Why Did The United States Use The Atomic Bomb In The Cold War?

From the mid 1940’s through the mid 1960’s, the United States was in its first cold war with the Soviet Union. It was considered cold because there was no outright fighting. The U.S. had been fighting to rid the world of communism, but only brought the communist USSR and USA together to fight their common enemy, Germany in World War two. The United States made a deal with the USSR that once Germany surrendered, ninety days after that they would declare war on Japan. The US had developed a nuclear bomb that would eventually lead to be the winning weapon of world war two. Although it ended the war against Japan it sparked a new war with USSR. Which we now call the Cold War. Herken, the author of The WInning Weapon The Atomic Bomb In The Cold War 1945-1950, examines the United States on how they could have a nuclear war on their hands and what was done to avoid it. This title came from the early times after the war that the U.S has developed a winning weapon to give them the edge they needed.
With the United States developing the “winning weapon,” they had believed they finally had the key to negotiations.
To be safe, they had to let the Soviet Union know they had a new weapon but did not disclose just how extraordinary it truly was. At the Potsdam conference the big three met to discuss the final stages of the war. The Soviet Union had so much land and was a big topic discussed. As the meeting ended, Truman hinted the idea of a new weapon that would end the war and Stalin just nodded his head and hoped the U.S. made good use of the weapon. Little did the president know, Stalin already knew and was developing his own nuclear weapon. Kennan who was in Moscow sent the “Long Telegram” to Secretary of State James Byrne. Which basically said we could not trust the Soviets and that we needed a plan to contain the USSR. Kennan was also a Major role in Cold War
programs. This was a very tense time for the USA. People began to worry about a Russian attack or even a nuclear war. The US, was worried so they developed a more powerful bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb which was a thousand times more powerful. As all this was going down spies from all over were learning of this new weapons possibilities and practical uses for it. Mistrust was all around and we had spies everywhere to try and help us stay ahead of another country that could threaten the US. As the US, started to become more confident they started to help out countries inadvertently by giving them money and weapons to fight communist and to become their own nations again. Russia also did this to help help battle the capitalist world. Which also shows we were avoiding each other by indirectly fighting but helping out our true cause. Herken was very easy to follow giving the reader some information that led up to what he was talking about. Also his book was in order so that allowed me to understand why events would unfold when they did. As an author he could have given a little more insight to what was going on in Russia’s side too. It felt as if the reader was in the dark about what was going on on their side of the war. But this monograph was written still not long after the Cold War was considered peaceful for a time. Both books had shared about the same information with the United States telling the Soviet Leader Stalin about our new weapon. They both described it as they hinted towards the idea without giving any clues to the true nature of the bomb itself. Also i stated Stalin did not pay much attention to it and all he said was “I hope you make good use of it”. In the textbook it said Stalin nodded but that was the only change in that part of the story. The book had way more information on the Cold War with the Russians and how the United States had dealt with war on a horizon. The textbook skimmed over or did not even mention a lot of the details the book did. However the textbook did provide information on the “Long Telegram” and the “X Article” which seemed very important to the Cold Wars plans of action and how to deal with the Soviets in the future. In the textbook it also tells the reader about a George F. Kennan who was a very important leader in the development of Cold War programs and institutions. Herkens bias is toward the United States being superior to the USSR. He saw as if the United States had done nothing wrong and were protecting themselves to try and help the world ny having The Winning Weapon as a big negotiation tool. As he elaborated on many topics the US, was usually the better of the choices and that if need be the US, could do what was needed. For example Herken stated “the United States need not be concerned about the immediate current intentions of the Soviet union”. He believed the US, had an advantage and we did not have to rebuild so we could win a war if necessary. HE chose to ignore facts as if they could have a bigger H-bomb than us that ours was bigger and better than the Soviets. However he did ignore The X Article and The Long Telegraph which showed how the United States was still worried about a war that was definitely mutually assured destruction of the countries involved and maybe even the world.