Truman's reason for dropping the atomic bomb.

World War II was the most horrifying and devastating war the world has ever seen. It was filled with death, genocide, depression, and extreme nationalism. We, the United States, did take a part in one of the most devastating things during the war: Dropping the atomic bomb. There are many arguments about whether it was necessary for president Truman to drop the atom bomb or if it was just to intimidate the Soviet Union. President Truman said he dropped the bomb to save American lives and that many Americans would have died if they would have invaded Japan. Another reason that people gave was that Japan had bombed China and killed millions and the Japanese would not give up unless something as bad as the atomic bomb was dropped. The truth is, the atomic bomb was not at all necessary to end the war. The U.S. had already blocked off the ocean surrounding Japan and it was obvious that the Japanese would not be going anywhere. If Truman would have waited a week or two, Japan would have surrendered but he knew that. Truman also knew that if he did drop the bomb, the Soviet Union would be deathly afraid of what could happen to them if they happened to mess with the United States. President Truman's reason for dropping the atomic bomb was to intimidate the Soviets and stop future competition between the two countries.
It is true that America gave Japan an ultimatum called the Potsdam Declaration. Basically, it said surrender or get bombed. Japan ignored the choice so many say they had it coming, but did they? Stop and think of all the incredibly innocent people that were killed from the bomb and its effects. Many Japanese wanted the government to surrender but it was not their choice. If we would have waited a tad bit longer then we could have spared millions. Not only did civilians die from flames, they also died from debris, radiation sickness, leukemia, and other horrible effects from the atomic bomb.
“During the second week of Allied deliberations at Potsdam, on the evening of July 24,1945, Truman approached Stalin without an interpreter and told him that the United Stated had a new weapon of unusual destructive force” ( The Manhattan Project: An interactive History). This quote clearly shows the intimidation that President Truman was projecting while talking about the weapon to Joseph Stalin. Why would Truman talk to Stalin about the atomic bomb if he did not want to scare him and the Soviets? It would not make sense. The president wanted to give him a little scare that basically said, “watch out”. President Truman was very concerned about whether or not the Soviet Union would remain in Eastern Europe he also wanted Stalin to know that the Soviet Union did not need to invade Japan as agreed to at the Yalta.
Truman had a right to want to give the Soviet Union fear but was it worth the expense of thousands of Japanese lives? Some say that it was good to intimidate the Russians because we did not, under any circumstances, want another world war. The United States was terrified of the Soviet Union, but who wasn’t? They were a powerful nation with a psychopathic leader. That does not give Truman the right to use Japan as an example of what the U.S. could do to Russia, but that is exactly what he did. The dropping of the atomic bomb was one of the most difficult decisions anyone has ever had to make, but if you could go back in time, what would you do?


Word Count: 611