The American Atomic Bomb

The Americans were certainly aware of the fact that the Germans were working hard to construct nuclear weapons, weapons that would ultimately change the face and strategies behind the art of war. President Truman knew that if the Germans were, and I stress were, to successfully construct nuclear weapons, then control of the war, a war that was slowly heading towards defeat for the Germans and its fellow allies, would be placed in the hands of the Germans. At that point it became clear to the United States that they haad no other choice but to cancel out the Germans efforts by successfully constructing nuclear weapons of their own. Similar to beating the communists to the moon (a symbol of superiority and power), the United States trusted that the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project would be successful in creating nuclear weapons before the Nazi scientists. Clearly the Americans beat the Germans to the punch (though many question the efforts of the German scientists). Once the United States had the power of nuclear weapons in their hands, World War II was all but over.

By 1945, Nazi Germany was nearing defeat and Germany's fellow key player, Japan, gasped for air as defeat became more and more of a realization. And in the summer of 1945, the Allies ended World War II, forcing both Germany and Japan to surrender when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. So in the end, the "good guys". Yet the question still lingers: were the Americans just in udsing the atomic bomb as a means to end World War II?

It was clear that Germany and Japan were more than ready to fight under any circumstances, surrender not being an option. And because Germany was so depleted by the summer of 1945, the United States turned their forces towards Japan, successfully using the atomic bomb as a means to end World War II, along with showing the world their superiority and power. The awfulness of nuclear weapons was a horrifying reality, causing people in the present to fear the possible use of another nuclear weapon (now a days referred to as weapons of mass destruction), further proving the significant impact science has on the art of war.