Truman Political Influence

This paper will identify the political influences that contributed to President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. The reason this topic is important is because the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan during World War II has had a lasting impact on U.S. foreign policy. The information on the political influences affecting Truman’s decision will be from Truman by David McCullough; Code-Name Downfall by Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar; America’s Rise to World Power by Foster Rhea Dulles, and The Atomic Bomb and American Foreign Policy by Barton J. Bernstein, “Nuclear Non-Proliferation” by Lawrence Scheinman, “The Atomic Bomb” by Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko and Prompt and Utter Destruction by Samuel J. Walker.
Truman was not just thinking about ending the war; he was thinking about how we could best enter postwar negotiations with the Soviet Union. Professor Bernstein thought the bomb was a tool used to "thwart Soviet ambitions", and that it was "deemed a useful counterweight to Soviet expansion". This supports Dulles’s claims, which included that the Soviet Union would not be as willing to cooperate in peace as in war. Upon entering post-war negotiations, the U.S. wanted to have more leverage over the Soviet Union. The U.S. and the Soviet Union had conflicting ideals concerning the spread of communism. Truman was scared of Stalin expanding his power around the globe through communism. With the possibility of conflict between the two countries (U.S. and U.S.S.R.), Truman wanted to show off America’s powerful new weapon. This was partly done to intimidate the Soviets and hope they became less aggressive after seeing the destruction that the bomb could create, but Truman also wanted see for himself what the bomb could do to another country, so if the time came, he could use it knowing full well what it would