Reply #41: Fear of the USSR couldn't be part of the official reason. [View All]

[Buck Rabbit]

1- Russia was our most powerful military ally. FDR had spent a good deal of the last year of the war planning for the post war era including Soviet participation in his vision of the planned UN. He gave Stalin the honor of taking Berlin even though the Germans were leaving the roads wide open to the Americans and British, praying they would arrive before the Russians. It was FDR that pushed for Soviet participation in the war against Japan even setting the date range, within 3 months of the fall of Germany. Stimson and Truman had a different perspective on the Russians than FDR.

2- It blew the official excuse that the Bombs were needed to prevent a necessary US invasion. That excuse doesn't sound very good if it is pointed out that by the time of the November US invasion the Russians would already be there.