Did President Truman in the 1940's open the floodgates of terrorism with the hiroshima and nagasaki atom bombs

Question

I think it would have been better to have kept the atom bomb technology a secret, regardless of what people think about notions of ending the war quickly and saving american and other lives, the idea is ridiculous.

Not sure that it is correct to say that the germans or russians were anywhere near to developing the technology, certainly the russians weren't.

The japenese were basically beaten but didn't want to reliquish the emporer, the bomb was mainly a cowardly attack and completely unesscesary. The german war was finito so no they would not have used it, if they even did know about the technology at all.

Answer 1

It's no different than the foreign policy decisions and practices of both the current US admin. and Israel. Just read the definition set forth by the HS dept. and all of the military and specifically the civil or psy ops that are employed to use fear as the primary motivator for a reaction are terrorist. It is a little known fact among the populace that our military strategists utilize collateral damage as calculated terrorism. They just don't call it that . But if it achieves the desired effect what else could you call it?
Concerning your ref. to the 2 atomic weapons employed during WWII, after fire bombing Tokyo and soundly defeating Japans Navy on 3 seperate occasions and utterly decimating their Air Force, there was absolutely no need to kill anybody w/ an atomic weapon. It should be considered the greatest single terrorist event in history. The argument that Japan would not have surrendered is totally illogical. Their surrender was irrelevant after the destruction and decimation of their military communication network that was caused by the obliteration of Tokyo via fire bombing. The intercepted short and long range rf communications indicated that Japan would throw in the towl. They had no more capability. These are facts that fly in the face of the propaganda needed to convince the "great generation " that they "had" to do it. How else could one sleep with that decision?

Answer 2

Trying to hide science is like trying to hold back the tides. If you think one country's scientists cannot discover what another country's can you're wrong. It might take longer, but it will happen. In fact, the Manhatten Project scientists estimated a lead time of about 5-10 years over the USSR.

The Sov's also had a cheeky advantage. Klaus Fuchs (British atomic engineer of German extraction, and a communist) had been feeding the sov's information about the bomb from day one, most likely via the Rosenbergs.

The US did TRY to keep the technology secret.

It just didn't succeed.

Incidentally - everyone who ever quotes "1 million American casualties" is talking nonesense - the US Joint Chiefs never actually gave an estimate of casualties, and the first mention in official records of the '1 million' figure was by Henry Stimpson in 1946.

Basically, its a retroactive argument designed to cover his and Curtis LeMay's behinds.

Answer 3

No. Terrorism was used long before WWII by various groups such as the anarchists who terrorised Victorian London or the Russian anarchists of the 19th Century. It's use is simply more widespread now as terrorism has become an accepted tactic of armed revolutionary groups.

It would have been impossible to keep atom bomb technology secret as various spies were passing atomic information to the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 50s.

Answer 4

There is no way the technology would have been kept a secret as the details for the atom bomb had already been leaked by soviet spies to the USSR BEFORE the bombs were dropped in Japan.

If the USA had not developed the technology some other country would have done it. Better a democratic country than one that would seek to spread fundamentalist ideologies or religions.

Answer 5

The two issues are not connected. Acts and groups (e.g., Irish republicans in the early 20th century) that would be defined as terrorists, today, occurred long before the US dropped the atom bomb.

In fact, the atom bomb and the cold war that followed, with its division of the world into two major camps, most likely inhibited the expansion of terrorism. Both sides liked to make things challenging , but the last thing they wanted was chaos. As a result, there were lots of "wars of liberation" but very few truly independent actors. That is what's different about about terrorism today. Before, it typically had tones of nationalism. Now, it is much more ideological.

Not to be too incendiary, but if you want to trace the current bloom in terrorism to a policy decision of a US president, President Reagan's decision to arm and support the Mujaheddin (sic) in Afghanistan and Pakistan really opened the floodgates.

Answer 6

very almost surrendered is right yet they hadn't and regarded waiting to maintain scuffling with for a time nevertheless. An invasion of mainland Japan would of value many many lives and that became into something that Truman had to stay away from. It helped with the aid of stunning the eastern into surrendering. on the different hand it became into additionally a teach of capability no longer just to the eastern human beings yet additionally to the international and extra importantly to Soviet Russia. nevertheless the soviets have been 'allies' even then they and Stalin weren't relied on. So dropping the nukes helped teach off American capability to the international.

Answer 7

Everything else aside, there's no way Truman could have not used the bomb.

If he refused, he would have been thrown out of office and someone else would have done it.

Unfortunately, destruction of civilian populations has long been a part of warfare. Read about Coventry, Dresden, and Tokyo.

PS Awful things happen in war. We allied ourselves with Stalin, a genocidal dictator. It would be hard to top that one, before or since. Yet it may have been the least awful alternative, when no good ones were available.

Answer 8

Terrorist groups were forming long before the bombs were dropped. It wouldn't have matter wether we had kept the weapon secret. Many nations would have developed it anyway. It saved a lot of American lives dropping the bomb. It is estimated 6 million service men's lives would have been sacrificed if we would have invaded Japan.

Answer 9

The answer to your question is no, its a ridiculous extrapolation of conjecture.

By the way the Germans would have had the bomb before the Allies if it were not for the RAF bombing raids on the heavy water factories at Peenemunde. They were very well advanced.

Answer 10

Nah the cold war did. Both the USSR and the Americans, sponsored terrorists in attempts to influence regions and each other. Look at Vietnam and Afghanistan.