Hiroshima 1945: right or wrong?

At fifteen minutes past eight on the morning of

August 6, lIN:;, an American ll2'J bomber dropped

an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Fortyfive

seconds later the bomb exploded ill a blinding

flash. A mush room- shaped cloud climbed high

into the sky above the city. Belew. where Hiroshima

had been, burned a ball of fire. 11 was umo

feet across and the temperanlrt' at its center was

100 million degrees. " The war's o va!.. shou ted

one of the bomber's crew. " My God," said

another, "what have we do ne?"

President T rum an ordered the atomic bomb to be

used. I II.' believed that using it save d lives by

en din g the war quickly. At the rime. and since.

people haw argued fiercely about whether he was

righ t. Some be lieve that he was. Without l liroshima,

they say, the Americans would have had to

invade Japan to end the war. Many mo re people

than died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both

Japanese and American, would eben havc been

killed. Other people do not accept [his reasoning.

They argue that the Japanese government was

ready to surrender before the bombings. More

than half a century after the destruction of

Hiroshima. the argument still continues.

In the 1930s every yc,u seemed to bri ng a new war,

o r threat ofwar. somewhere in the wo rld. Lead ers

like th e: (;,..-rman dictator Hitler threatened and

builn-d. Nations bu ilt more tanks. warshi ps and

military aircraft. Pn.-. sjdcnr Roosevelt spoke to rhc

American people in 1937 about wars being fought III

Spa in and China. "I nn ocent peoples. innocent

nat ions arc being cruel ly sacr ificed to J greed fo r

power and supn..-mac v." he warn ed. " If these things

COIll \.' to P;ISS [happ en! in othe r parts ofthe worl d. let

no one ill1,l ~il1 c that America will escape."

13m Spain and C hina seemed far away. Most

Americalls igno red Roosevelt 's wa rning. T hey

believed that th e best thin g to do \\',IS to let foreigners

solve their problems themselves. lsolaricnisrs fd t rhis

parricularlv strongly. These were people who

believed rhar Amc ricans should try to cu t olT, or

"isola te." rhc United Stat es from rhc problems o f the

Olltsidt' world.

Iso lationist ide as were \Try strong in Congress

during rhc 19.30s. It passed a number o flaws called

Neutrality Acrs. Thcse said that Amer ican citizens

wo uld not be allowed to sell militar y equ ipment, o r

lend money, to any nations at war. Evennonmilitary

supp lies such as foods tuff s would be sold to

warr ing count ries only if th ey paid cash to r them and

collected them in their own ships.

Then. in 1939, war broke om in Europe. Uy the

summer of 19-10 Hitler's arm ies had overrun all of

western Europe, Only Urirain <cxbausrcd and sho rt

ofweap on s - still de fied them. With Hitler the master

of Euro pe, and his ally. Ja pan, becoming ever

stronger ill Asia, Americans saw at las t the dangerous

pos ition of rhc Unit ed States, sand wiched between

the two.

Roosevelt had already persuaded Congress to

ap pro vt' rhc Iirvt peace time military conscription in

American histo ry and to suspen d th e Ncurraliey

Acts. Now he scm Britain all the mil itary t'qu lpment

th at the Un ited Stares could sparcc rifles. gUlls.

ship s. Early ill 19-1 1 the British ran our o f mone y. In

March Roosevelt persuaded Congress to accepr his

Len d Lease Plan. Lend Lease gave Roosevelt the Tight to supply

mili tary equi pment and other goods to Brnain

wi tho ut payment. He could do the same fo r dny

country whose defense he considered occcsserv (Q the

safet y 011ht, Uni ted Stares. American gu ns, food and

~l ircraft crossed th e Atla nt ic Ocean in large quanti ties.

They played a viral pan in helping Britain to

cont inue to tight agamse Hitler. When I{itlcr attacked the Soviet Union in june IY41, Roosevelt used rhc

L\:m{ Lease scheme to send aid to the Russians, too.

Fighting was also taking place in Asia at th is time.

japanese forces had invaded Man churia III 1931 and

China in)lJ37, In July 19·H, they also occu pied the

French colony o flndoch ina. This alarmed th e

American government. h saw the growing power of

japan as a threat both to peace in Asia and to

American trading in terests. Ever since the 1937

att ack on China the United States had been reducing

its t'xp ort~ to J apan ofgoods tha t wert' useful in

war - aircra ft and che micals. fo r exam ple. Now, in

july IlJ4l, it sto pped all shipments o f oil.

j apan fared disaster. It imported 80 percent ofits o il

from th o: United States, Witho ut this Americ:In oil its

industries would be paralyzed. "japan IS like a tish III

a pond from which the wan-t IS being drained awa y.'

a senior naval officer told Empero r l Iirohiro.

In O ctober. Gener al Hidoki Toj o became j apan's

Prime Minister. T oj o was well known for his belief

tha t a sharp USt' afforce W:IS often rhc bcsr way to

solve disagreements. This had earned him.

nickname- the Razor. The re was plen ty ofoil in

Southeast Asia. Tojo decided that japan mus t seize

it-and must make it impossible for the Americans to

usc their Pacific battle Nl'l't to stop them.

() II Decem bcr 7, 1941, j apanese warplanes roaredin

over Pearl I lnrbor. Hawaii, the America n navy's

main base in the Pacific Ocean. Their bombs and

torpedoes sank or badly damaged eight American

battleships, blew up hund reds ofaircraft and killed

over 1,000 men.

Whcn the Pear l Harbor attack took place, the United

States and Japan were still at peace, The United Stares

declared war 0 11 December R. 1941. Since Germ any

wasj apan 's ally. Hitler then declar ed war on the

United Scan-s. The wa r in Europe and the war in Asia

became one war. Britain, the Soviet Union and the

United States (the Allies) were the mam count ries on

o ne side. Germany and j apan (the Axis) were the

main countr ies on the other,

Th e United Stares government orga nized the whole

Amer ican eco nomy towards winning the war. It

placed controls on wages and prices, and Introduced

high income taxes. Gasoline and some foods were

rationed. Factories stopped producing consumer

goods such as automobiles and wash ing machines.

and started making tanks, bombers and other wa r supplies. T he government also Spl'nt a vast

amount- two thousand million dollars-on a topsecret

research scheme. The scheme was code-named

the Manhattan Project. By 1945 scientis ts working

0 11 rhc scheme had produced and tested th e world's

first atomic bomb, Allied war planners agreed to co ncent rate 011

dctcaring Germany fi rst, In 1942 the Sov iet Unio n

was under heavy attack by the Ger mans. To help the

Russians, American generals recommended an early

invasion o f German-occupicd France. Hut Winston

C hurchill, the Uritish Prime Mi nis ter. persua ded

Roosevelt to attack the Germans first in the

Mediterranean region. Combined American and

British fo rces Landed III North Africa III November

1942, and joined orhcr British fo rces already figh ting

there, Togcrhcr. the Allied armies defeated the

German genera l Hommel's Afrika Korps. In ]1)43

they invaded Sicily and the mainland of Italy. After

mont hs of bitter fighting. on June 4, 1944. they freed

Rome from German control.

Two days later. on June 6_ Allied troops invaded

Normandy in German-occupied Prance. Their

Supreme Commander was rhc American gene ral

Eisenhower. The invasion was code-named

Oper ation O verlord. The day it took place was

referr ed to as li-Dav - D for l Ichvcrancc. From early

in the mornmg o f I)- J.)ay hund reds ofAllied landing

craft emptied their loads o f men and weapons 0 11 to

the tla t Norma nd y beaches. Germ an soldiers fought failed. By the end ofJuly Allied soldiers were racmg

across France. Paris was libe rated on August 24 and

by September Allied forces had crossed Ccnuauy's

wcsrcru border.

Hut the Germans were not vcr beaten. In I)e(·t'mber

I(}44, they launched a last f ierce atta ck in till'

Arden nes region o f Ud gium. They punched back the

Allied fro nt line in a bul ge many miles deep. This

gav c rhe batt le its name -the Batt le ofthe Bulge. It

was a mo nth befo re the Allies could organize a

roun rcrartack and drivc back [he Germans.

T he Battle of the Bulge proved to be" the last German

o ffensive ofthe Second World War. On April 25.

1(}45, British and American soldiers met ad vancing

Soviet troops Oil the banks ofthe River Elb c in the

middle ofGerm any. On Apr il 30 Hitler shot himsel f.

German soldier s cvcrvwhcrc laid down th eir

\\·l'apons and o n May 5, 1945. Germany sur rende red.

In th e: Pacific j apanes e armed forces won some

str iking early victories. In only a few mo nt hs they

o verran Southeast Asia and the Islands of[he western

Pacific. By th e: summer of 1942 [hey had co nque red

over 1.5 million square mile s ofland, rich in raw

materials and inh abi ted by more than 100 million

peop le, Th e conq uered lands included rhc

Philippines, where thousands of Americ an troo ps

we re t rapped and forced to surrender, Japan 's first setback r-amo in May 1'J-12. In the Battle

ofthe Cor al Sea. aircraft from Amer ican carr iers

drove back a big japanese invasion fleet that was

thrvnrcni ng Aust ralia. ln j unc rhcjapancsc sutf-red

all even worse defeat. Their main bailie Ill-t,t attacked

an impo rtant American base called Midway Island.

Again American warplanes heat them offwith heavy

losses. In the Battle of Midway the japanese lost lour

aircraft carriers and many oftheir best pilots.

By the beginning of 19-13 the Amcricnnv ami their

Australian and British allies had ag reed upon a longterm

plan to de feat the Jap anese. They decided on a

thr ee-pron ged att ack. From Australia one prong

'would push northwards towardsJap an th rough the

Philippines. From Hawaii another pron g would

strike westwa rds through rhe islands o f rhc centra l

Pacific. Finally, th e tWOPacific offem in's would be

supported by a drive throu gh Hurma into the lands

that thejapan ese had conq uered III Sou theas t Asia_ ByJ UIll' 1'-)-13, the Pacific offensives had begun.

Amer ican forces adv anced toward sJapan by "is land

hopping" -that is, they captu red Islands that were

srr arcgicallv im porta nt, but by passed others. In the

remaind er of 1l)-1J and throughout 19-1-1, Allied

forces fought their way closer to Japan itself. InJ line

I'N-1. an enormo us Ameri can task force won cont rol

of the import ant Marian a Islands. In O ctober

American troops returned to the Philippines and

cur offJapan from its conqucst s III Southeast Asia.

By 19-15Japan was within ran ge o f air attacks.

Ame rican bombers made devastatin g raids on its

cities. ln j unc the island o f Okinawa, less than 375

miles from the Japanese coast, fell to the Americans.

Amer ican troops prepared to invade Japa n itself.

But the invasion ne ver came. O n J uly Ifl, 11)-15.

Alhed scientists at work o n the Manhatt an Project

tested the world's first atomic bomb. Even they were

shocked by the result. T hey had inven ted the most

destructive Wl..'apo n the world had ever seen. On

August 6 an Ameri can bomber dropped an atomic

bomb ove r rhc japancsc cit y of HIroshima. A few

days late r, on August 9, a second ato mic bomb was

dropped on rhc city of N agasaki. Both cines were

de vastated and nearly ~OO, OOO civi lians we re- killed.

On August 1-1 rhejapanese government surrendered.

The Second Worl d War 'was o ver

22. After the WWII: prodperity and problems - presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. "McCarthyism". Cold War with the Soviet Union.

"T he war?" the former Red Cross worker said to the

interviewer. " T he war was fun for America. " A

st range th ing to say. yo u may think. lim Ame ricans

wer e the only people III the wor ld that th e Second

Worl d War had made better o ff. T heir hom es had not

been bombed o r their land fo ug ht over. Busy

wartime facto ries had given them good wages.

in the years th at followed the war Americans became

be tte r otTstill. Between 1947 and 1971 rhc value of

th eir wages in buying po wer- their " real incomes' as

th is is callcd c-morc than doubled. Americans bo ug ht

more houses, cars. telev ision sets. consum er goods of

every kind. They became the most prosperou s

peo ple the world had ever seen. As early as 19W.

55 percent ofall famili es owned washing machines.

75 percent ovvned car s, 90 percent had television sets

and nea rly all had refr igerato rs.

During these years ofprosperity the Uni ted States

was led first by Pr esident Tru man (1945- 53), then

by President E isenhowe r (1953 - (1). III IW)1 a new

President called John F. Kenn edy (1t)61-3) was

elected.

Kennedy to ld the American people th at th ey were

facing a " new frontier;" aile with bo th opport unities

and problems. One big problem III their own

count ry was po vert y, Although most Americans

were well-off million s ofothers were too poor to

lead decent lives. Some we re crowded together in

city slums. O thers lived in places like old coal producing

districts where the mi nes had close d.

Kennedy was a Dem ocrat. as Roosevelt had been. He

tr ied to help [he poor with govern nu'm money and

food, He also wanted to help e ther groups who we re not getting J. fair dea l. like blac k America ns. Hut

before Kenn ed y could do J.11 these things he was sho t

and killed. This happened while he was driving

through the streets ofDallas in November 1% 3.

Lyndon U.Johnson (1% 3 - 9) took over from

Kennedy as President. Johnson had been Kennedy's

Vice President. He had spent years as a member of

Congr ess, ma king political friends and winning

influence there, I Ic used this influence: to speed up

Kenn edy's plans for reform. One of hi s firs t actions

was to persuade Congress to pass Kenn edy's plan to

Improve the position ofAmerican blac ks. In 1%4

rhis beca me law as the Civi l Rights Act.

Johnson also pro mised the American people a.. "var

0 11 pover ty;" I Ic set up systems of health care for the

elderly (Medica re) and for th e poor (Medic aid). l ie

also increased federal aid to education. l it' said that

he want ed to turn the United States into " the gre at

society" -;1 cou nt ry where everyone received fair and

dece nt trearmcn r.

llmJohn so n himselfcaused his plans to fail. In the

lata 1960s he involved the United States more and

more: deeply in war in Vietnam. The huge cost ofth e

war forced Johnson to give up many ofhis plans for

improvements. Riots and protests flared up all over

the country - against the war, aga inst poVCrty,

against co ntinuing racial injustice.

By 1% 8 tilt' American people were bitterly div ided.

Many blamed johnson for the country's problems.

He became so unpopular that he decided not even to

try to get re-elected. In 1969 he ga"·t' up the

Presid ency and retired.

Richard Nixon (1969-74) was elected to take

J oh nson's place as President. Nixon was a

Republican. lie "vas much less interest ed than

Kenne dy and j ohnson in help ing the poor. T he

gove rn ment was paymg om mor e than enough

money 011 welfare schemes alread y, he said. I Ic

believed that people should overcome hardship by

th eir own efforts.

In November 1972. the American people re-elected

Nixon. The mam reason fo r this was th at by then he

was close to getting the United Sta tes out ofthe

hated wa r III Vietnam. A cease-fi re was finally signed

in j.anuar y 1973. Arrangements were made for all

American fighnng men to come home. The

American people fdt a huge sense ofrelief It was Nixon 's moment of g reatest triumph. But

soon he was in trouble. HlC was accu sed o f being

involved in an illegal plan to discredit his political

opponents. called th e "Warergarc Affair. " Congr ess

threatened to put him 011 trial- " impeach" him - for

misusing his powers. To avoid this. Nixon resigned

as President.

Nixon was followed as President first by Cc rald Ford

(1974 - 7) and then by Jimmy Carter (19n - 81).

Neith er Ford no t Ca rter won much success or

popularity as President. O ne reason fo r this was that

both fou nd it difficult to comrolinflano n. The

United States now imported lot s ofoi l. Afte r an

Arab- Israeli war in 1973 international oil prices rose

steeply. These oil-price in creases caused general

inflation. By 1980 prices in the United States were

rising by 13.5 percent a year and this was making life

difficult for many people.

In 1980 Americans elected a President they ho ped

would make a better job of ru nni ng the country. l ie

was a former film actor named Ronald Reagan. Like

Nixon, Reagan was a Republican. At home, he

showed little sympathy fo r the poor. He said that he

aim ed to make Americans depend less a ll

go vernment help and more on self-help. Abroad.

Reagan was determined to make the United Sta tes

stronger than its old rival. the So viet Union. l ie

spent many millions ofdollars on developing

powerful new missiles and on resea rch IIU O weapo1l s

to knock out enemy missiles from space.

Many people at home and abroa d criticized Reagan.

Some said that he was unfeeling. Other s believed that

he was incompetent. Still others called him a

dangerous warmonger. But Reag an's poli cies including

the spending on weapons- helped more

Americans eo fmdjobs. Businessmen made bigger

profits. Most Amcr iransc-all exce pt the poorest of

them- beca me better off This helped to make

Reagan pop ular, So did his relaxed and friendly

manner. which came ove r well on televis ion.

Reagan was popular for another reason. too. Aftt'r

[he shame of Vietnam and Watergate his simple

"stand on your own feet and act tou gh" policies

made many Americans feel proud o f their country

again. In 19H4 they re-elec ted him as President by one

of the biggest majorities in American history. He was

still popular. and for much the same reasons. when

his second term as President end ed in 1989.

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

During the McCarthy era, thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings of Senator McCarthy himself; the Hollywood blacklist, associated with hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC); and the various anti-communist activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthyism was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

The Cold War (Russian: Холо́дная война́, Kholodnaya voĭna) was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World – primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies – and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States and its allies. Although the chief military forces never engaged in a major battle with each other, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races, appeals to neutral nations, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

After the success of their temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, the USSR and the US saw each other as profound enemies of their basic ways of life. The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc with the eastern European countries it occupied, annexing some and maintaining others as satellite states, some of which were later consolidated as the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991). The US financed the recovery of western Europe and forged NATO, a military alliance using containment of communism as a main strategy (Truman Doctrine).

The US funded the Marshall Plan to effectuate a more rapid post-War recovery of Europe, while the Soviet Union would not let most Eastern Bloc members participate. Elsewhere, in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the USSR assisted and helped foster communist revolutions, opposed by several Western countries and their regional allies; some they attempted to roll back, with mixed results. Among the countries that the USSR supported in pro-communist revolt was Cuba, led by Fidel Castro. The proximity of communist Cuba to the United States proved to be a centerpoint of the Cold War; the USSR placed multiple nuclear missiles in Cuba, sparking heated tension with the Americans and leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, where full-scale nuclear war threatened. Some countries aligned with NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and others formed the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension – the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949), the Korean War (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1959–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), and the Able Archer 83 NATO exercises in November 1983. Both sides sought détente to relieve political tensions and deter direct military attack, which would probably guarantee their mutual assured destruction with nuclear weapons.

In the 1980s, under the Reagan Doctrine, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the nation was already suffering economic stagnation. In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika ("reconstruction", "reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", ca. 1985). The Cold War ended after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power. Russia rejected Communism and was no longer regarded as a threat by the U.S. The Cold War and its events have had a significant impact on the world today, and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially films and novels about spies.

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