CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT:Cold War Relations 1941-1965
The BIG Question:What caused the Cold War?
Yalta and Potsdam: Truman and Hiroshima
Can American President Truman have ever been justified to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
Lesson III – Yalta and Potsdam: Truman and Hiroshima• Judge Truman’s position at Potsdam• Evaluate the utility of contemporary written sources
To bring the war to an end, to give peace to the world …
at the cost of a few explosions, seemed, after all our
toils and perils, a miracle. The end of the Japanese war
no longer depended upon the pouring in of [the
Russian] armies.Winston Churchill, describing a
conversation with Truman in 1945.
After the bomb was dropped, Stalin was furious. The place Russia had
earned as a world power by its victory in the war had been snatched away.
"Hiroshima has shaken the whole world," he is said to have told Kurchatov.
"The balance has been destroyed.“Priscilla McMillan, Science and Secrecy (2004). From a review in
the New York Times of David Holloway's book: Stalin and the Bomb
Truman informed Stalin that the United States now possessed a bomb of exceptional
power, without, however, naming it the atomic bomb… Stalin did not betray his
feelings and pretended that he saw nothing special in what Truman had imparted to
him. Both Churchill and many other Anglo-American authors subsequently assumed
that Stalin had really failed to fathom the significance of what he had heard.
In actual fact, on returning to his quarters after this meeting Stalin, in my presence,
told Molotov about his conversation with Truman. The latter reacted almost
immediately. ‘Let them. We'll have to speed things up.’ I realized that they were
talking about research on the atomic bomb.
It was clear already then that the US Government intended to use the atomic
weapon for the purpose of achieving its Imperialist goals from a position of strength
in ‘the cold war’.
Georgii Konstantinovich Zhukov, The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov (1971).
Zhukov was remembering the day (24 July 1945) when Truman told Stalin that he
had ‘a new weapon of unusual destructive force’. Zhukov suggests that, not only
did Stalin realise that this was the atomic bomb, but that he also realised it was
directed at the Soviet Union. If Zhukov is right, the Cold War started on 24 July 1945.
How did Truman sit at Potsdam?(the answer is not “between the other two”)
Using the sources explain how Truman’s position developed in
late July whilst at the Potsdam Conference
Extracting details – GRADE CComparing source details – GRADE B
Using specific detail to support answer – GRADE A
5
SOURCE J
We argued freely and frankly across the table. But at the end of every point unanimous agreement was reached ... We know, of course, that it was Hitler’s hope and the German war lords’ hope that we would not agree – that some slight crack might appear in this solid wall of allied unity ... But Hitler has failed. Never before have the major allies been more closely united – not only in their war aims but also in the peace aims.
Extract from President Roosevelt’s report to the USA on the Yalta Conference
SOURCE K
I have always worked for friendship with Russia, but like you, I feel deep anxiety because of this misinterpretation of the Yalta decisions.
Extract from a telegram sent by Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt in May 1945
HOW USEFUL ARE THESE TWO SOURCES TO YOU AS A HISTORIAN? REMEMBER TO QUOTE FROM THEM AND REFER TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE KEY EYE WITNESSES
Can American President Truman have ever been justified to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
Lesson III – Yalta and Potsdam: Truman and Hiroshima• Judge Truman’s position at Potsdam• Evaluate the utility of contemporary written sources
Can American President Truman have ever been justified to THREATEN the Atomic Bomb on RUSSIA?
PRO-ACTIVE RE-ACTIVE