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We think of the past as something fixed and virtually inevitable. But to those who lived it, what we call the past was their present and futurea conditional, unpredictable space with many possible outcomes. In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, but was that the only possible result of the Manhattan Project?

Imagine that it is the end of June 1945. Germany has surrendered, but Japan still fights on. A blockade of the island empire is slowly starving the Japanese, and firebombing air raids have reduced whole square miles of more than 60 Japanese cities to smoldering rubble. President Harry Truman is about to leave for Potsdam, Germany, where he will meet British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian Premier Joseph Stalin for the last summit meeting of the war. Scientists, engineers, and policymakers assume that the uranium weapon (codename Little Boy) will work, and the plutonium weapon (codename Fat Man) will be tested in New Mexico in mid-July. Now, President Truman has asked you whether the United States should drop its new atomic bombs on Japan. In a 1500-word action memo (i.e.-a message that offers an actionable solution to a problem) for the President, make your recommendationto drop, not to drop, or some other optionand defend it.

As you do, you must first state the problem, which is how to end the war with Japan now that two atomic bombs are available. Then state and respond to arguments for and against the use of the weapon as made by contemporaries in The Manhattan Project. Finally, offer your recommendation and explain why youve chosen it.

As you make your case, consider, for example, the argument for use of the bombs as military weapons made during the afternoon session of the Interim Committee (The Manhattan Project, Document #41) and by soldiers such as Paul Fussell (MP, Document #95) and as a diplomatic tool by Secretary of War Henry Stimson (MP, Document #40). Take into account the Combined Intelligence Committees Estimate of the Enemy Situation (MP, Document #63) and the domestic pressures outlined by Trumans soon-to-be Secretary of State James Byrnes (MP, Document #33) and by the student of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Arthur Holley Compton (MP, end of Document #43). Examine the case against their use made by some scientists (MP,Document #62). You may also recommend conditions for its deployment, such as a demonstration of the weapon beforehand that was explored by a panel of eminent scientists (MP, Document #51) or a simple but direct warning advocated by Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph Bard (MP, Document #56) or a condition of your own. Think, too, about how you might time the drops if you favor the use of the atomic bombs, supporting or rejecting the decision to give a single order for the immediate dropping of both bombs and explaining why (MP, end of Document #76). Feel free to cite other documents in support of your position.

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