He felt a deep moral duty to speak up because scientists knew the physical realities of these weapons—realities that politicians often ignored or misunderstood. The "Hot" Full Speech Highlight Einstein compared the nuclear threat to a plague, stating:
The address, formally titled "The Menace of Mass Destruction," was delivered to members of the General Assembly and Security Council of the United Nations at the organization's second annual dinner. It was not merely another speech. Coming just two years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—events that left Einstein reportedly devastated—this address represented a reckoning. A pacifist who despised war, Einstein later admitted that urging President Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop the bomb was "the one great mistake in my life". He felt a deep moral duty to speak