America and the Atomic Bomb essays

America and the Atomic Bomb essays When Albert Einstein wrote then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt a letter concerning the creation and use of the greatest bomb the world had ever seen, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist saw the bomb as a means to end the rising power of the Nazi's; however, when the bomb had been created and was awaiting deployment, I believe policy-makers saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, or bomb in this case. With the dropping of the atomic bomb, the United States not only brought the war to an end, but also solidified its place as a supreme world power and made very clear to every other nation in the world, specifically Russia, the force with which America was prepared to use to maintain that power. In the days leading up to and following the dropping of the bombs, President Truman and his staff were readily prepared to defend the use of the weapon and explain the hopes for the future, but as every good history student knows, things aren't always as they seem. In pursuit of nothing less than unconditional surrender from Japan, and with the hopes of ending the war relatively soon, the United States had no choice but to drop the atomic bomb. And so on August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was released on the city of Hiroshima, Japan killing thousands instantly and thousands more in the weeks to follow. Seen as a successful endeavor, just three days later another bomb was dropped onto Nagasaki, Japan and soon after the Japanese government surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers. It would appear as though the bombs were used effectively, with one goal in mind, the end of the war. The only alternative to releasing the special weapon was yet another amphibious assault on heavily protected beaches that would have cost thousands of soldiers' lives. The sea-to-shore assault would have been much more difficult in Japan than the attack on Normandy because of Japanese soldiers' collective commitment to fight to the death...