Russian Life & People Digest
Question by Sadie M.: Could President Truman have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan not to end the war but to impress the USSR?
Could President Truman have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan not to end the war but to impress the USSR with US military power? Evaluate this hypothesis.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Entity
no
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
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sushi88logo says
he actually did do to impress USSR and to aware them of the strength we americans had.
this clearlt showed that democracy had the upper hand. and the drop of the atomic bomb gave an end to the spread of communism. as everyone had a fear that after russia defeats gerany, it would want to expand its empire and spread communism all around the globe 😉
Neville says
No, he really did do it to end the war – but he could not fail to have noticed that it not only impressed the Russians but the awesome power of this new weapon also scared Hell out of them. Inadvertently, this was the first act of the cold war and started off the greatest arms race in history.
tham153 says
I had an uncle who was a Marine aboard a ship sailing to Japan as an invasion force when the bomb was dropped. They hove to at sea until the surrender, and instead became occupation troops. The estimates were that had the invasion gone forward one million Japanese and half a million Americans would have died. Bad as the A Bombs effects were, fewer people died.
If Stalin was impressed, it little mattered. The bombs were dropped August 6 and 9. The USSR declared war on Japan on August 15. The surrender was signed September 2.
Manus Hand says
Yes. Absolutely.
Obviously the first and best reason for dropping the bomb was to end the war, so Japan was of course the first consideration.
But there was a definite and very real fear that the Soviets were not going to stop fighting, and with their armies still in the field and now facing American and British and French lines (with Germany gone), the possibility that the USSR would pursue its long-known and stated goal to defeat capitalism the same way it had (helped) defeat fascism, and spread communism was truly a real thing to be feared.
Truman and his military advisors knew, most definitely, that dropping the bomb, showing that the U.S. had the bomb and the Russians did not, would send a strong message to Moscow that "the war is over, comrades; don't you even think about keeping your forces moving now." It was an absolute definite side-goal of the dropping of the atomic bomb, no question about it.
Jon Magnus says
I don't know why people were so quick to say no. It's not that simple of an answer.
When the war was in the last stages Great Britain, USSR, France and the US all split Germany up.
This is undesirable for every country because each country has their own idea on what to do.
The US didn't want to share responsability to what to do with Japan and how to go about payments. During a war conference it was decided that the USSR would join the war against Japan three months after Germany was defeated. There are historians who believe that Truman dropped the bombs to not share that responsability and also to keep Stalin in check. Stalin was an allie yes, but he was terribly paranoid and had trust issues everyone was aware of. The dropping of those bombs began a huge tention which was one of the causes for the Cold War. The US just wanted to show to the USSR that they were a dominating super power to intimidate them and slow down the spread of communism.
That conference I mentioned was either Yalta or Potsdam. Look it up.
Steve says
In my opinion, Truman's top priority was that he wanted to accomplish a quick end to the war and not have to go through with a mainland invasion of Japan.
Though perhaps, he also saw a opportunity to AWW' the Soviets by showing them the technological and military might of the U.S. So, he got a two for one kinda thing. But, that is purely conjecture on my part.
Hmmmm, very intriguing question.
TheGrandOnion says
No on both.