent at having become a physicist, because in his career he had contributed to the creation of the bomb. After the meeting with Byrnes, he is quoted as having said, "How much better off the world might be had I been born in America and become influential in American politics, and had Byrnes been born in Hungary and studied physics." In reaction to the petition, General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, sought evidence of unlawful behavior against Szilárd. The first atomic bomb, known as Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It was followed three days later by a second bomb, known as Fat Man, over Nagasaki. The deployment of these bombs led to an estimated 200,000 civilians dead and, debatably, Japan's eventual surrender. In December 1945, a study by Fortune business magazine found that over three-quarters of Americans surveyed approved of the decision to drop the bombs. In spite of this, a group of the most prominent scientists of the day united to speak out against the decision, and about the future nuclear arms race. One World or None: A Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb was released in 1946, containing essays by Leo Szilárd himself, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Arthur Compton, Robert Oppenheimer, Harold Urey, Eugene Wigner, Edward Condon, Hans Bethe, Irving Langmuir, and others. The theme of the book, which sold over a million copies, was that nuclear arms should never be