9781640120730

1640120734

9781640125933

9781640125940

"Based on previously unpublished research, noted historian D. M. Giangreco provides a concise account of President Harry S. Truman's decision to drop the atom bomb during World War II, focusing on the question: What did Truman know, and when did he know it?"-- Provided by publisher.

"Many myths have grown up around President Harry S. Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against Imperial Japan. In destroying these myths, Truman and the Bomb will discomfort both Truman's critics and his supporters, and force historians to reexamine what they think they know about the end of the Pacific War. Myth: Truman didn't know of the atomic bomb's development before he became president. Fact: Truman's knowledge of the bomb is revealed in his own carefully worded letters to a Senate colleague and correspondence between the army officers assigned to his Senate investigating committee. Myth: The huge casualty estimates cited by Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson were a postwar creation devised to hide their guilt for killing thousands of defenseless civilians. Fact: The flagrantly misrepresented "low" numbers are based on narrow slices of highly qualified--and limited--U.S. Army projections printed in a variety of briefing documents and are not from the actual invasion planning against Japan. Myth: Truman wanted to defeat Japan without any assistance from the Soviet Union and to freeze the USSR out of the postwar settlements. Fact: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Truman desperately wanted Stalin's involvement in the bloody endgame of World War II. Using previously unpublished material, D. M. Giangreco busts these myths and more. An award-winning historian and expert on Truman, Giangreco is perfectly situated to debunk the many deep-rooted falsehoods about the roles played by American, Soviet, and Japanese leaders during the end of the World War II in the Pacific. Truman and the Bomb, a concise yet comprehensive study of Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb, will prove to be a classic for studying presidential politics and influence on atomic warfare and its military and diplomatic components. Making this book particularly valuable for professors and students as well as for military, diplomatic, and presidential historians and history buffs are extensive primary source materials, including the planned U.S. naval and air operations in support of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. These documents support Giangreco's arguments while enabling the reader to enter the mindsets of Truman and his administration as well as the war's key Allied participants. "-- Provided by publisher.

The Debate

The Manhattan Project : what did Truman know and when did he know it?

Projects Milepost and Hula : America's hidden role in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria

Roosevelt, Stalin, and Poland : the Teheran, Moscow, and Yalta Conferences

A new president : "The storm broke almost at once"

Truman's White House meeting : "My hardest decision"

"I've gotten what I came for" : Potsdam, the bomb, and Soviet entry into the War.

World War, 1939-1945 > Campaigns > Japan.

Atomic bomb > United States > History > 20th century.

World War, 1939-1945 > United States.

World War, 1939-1945 > Soviet Union.

Military policy > Decision making.

United States > Military policy > Decision making.

Hiroshima-shi (Japan) > History > Bombardment, 1945.

Nagasaki-shi (Japan) > History > Bombardment, 1945.

United States > Foreign relations > 1945-1953.

Japan > Hiroshima-shi.

Japan > Nagasaki-shi.