[Advil000]

Yes, there are things that revisionists completely ignore.

One of them is that whether we used the bomb during that war or not, the bomb was going to be developed. There was no mythical option C where the world never developed the bomb.

We can play what if forever, but the long term effects of using the bomb during WWII may have also kept us from it during the cold war. We ALL had the pictures and data showing what would happen. If the bomb had not been used in war against Japan, would the USA and the Soviet Union have had to actually engage each other with them before we understood the concept of MAD?

Just imagine if neither of our nations had any real use examples to draw from during the really scary moments of the cold war?

Or imagine yet another scenario. We never use the bomb, but China or Russia or Germany did first during some other conflict soon after.

How much different would history have been? For the better? Hard to imagine how it could have been better.

Because as I started out saying, the bomb was going to be developed during those years whether we used it or not.

It’s sobering and disturbing to contemplate all the other ways history could have played out.

[daniel1212]

We can play what if forever, but the long term effects of using the bomb during WWII may have also kept us from it during the cold war. We ALL had the pictures and data showing what would happen. If the bomb had not been used in war against Japan, would the USA and the Soviet Union have had to actually engage each other with them before we understood the concept of MAD?

True, and I believe God also allows atrocities partly in order to produce future abhorrence and avoidance of such. Few people want to be called a Hitler (though Stalin was worse in the long run).