Originally Posted by Lenny2

We dropped the bomb for two very good reasons, neither of which was to get Japan to surrender.

1) Revenge for Pearl Harbor. The Japanese dragged us into a war that cost us an untold number of American lives and an enormous amount of our treasure.
Why? We wouldn't sell them oil. (Gee that seems like a funny parallel considering what today's and tomorrow's wars will be fought over)

2) We wanted Stalin to know we had the bomb. It was our way of saying don't fuck with us, we have it and we have the balls to use it. We knew the cold war with the Soviets was coming and this was our way of keeping them in check.
Considering who won the cold war you could make the argument that this strategy worked.