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    Assumptions of Atomic Proportions: What Changed When F.D.R. Died?

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    Anthony Peel
    This research presentation examines how FDR's death and Truman's appointment as president in 1945 may have impacted the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The document outlines FDR's knowledge of and support for the Manhattan Project from 1939 onward. It then discusses Truman's reliance on FDR's advisors as well as the committees that framed using the bomb as inevitable. The main change was in foreign policy, as FDR was more accommodating toward the Soviet Union while Truman took a more aggressive stance and confidence in the bomb's power. In conclusion, the document argues FDR likely would have used the bomb similarly to Truman given his knowledge and the bomb's perceived inevitability.

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    Assumptions of Atomic Proportions: What Changed When F.D.R. Died?

    Uploaded by

    Anthony Peel
    30 views22 pages
    This research presentation examines how FDR's death and Truman's appointment as president in 1945 may have impacted the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The document outlines FDR's knowledge of and support for the Manhattan Project from 1939 onward. It then discusses Truman's reliance on FDR's advisors as well as the committees that framed using the bomb as inevitable. The main change was in foreign policy, as FDR was more accommodating toward the Soviet Union while Truman took a more aggressive stance and confidence in the bomb's power. In conclusion, the document argues FDR likely would have used the bomb similarly to Truman given his knowledge and the bomb's perceived inevitability.

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    Research Presentation

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    Research Presentation

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    This research presentation examines how FDR's death and Truman's appointment as president in 1945 may have impacted the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The document outlines FDR's knowledge of and support for the Manhattan Project from 1939 onward. It then discusses Truman's reliance on FDR's advisors as well as the committees that framed using the bomb as inevitable. The main change was in foreign policy, as FDR was more accommodating toward the Soviet Union while Truman took a more aggressive stance and confidence in the bomb's power. In conclusion, the document argues FDR likely would have used the bomb similarly to Truman given his knowledge and the bomb's perceived inevitability.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    30 views22 pages

    Assumptions of Atomic Proportions: What Changed When F.D.R. Died?

    Uploaded by

    Anthony Peel
    This research presentation examines how FDR's death and Truman's appointment as president in 1945 may have impacted the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The document outlines FDR's knowledge of and support for the Manhattan Project from 1939 onward. It then discusses Truman's reliance on FDR's advisors as well as the committees that framed using the bomb as inevitable. The main change was in foreign policy, as FDR was more accommodating toward the Soviet Union while Truman took a more aggressive stance and confidence in the bomb's power. In conclusion, the document argues FDR likely would have used the bomb similarly to Truman given his knowledge and the bomb's perceived inevitability.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 22

    Assumptions of Atomic Proportions:

    What Changed When F.D.R. Died?


    A Research Presentation by:
    Anthony Peel
    Introduction and ● Research Topic:
    Thesis ○ President Roosevelt,
    Harry Truman, and the
    Atomic Bombs
    ● Research Question:
    ○ Were there any effects
    on the dropping of the
    atomic bombs when
    Roosevelt died and
    Truman was appointed
    President in 1945?
    Introduction and ● Thesis:
    Thesis ○ President Roosevelt
    intended to use the
    atomic bombs in a
    similar fashion as
    Truman.
    ○ Memoirs and Letters
    ○ WWII documents
    ○ Expert Historians
    3 Main Questions ● What did President
    Roosevelt know and what
    did he do?
    ● What did Truman assume
    and who helped him make
    the decision?
    ● How did Roosevelt and
    Truman differ in Foreign
    Policy around the atomic
    bomb?
    What Did President ● Einstein-Szilard Letter
    Roosevelt Know? ○ Adamant that bombs
    would be created.
    ○ Led Roosevelt to create
    Advisory Committee on
    Uranium in 1939.
    “...set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of

    uranium by which vast amounts of power and large quantities

    of new radium-like elements would be generated.”

    -Einstein-Szilard Letter
    What Did President ● Einstein-Szilard Letter
    Roosevelt Know? ○ Adamant that bombs
    would be created.
    ○ Led Roosevelt to create
    Advisory Committee on
    Uranium in 1939.
    What Did President ● The MAUD Report: October,
    Roosevelt Know? 1941
    ○ Atomic bomb was
    possible to create.
    ○ F.D.R. gives full go
    advisor and scientist
    Vannevar Bush in
    January 1942
    “V.B.
    OK- returned- I think you had
    best keep this in your own safe.
    -F.D.R.”
    What Did President ● Nazi Germany was ahead
    Roosevelt Know? ○ Controlled rich uranium
    reserves.
    ○ Werner Heisenberg
    working on “uranium
    machine.”
    ○ The U.S. was behind and
    disadvantaged
    What Did President ● Hyde Park Aide-Memoire
    Roosevelt Know? ○ Roosevelt and Churchill
    ○ Atomic power would be
    a secret
    ○ May be used-
    specifically against
    Japanese
    Truman and the ● Retainment of Roosevelt’s
    Bomb Cabinet
    ○ “...continue both the
    foreign and domestic
    policies of the Roosevelt
    administration.”
    ○ Henry Stimson,
    Secretary of War
    ○ Vannevar Bush, advisor
    Truman and the ● Inexperienced
    Bomb ○ Roosevelt did not brief
    Truman on Manhattan
    Project
    Truman and the ● “The bomb was a military
    Bomb weapon”
    ○ “When” not “if”
    ○ Interim and Target
    Committee
    Changes in ● Willingness to Work
    Foreign Policy: ○ Needed U.S.S.R. to
    Roosevelt and continue the fight
    ● Atomic Secrets
    Stalin
    ○ Kept atomic energy
    between U.S. and G.B.
    Changes in ● Confidence
    Foreign Policy: ○ July 16, 1945
    Truman and Stalin ○ First successful atomic
    bomb test
    ● Showing Strength
    ○ “A weapon of unusual
    destructive force.”
    ○ No longer a secret
    Roosevelt knew...
    ● The power and the possibility of the bomb when he
    approved the research.
    ● Enemies were creating a similar device
    ● The military advantages to having
    atomic bomb
    Truman...
    ● Leaned on Roosevelt advisors, cabinet, and committees
    ○ Framed as “When,” not “If.”
    ● Assumed the bomb was a military weapon
    ● Was not briefed as Vice President
    The Main Change
    ● Foreign Policy with Soviet Union
    ○ Roosevelt was accommodating
    ○ Truman became aggressive
    Conclusion
    ● Roosevelt’s actions do not show that he would have used
    the atomic bomb in any other way than Truman did.
    ● The bomb seemed to be inevitable.
    “There was no decision to be made.
    Truman could no more have stopped
    it than he could have stopped a train
    moving down the tracks.”
    -George Elsey, military aide for
    Roosevelt and Truman
    Sources

    Alperovitz, Gar. Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, Inc, 1965.

    Atomic Heritage Foundation, National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, Einstein-Szilard Letter, 2019, https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/ei

    szilard-letter

    Bernstein, Barton J. “The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered.” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1. (1995): 135-52. doi:10.2307/20047025.

    Dobbs, Michael. Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, Truman and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2012

    Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

    Miscamble, Wilson D. The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
    Roosevelt, Franklin D., F.D.R.: His Personal Letters 1928-1945. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950.

    Truman, Harry. Memoirs Volume I: Year of Decisions. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955

    U.S. Department of Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources, A Tentative Decision to Drop the Bomb, 2019, https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-pr
    history/Events/1939-1942/tentative_decision_build.htm

    U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, Aide-Memoire Initialed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, 2019.
    https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1944Quebec/d299

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