09 Primary Sources

Why I Chose Letter to President Truman from the Department of Agriculture

This letter was very interesting to me for a variety of reasons. First of all, it provides a contradiction to the letter from Philip B. Fleming, which is important if we are to see the two sides of the beginning of the atomic age. The atomic age is the aftermath of Hiroshima. Another thing about the letter is how it has a surprising amount of ethnocentric language. The Department is bashing Russian intelligence and ingenuity, while at the same time claiming that the United States produces the greatest machines on the world. It is a unique look into the casual disregard of the ability of the Soviet Union to compete on an international scale. Another little thing is that this is a letter that, in its day, would have been nigh impossible to read (unless you were a high-ranking government official). This gives it a certain amount of intrigue and feeling of importance. Maybe that’s just for personal reasons.

Why I Chose Letter to the President from Philip B. Fleming concerning peacetime development of Atomic Energy

This letter provides a strict juxtaposition to the previous letter. That is the main reason it was chosen as a Primary Source and to my reasoning it seems to be more logical. Perhaps if the president had followed General Fleming’s advice, the Cold War could have been avoided (perhaps not). The wisdom in trying to placate the Russian bear cannot be denied either way (unfortunately, our government has long held a policy that force is the only thing Russia understands). The main flaw in the logic is another reason why I chose to use this document as a Primary Source (for the sake of irony). Fleming believes that it is only a matter of time until the Soviet Union obtains nuclear secrets and tells the President that they should give the Soviets our atomic secrets, making the United States, Great Britain and the USSR the only nations to hold nuclear secrets. He believes that because the three largest world powers hold secrets of the atom, the rest of the world will be held off. Here’s the inherent flaw: how could we keep nuclear secrets from China, Japan, and Germany forever when we couldn’t with Russia? If Fleming’s goals had been realized, history may have recorded a totally different Cold War. Fleming’s dismissal of Asia being able to house a nuclear power suggests a jingoistic stance much like in the letter from the Dept. of Agriculture.

Why I Chose [The] White House press release announcing the bombing of Hiroshima

This was the first document I sought out and for obvious enough reasons. Within this press release, one finds the official stance of the White House (in 1945) on the atomic bomb. The stance of the Truman Administration is that the bomb was developed out of necessity, as an “if we hadn’t, someone else would have” type of argument, making the bomb not something which was developed with the sole intent of killing vast amounts of people, but an eventuality of American ingenuity. The document also explained what exactly had happened to end the war, and began to press upon the public the tremendous power that had been unleashed. The carefully chosen language used within sidesteps mentioning the vast amount of civilians that were killed in the city. Another function of the letter, and a reason why I chose it, is it gives a vague future outlook for peacetime use of atomic energy. This could be used to compare what was projected with what has actually become of atomic energy.

Why I Chose Letter from Albert Einstein to FDR concerning the possibility of nuclear bombs

This letter from the renowned scientist Albert Einstein to President FDR may be the reason that the government provided financial backing to likes of Szilard and Fermi. It suggests that FDR should pull some strings and make is so that the aforementioned scientists can work away with some assistance and without worrying about funds. The successful development of a way to harness atomic energy could (and did) set America up as “the” world leader. It is essential to include this letter if we are to understand the phases that the development of the bomb underwent.

Why I Chose Leaflets Dropped on Cities in Japan

This document seems to me essential. When I first saw that I could use the actual text (translated anyway) I knew that I had to have it. It is a very factual account of what was to happen. It states simply that the United States is in possession of a hell of a bomb, and it may or may not be used on any given city. To think that someone in Nagasaki might have read it only hours before the second atomic bomb dropped is mind-boggling to me.