By 1947, the world was reeling from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Cold War was beginning to take shape. Einstein, though a pacifist at heart, had signed the famous 1939 letter to President Roosevelt advising that atomic research was possible and needed. Witnessing the horrific practical application of that knowledge haunted him.
"I am grateful to the Foreign Policy Association for the opportunity to express my conviction on the most burning question of our time. albert einstein the menace of mass destruction full speech
It was into this volatile vacuum that Einstein stepped. He delivered as an address to a symposium in New York, calling for a radical shift in human thinking. By 1947, the world was reeling from the