Tom Riddle® schreef op 22 mei 2018 21:15:
Five myths about the atomic bomb
July 31, 2015
By
emeritus professor Gregg Herken of U.S. diplomatic history at the University of California and the author of “The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War” and “Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller.” As a Smithsonian curator in 1995, he participated in early planning for the National Air and Space Museum’s Enola Gay exhibit.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-...1. The bomb ended the war.-Soviet attack, not the Hiroshima bomb, convinced political leaders to end the war.
2. The bomb saved half a million American lives.-Plans Committee predicted in mid-June 1945 that the invasion of Japan, set to begin Nov. 1, would result in 193,000 U.S. casualties, including 40,000 deaths.
3. The only alternative to the bomb was an invasion of Japan.-The United States knew from intercepted communications that the Japanese were most concerned that Emperor Hirohito not be treated as a war criminal. The “emperor clause” was the final obstacle to Japan’s capitulation.
4. The Japanese were warned before the bomb was dropped.-There was never any specific warning to the cities that had been chosen as targets for the atomic bomb prior to the weapon’s first use.
5. The bomb was timed to gain a diplomatic advantage over Russia and proved a “master card” in early Cold War politics.-In reality, military planning, not diplomatic advantage, dictated the timing of the atomic attacks. The bombs were ordered to be dropped “as soon as made ready.” Truman’s secretary of state, James Byrnes, hoped that the bomb might prove to be a “master card” in subsequent diplomatic dealings with the Soviet Union