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Truman Dropped The Atomic Bomb Persuasive Essay

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President Truman made the best decision he could have when he chose to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. When you ask any historian whether or not Truman was right to drop the atomic bomb, you’re asking one of the most debated questions among them. This may seem like it should have a simple yes or no answer, but if you look deeper than the surface level, you’ll see it’s a lot more complex than that. Some think he was wrong to drop the bomb, and morally he was. However when you put yourself in the shoes of a president protecting your country and look at the war from a political and strategic viewpoint, you begin to realize he was right for dropping the bomb. Nearing the end of WWII, Truman had to make an important decision: How he was going to end the war in the PTO. He had two options: One was Operation Olympic, which would have been “the greatest invasion force …show more content…

A traditionalist believes Truman dropped the bomb to end the war, while a revisionist believes that he dropped it to stop or threaten the Russians. Really, Truman dropped the atomic bomb for both of these reasons. Weighing into the traditionalist side, the bomb is what truly made Japan decide to surrender, after Nagasaki. The United States was clearly trying to bring the war to a complete close since the war in the ETO had just officially ended. On the revisionist side, you see that a main issue at Potsdam was who would control Europe, and Russia wanted the lot of it. They already controlled all of eastern Germany and were determined to gain power over Poland as well. In The History Guide by Stephen Kreis, it is mentioned that, “The United States upheld the principles of self-determination,” meaning they would stop at nothing to stay in control. This shows they were most likely trying to get a step ahead of the Russians, and to keep the land they had in Europe if not gain more

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