You can do a user search on me if you want to see some of the questions I'm asking. I have no interest in either IvorySnow Pacifism or a leftist blame-America perspective. I'm asking questions here about the moral conduct of war. I'm looking for insight --- not trying to score points.
Anyhow, thanks for contributing to the discussion
Again, if that is the case, Please provide citations to back up your "facts". The statement that you claim both Eisenhower and Lemay made about the bombs are complete fictions.
"Most of Truman's advisers supported dropping the bombs, though there were exceptions. At one point during the Potsdam conference in Germany, Truman ate lunch with Gens. Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley.
"Though Truman didn't ask either about using the bomb, Eisenhower indicated he was opposed to using it because he thought Japan had already lost the war, Truman biographer David McCullough wrote. Earlier, Eisenhower told other top U.S. officials the weapon was so horrible he hoped the United States would not be the first to use it."
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:HYrQOLX16eAJ:www.tri-cityherald.com/BOMB/bomb25.html+Eisenhower+atomic+bomb&hl=en
"In 1945 ... , Secretary of War Stimson visited my headquarters in Germany, [and] informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan.
"I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act....
"During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and second because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face.' The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude, almost angrily refuting the reasons I gave for my quick conclusions." Source: The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953-1956: A Personal Account. Author: Dwight David Eisenhower (New York: Doubleday, 1963), pp. 312-313.
Available in hardcover from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br_ss_hs/102-9190237-0617733?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dstripbooks%3Arelevance-above%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26results-process%3Dbin&field-keywords=%22Mandate+for+Change%22+Eisenhower&Go.x=7&Go.y=11
Leahy believed the atomic bomb would probably not work. After the atomic bombings of Japan, Leahy condemned the use of the atomic bomb for practical reasons:
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons." (William D. Leahy, I Was There, pg. 441).
And on Aug. 8, 1945 he wrote in his diary: "there is a certainty that it [the a-bomb] will in the future be developed by potential enemies and that it will probably be used against us."
He also objected to the a-bomb's use for moral reasons:
"in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages" (William D. Leahy, I Was There, pg. 441).
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For further information:
William D. Leahy, I Was There
Henry H. Adams, Witness to Power: The Life of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy
The Papers of William D. Leahy. Library of Congress, Washington, DC.