Originally Posted by dyna mo

ok, i watched the doc in its entirety, thanks for pointing me to it.

for me, i think stone is on to something, but hasn't quite got it sorted out.

as stone points out, truman was not in charge of dropping the bomb, groves was, groves is otr stating that truman didn't so much as say yes, he just didn't say no to already existing plans to drop the bomb(s). groves described truman as a boy on a toboggan.

next, he goes on that the japanese communicate to the russians that they are willing to surrender conditionally, if the emperor can be kept.

general kawabi says: we learned of hiroshima gradually, we learned of the manchurain invasion quickly.

stalin had rushed to invade manchuria after learning of the successful test of the bomb

for me, what stone is really trying to revise, is that truman blinked. truman backed off his requiring japan to surrender uncondtionally, at potsdam, he allows them to maintain the emperor. in that sense, yes, the bomb didn't have anything to do with it.

but i don't think that changes the fact that the bombs did shorten the war. that's not to say that russia's entry would not have shortened the war. but based on the doc, the plan to drop the bombs was in motion via groves, truman had no real say, as did any of the other generals.