In World War II, the Communist and the Capitalist worlds came together to defeat a giant enemy, which was threatening the very existence of the allies as nations. America refused to enter the war and had economically gained considerably from the Second World War by supplying the allies with food, medical supplies and best of all, ammunition. In December 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and U.S. used that excuse to enter the war. Prior to that, in 1939, the Nazis were rumored to be developing an atomic bomb. The United States initiated its own program under the Army Corps of Engineers in June 1942. America needed to build an atomic weapon before Germany or Japan did.
Hence Roosevelt put together a group of scientists to work on nuclear technology in Los Alamos, New Mexico ? code named: The Manhattan Project.
In 1945, though Germans were defeated, Japanese were still fighting on their front.
This image was selected as a picture of the week o...
Nagasaki, Japan. September 24, 1945, 6 weeks after...
Ground Zero marker in Nagasaki, JapanMeanwhile Roosevelt died, and Truman came into office without having the slightest notion about the bomb. Though soon he was informed by James Byrnes ? Future Secretary of State. In Europe, Russians were quite influential. International politics was like a game in which Churchill and Truman/Byrnes were playing against Stalin.
Americans had been fairly secretive about working on the A. bomb for 3 years. So the Atomic bomb remained a myth until the Potsdam conference, when Truman & Churchill were sure they had their ?master card? (Pg. xxxvii).
What factors most influenced President Truman?s decision regarding the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? This is one of the most controversial decisions of the 20th century on the grounds that it has shaped the events of the Cold War and the global politics and economics of the years following WWII. In 1945, Stalin met with...