Truman's Dilemma: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb

President Roosevelt’s death had been shocking to everyone and The Death of President Franklin Roosevelt states “America’s longest serving president who had led the nation through the Great Depression and World War 2 was dead.” Truman made the right decision in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, because he was under a lot of pressure to be like Roosevelt, he was new in office, and he wasn’t fully aware of what the bombs capabilities were. On April 12th, 1945 while in the “Little White House” in Georgia with friends and family, President Roosevelt suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage that killed him within a few minutes. Before Roosevelt’s death, Truman and Roosevelt had only met and talked a few times.“Vice president Harry Truman took office, and was suddenly faced with being the leader who would need to gain total victory over Japan.” It is stated in Interview Transcripts: The Bomb. The American Experience. As soon as 12 days after becoming our new president, Truman and Stimson, the Secretary of War, began talking about the effects of using the Atomic Bomb and Truman began to consider it with further explanation from Stimson. During this period of time, Truman was in a difficult place where he couldn’t decide between using an invasion or bombs. The Atomic Bomb was

He was doing it for several reasons and some of them make sense. Strategically, Truman’s decision makes sense, because he was dropping the bomb to help end the war with the Japanese and he felt this was the best way to deal with it. Also, his political reasoning makes sense, as he was thinking about trying to end the ETO with the Russians at the same time. But, morally was the one area where the bombs don’t make sense. He killed over 80 thousand people in 3 seconds just with the Atomic Bomb, and “After 5 years, the long term death toll from the blast and sickness is believed to be about 200,000.” the National Archives of the United States