Atomic diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam; the use of the atomic bomb and the American confrontation with Soviet power

Alperovitz, Gar

Did America use the atomic bomb mainly to end the war with Japan, or to gain leverage over the Soviet Union?

At a glance

You will weigh the author's claim that Truman put off hard issues with Stalin, confident in the new atomic weapon
You will see how American advisers expected economic and military power to push the Soviet Union out of Eastern Europe
You will notice how American concern for Eastern Europe at the war's end quietly abandoned the old ideal of isolation