Greg+Silva+-+Week+11

Unfortunately for scientists and mankind as a whole, scientists do not make decisions regarding national security in the United States. Despite the clear repercussions of the development and use of nuclear arms (initially fission, and later H-bombs) as addressed by scientists to the United States Government in the Szilard Petition, Franck Report, and the General Advisory Committee Report on the H-Bomb, the President of the United States continued government research in nuclear arms because “It is part of [his] responsibility as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor” (Truman).

Although the use of nuclear arms was vastly more effective at targeting civilians than military targets (due to their excessive destructive area) Truman, acting for the defense of the United States before the defeat of Germany, had no alternative than to develop nuclear arms. The United States Government developed the first fissile atomic bombs out of fear of a German attack on the United States. Later, during the beginning of the Cold War, the United States developed the Hydrogen Bomb in defense against the Soviet Union. Despite the General Advisory Committee’s prediction that it was “no means certain that the Russians [would] produce one within a decade” (General Advisory Committee), the Soviet Union first tested an H-Bomb in 1956 and developed and detonated the largest explosive ever built (the H-Bomb “Tsar Bomba”) in 1961, and would have done so regardless of whether or not the United States made similar developments.

Truman’s actual use of nuclear arms, however, was dubious. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, opponents of the use of atomic bombs who signed the Szilard Petition believed that “such an attack on Japan could not be justified, at least, not unless the terms which [would] be imposed after the war on Japan were made public in detail and Japan were given an opportunity to surrender” (Szilard, et. al.). However, the Potsdam Ultimatum issued by the Allies to Japan, while mentioning that “[the] alternative for Japan is complete and utter destruction” ([|Potsdam]), never specifically mentioned the use of the new weapons to achieve that destruction. Withholding such information from Japan may have been a significant factor to Japan’s decision to refuse surrender; knowledge of a weapon capable of annihilating a city may have dissuaded the Japanese military from defending Japan so fiercely.