Motivation for the Bomb
As the Manhattan Project drew to an end, President Harry S. Truman knew he was coming upon the most difficult decision of his life. He could drop a bomb that would vaporize thousands of lives but would end a war in Japan, or he could continue on and cause more American, Allied, and Japanese military casualties. Truman decided to use the first atomic bombs ever made, codenamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to end what was already a brutal and bloody war. While his strategy proved true to work, it would also prove to perhaps the most controversial decision ever made in warfare.
America’s primary motivation for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two major military and industrial …show more content…
Truman replied tersely on the ‘My dear Mr. Cavert,’ he began: Nobody is more disturbed over the use of Atomic bombs than I am but I was frankly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true. (Rotter …show more content…
(Campbell ebrary) This is the thought of the majority of historians in regard to the bombings of Japan. The creation of the Atomic bomb scared Stalin and sparked a nuclear arms race the likes of which the world has never seen. Stalin was furious because he felt Truman was deliberately vague about the power of the Atomic bomb. Which in part is not entirely false, however there is numerous amounts of evidence that shows Stalin knew the American’s were working on the bomb through spy’s and other forms of intelligence. There is plenty of reasons Truman would not tell Stalin of the bomb but the most being simply he did not trust him. Before the successful Trinity test in mid-July, Truman did not rely in any coherent way upon the prospect of the atomic bomb in his diplomacy toward the Soviet Union and its leader, Stalin. (Campbell ebrary) Despite his rather scornful assessment of the Atomic bomb as a weapon, Stalin had great appreciation for it as a political tool. The fact that the United States had the bomb and the Soviet Union did not have it, weakened Stalin’s bargaining position and his great power
As the Manhattan Project drew to an end, President Harry S. Truman knew he was coming upon the most difficult decision of his life. He could drop a bomb that would vaporize thousands of lives but would end a war in Japan, or he could continue on and cause more American, Allied, and Japanese military casualties. Truman decided to use the first atomic bombs ever made, codenamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”, to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to end what was already a brutal and bloody war. While his strategy proved true to work, it would also prove to perhaps the most controversial decision ever made in warfare.
America’s primary motivation for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two major military and industrial …show more content…
Truman replied tersely on the ‘My dear Mr. Cavert,’ he began: Nobody is more disturbed over the use of Atomic bombs than I am but I was frankly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true. (Rotter …show more content…
(Campbell ebrary) This is the thought of the majority of historians in regard to the bombings of Japan. The creation of the Atomic bomb scared Stalin and sparked a nuclear arms race the likes of which the world has never seen. Stalin was furious because he felt Truman was deliberately vague about the power of the Atomic bomb. Which in part is not entirely false, however there is numerous amounts of evidence that shows Stalin knew the American’s were working on the bomb through spy’s and other forms of intelligence. There is plenty of reasons Truman would not tell Stalin of the bomb but the most being simply he did not trust him. Before the successful Trinity test in mid-July, Truman did not rely in any coherent way upon the prospect of the atomic bomb in his diplomacy toward the Soviet Union and its leader, Stalin. (Campbell ebrary) Despite his rather scornful assessment of the Atomic bomb as a weapon, Stalin had great appreciation for it as a political tool. The fact that the United States had the bomb and the Soviet Union did not have it, weakened Stalin’s bargaining position and his great power