Groves leslie biography books

American military officer (–)

For the New Zealand cricketer, see Leslie Groves (cricketer).

Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August – 13 July ) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.

The son of a U.S. Army chaplain, Groves lived at various Army posts during his childhood. In , he graduated fourth in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

In , he went to Nicaragua as part of an expedition to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. Following the Nicaraguan earthquake, Groves took over Managua's water supply system, for which he was awarded the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit.

He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in and , and the Army War C