April 12, 1945 vice-president Harry Truman steps into Sam Rayburn's senate office for their regular happy hour, two fingers of straight-bourbon and branch water added was their norm. In came a message from press secretary Steve Early, ordering Truman to come to the White House immediately. Truman assumes president Roosevelt is mad at him for something, but he knows not why. Truman has only spoken to Roosevelt two times in his life. He had been sworn in as vice-president January 20, 1945 and 82 days later on April 12 Roosevelt died and Truman was sworn in as president at 7:09 that night.
Truman was out of the loop as vice-president and he did not even know about the atom bomb until two days after it was tested. He didn't hesitate to use the bomb, most likely saving upwards of 1.5 million lives of American servicemen that would have been lost during a total invasion of the Japanese home islands. American military intelligence had no idea of how many suicide planes that awaited the American fleet's arrival. They also had jet attack planes and missiles that the fleet could not have escaped from or fought off. By the time they would have been detected, they would have already been raining down on the ships. With the fleet destroyed, the war would have dragged on for another 3 years or more. Truman caught a lot of flack over using the bomb. I never understood that because the fire-bombing of all Japan's major cities cost almost 4 times as much death and destruction as the 2 atom bombs.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
Truman was out of the loop as vice-president and he did not even know about the atom bomb until two days after it was tested. He didn't hesitate to use the bomb, most likely saving upwards of 1.5 million lives of American servicemen that would have been lost during a total invasion of the Japanese home islands. American military intelligence had no idea of how many suicide planes that awaited the American fleet's arrival. They also had jet attack planes and missiles that the fleet could not have escaped from or fought off. By the time they would have been detected, they would have already been raining down on the ships. With the fleet destroyed, the war would have dragged on for another 3 years or more. Truman caught a lot of flack over using the bomb. I never understood that because the fire-bombing of all Japan's major cities cost almost 4 times as much death and destruction as the 2 atom bombs.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
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