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The Roosevelt-Churchill "Tube Alloys" Deal seems harsh 65 years after the fact. The two Western world leaders harshly deny the possibility of sharing the responsibility and yields of this revolutionary new technology. A year before VJ-Day, the deal suggests the use of the bomb against Japan, an event that many Americans would hope is never repeated, and perhaps even regret. The relatively short agreement ends with a paranoid warning of possibly traiterous scientists, leaves a distinct taste of 50s communism in the back of your mouth. But to look at these statements in the context of the time, some concessions can be made. Not to state the obvious, but at the time the world was embroiled in a war on three continents that affected and was affected by dozens of countries. A little suspicion may have been warranted, especially as world governing organizations like the UN hadn't had a lot of success and influence. The suggestion of bombing Japan can be easily understood by following the reasoning of that decision. Germany's location in Europe meant that even with America's meager knowledge of nuclear fallout it would have been devastating to drop a bomb anywhere in Europe. Japan's isolated islands were the perfect candidates, however. Germany also had internment camps of innocent Jews and a withdrawal of Allied troops from Europe would have been near impossible at that point in the war. And lastly, Japan's kamikaze attitude towards the war was something that America had never encountered before, and it was starting to look like we would have to kill every last Japanese civilian. Lastly, suspicion of traitors wasn't entirely an unfounded fear. America had no idea the extent of Germany's intelligence network. Neils Bohr was Danish, so he had one of those frightening accents that meant he was up to no good. This was only a year before the mad grab for scientists began, codenamed Operation Paperclip. America was already invested in keeping as many high level scientists in the States and on our side as possible. My first reaction to this deceptively short document was surprise at the abrubtness and non democratic nature that the tone suggests. On the other hand, in my lifetime and even decades before we have become accustomed to not having to make sacrifices to carry on our wars, something that 1940s America was acutely aware of. The benefit of the doubt may be a acceptable casualty of war.