Essay On The Atomic Bomb Dbq

During WWII there was one major discovery that not only changed history then, but also continues to change how wars are fought to this day. Yes, this discovery was the atomic bomb. Harry Truemen is credited with saying, “It’s (referring to the atomic bomb) production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this government.” To the general public this might seem like a typical wartime statement. He goes on (in document H) to say that since we had the technology we used it to decimate Japan and stop them from attacking the U.S, but is that all the bomb was used for? From an astounding amount of examples against the idea that the U.S. only used the bomb to attack japan the answer is no. The bomb was used also, to intimidate the Soviet Union. In document H, as stated before Truman talks about why we must use the bomb to stop japan, but everything he says could also be applied to a future war, one with the Soviet Union. …show more content…
The difference between them; however, is how they present the idea of why we would use the atomic bomb in this circumstance. Document B, leaves the ending more open, letting the reader infer why we would drop the bomb. The author, a commander in the air force, would have known the true reasons, but yet again, like Truman, does not want to scare the public. He ends his argument in saying that “atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse.” He wants the reader to understand what he is saying, which is that the U.S.A. was strictly doing this to scare Soviet Russia. Document F on the other hand, written by a physicist states this fact blatantly, that we need to do this to scare the Soviet Union. He comes right out in saying this because he has no ties to the government and can come right out, without fear, to say what others can’t, we must stop the influence of Communism by the Soviet Union now, to prevent problems