FREE ESSAY ON TRUMAN'S DECISION

TRUMAN'S DECISION

Truman's Decision
Many debates have been provoked based on President Truman's decision to drop the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The debate is not solely based on the bomb being
dropped, but more on the actual necessity and intention of the bomb being dropped. 
I believe that the Presidents decision was based dually on military necessity and on the
Nation's reputation. Truman was not a dumb man; he was inexperienced and quickly expected
to make important decisions based on very little information that he had been recently
made aware of. I believe that his first thought was to just end the War. I do not think
he felt the need for Stalin's admission, but did not turn down the extra support for
ending the war quickly. 
Truman, I believe, wanted the war over with the least amount of American blood shed. I
believe that with the help of his trusted advisors, he saw that the dropping of the bomb
was a faster, more effective way to end with the least amount of U.S. casualties that was
available. The idea of a Soviet Union invasion probably did not settle well for the
President on different levels. The first would be allies and American blood and
casualties being too high. The other most prominent one, in my mind, is the idea of some
one else winning the war that we have been most leading warriors in. 
This thought brings me to my next motive of why Truman might have dropped the bomb. I do
not think Truman was unaware of the lasting effects of the atom bomb, but by the time
these facts were presented to him, piled upon facts about the actual bomb and the
projects supporting them, it was to late to change his decision. He needed to save face
for America (which brings me to the next motive of pressure) even if it public opinion
was not his main concern. Truman did not want to look soft upon the Japanese, something
further consideration and negation of the plan to bomb would have caused in some
officials eye's. Also, Truman and much of the rest of the nation did not like seeing the
U.S. as moral failures like many other nations. Who knows what the reaction to the
President's decision would have been like if he had decided to let an invasion with
hundreds and thousands of our men involved take place.
As previously mentioned, I also believed a motive for dropping the bomb was most
definitely pressure from many people in power who surrounded him. Many officials did not
want Stalin's presence in the War so they felt that the quickest way to force surrender
was the bomb. Also, even more people wanted to show that the United States means
business, and when the U.S. is involved in something, she will come out victorious.
Truman most certainly did not want to be the President who did not support this attitude
completely.
I will not deny that one of the less significant, but still important motives must have
been the need to shock Stalin and the Soviet Union on several levels. Truman most likely
liked the idea of being the first in a short to begin race of atomic power. I am also
sure that he wanted to prove that the United States could finish battles with a little
power under our sleeve. And, I am also certain that Truman and his board were not only
looking to shock the Soviet Union but also to shock the world with our power. We were
about to face the change from isolation to the heavy weight power of the world, why not
do it with a "bang." 
Truman was a young (knowledge and experience wise) president thrown into a situation
every president dreads and was forced to deal with ground breaking technology as one way
to end this situation. As a spectator only slightly effected by his decision, I think he
did what much of his nation and his supporters expected of him.