History 1302 Questions Essay
2 Separate answers in 2 paragraphs Number of sources is not really important 1. Explain why atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Identify the factors that were of the greatest concern to Truman and to the American people. Discuss what other military options were available to Truman and why were they not chosen. In recent years, some people have questioned Truman’s motives in using the bombs; discuss the arguments against using atomic weapons in World War 2 and evaluate their validity. 2. Define the Cold War and trace the events of the 1940s and 1950s, both at home and abroad, that served to heighten the fears and anxiety of Americans regarding the “communist menace.” Evaluate the extent to which Joseph McCarthy contributed to this sense of anxiety and explain what happened to cause his fall from power.
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History
In august 6th the year 1945, the US president, Harry Truman informed the world that there had been a detonation of a nuclear bomb in japan. He was referring to the nuclear bomb that was nicknamed Little Boy, used on Hiroshima, destroying most of the city and killing more than 130,000people. A second bomb nicknamed Fat Manhad been used on the city of Nagasaki killing close to 70,000. The reasons behind the bombing were several. One of them was that the USA wanted to end the war quickly and objectively win the war. This was to be done at the least possible cost to the States. They government also wanted to justify the cost of up to 1.8 billion dollars on the Manhattan project. There was also the fact that the Truman administration wanted to prove a pint to the Soviets, given that the latter were a formidable rival. Other than the fact that there were no incentives not to use the bombs the USA also wanted to revenge the Pearl Harbor assault(Colorado.edu). Truman at the time was concerned by the fact that if the war went on they would lose more citizens in the fight and the cost of the war would have been huge.At the same time the American people were worried that the war may claim more lives ofinnocent civilians from more than 3000 raids that had been carried out by the Japanese. Truman together with the interim committee that had been formed had been discussing some three alternatives to the nuclear bombing. One of the alternatives involved intensifying the conventional bombing as well as the naval blockade. This however was decided against as it would drag the war much longer. The other alternative involved letting the Japanese to retain their emperor Hirohito. This was dropped as it was not clear if the Japanese would take in kind to stop the war. The third alternative, revolved around letting the Soviet Union to enter the war. While this had been part of the plan that had been laid out by Roosevelt during the Yalta conference it was still not decisive enough to end the war(Donohue). For many of the military personnel at the time as well the physicists at the time and even today, the bombing was unnecessary. Ideally the entire Truman and his committee wanted to was to send a message to the soviet. Essentially the Japanese would still have been made to surrender with the landing on Kyushu island that was planned for November same year. While most of the information indicates that the bomb had not been tested, that is not true as the bomb had been tested on July 16th before the meeting at Potsdam the following day. At the meeting with the Soviet Union, the Russian agreed to enter the war on 15 august(Pacificwar.org.au)...