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Truman During The Cold War Analysis

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"…in the case of the second bomb, timing was everything…Truman's refusal to delay it – was America's first act of the Cold War" (Campbell & Logevall, 2009, p. 56). The Pacific Theater was one of the fronts of World War II and the main clash of the Allies was against the Empire of Japan. Even after Nazi Germany's surrender the Japanese were unwilling to submit - as dictated by their culture. There was no option of an unconditional surrender by Japan. Only keeping the Emperor in power. The allies were aware of the suicidal devotion of the Japanese and the importance of the Empirical Establishment to them. Furthermore, this was a well-known fact to the U.S. who fought them on several occasions. The allied forces prepared a ground invasion.
The …show more content…
troops in Japan (Winters, 2009). A land invasion that could potentially cost the lives of up to half a million American soldiers. Additionally, Truman believed that an atomic bomb would help the U.S to deal with the Soviet Union without destroying the postwar international system. Until the completion of the Manhattan Project the estimation was that the USA could do nothing to react to the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe except condemnation or waging a war – which was unfavorable and unwelcomed option. Truman regarded the matter of international control highly (Campbell & Radchenko, …show more content…
Bombing Nagasaki august 9, 1945.
Stalin declared war on Japan feeling USA wanted to cut him out of the settlement – USA dropped another bomb one day later. Starting an arms race between the two superpowers - Stalin didn't give the Russian Atomic project much significance in WWII because of the time it would take for them to complete it. Pp 41 (Barrass, 2009)
Dropping the second bomb 72 hours after the first did not give enough time for Japan to assess the damage and issue a diplomatic response of possible surrender. Truman wanted also to deter the Soviet Union from invading Manchuria and occupying Japan (Campbell & Radchenko, 2008)
It seems that bombing Hiroshima was for Japanese surrender and bombing Nagasaki was to deter Russian invasion. To Stalin it seemed like the start of an arms race in the atomic age and the first act of the Cold War. Stalin focused the scarce postwar resources of the Soviet Union in creating an atomic bomb to match the USA (Campbell & Radchenko,

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