Assumptions of Atomic Proportions:

What Changed When F.D.R. Died?

A Research Presentation by:
Anthony Peel
Introduction and ● Research Topic:
Thesis ○ President Roosevelt,
Harry Truman, and the
Atomic Bombs
● Research Question:
○ Were there any effects
on the dropping of the
atomic bombs when
Roosevelt died and
Truman was appointed
President in 1945?
Introduction and ● Thesis:
Thesis ○ President Roosevelt
intended to use the
atomic bombs in a
similar fashion as
Truman.
○ Memoirs and Letters
○ WWII documents
○ Expert Historians
3 Main Questions ● What did President
Roosevelt know and what
did he do?
● What did Truman assume
and who helped him make
the decision?
● How did Roosevelt and
Truman differ in Foreign
Policy around the atomic
bomb?
What Did President ● Einstein-Szilard Letter
Roosevelt Know? ○ Adamant that bombs
would be created.
○ Led Roosevelt to create
Advisory Committee on
Uranium in 1939.
 “...set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of

uranium by which vast amounts of power and large quantities

of new radium-like elements would be generated.”

-Einstein-Szilard Letter
What Did President ● Einstein-Szilard Letter
Roosevelt Know? ○ Adamant that bombs
would be created.
○ Led Roosevelt to create
Advisory Committee on
Uranium in 1939.
What Did President ● The MAUD Report: October,
Roosevelt Know? 1941
○ Atomic bomb was
possible to create.
○ F.D.R. gives full go
advisor and scientist
Vannevar Bush in
January 1942
“V.B.
OK- returned- I think you had
best keep this in your own safe.
-F.D.R.”
What Did President ● Nazi Germany was ahead
Roosevelt Know? ○ Controlled rich uranium
reserves.
○ Werner Heisenberg
working on “uranium
machine.”
○ The U.S. was behind and
disadvantaged
What Did President ● Hyde Park Aide-Memoire
Roosevelt Know? ○ Roosevelt and Churchill
○ Atomic power would be
a secret
○ May be used-
specifically against
Japanese
Truman and the ● Retainment of Roosevelt’s
Bomb Cabinet
○ “...continue both the
foreign and domestic
policies of the Roosevelt
administration.”
○ Henry Stimson,
Secretary of War
○ Vannevar Bush, advisor
Truman and the ● Inexperienced
Bomb ○ Roosevelt did not brief
Truman on Manhattan
Project
Truman and the ● “The bomb was a military
Bomb weapon”
○ “When” not “if”
○ Interim and Target
Committee
Changes in ● Willingness to Work
Foreign Policy: ○ Needed U.S.S.R. to
Roosevelt and continue the fight
● Atomic Secrets
Stalin
○ Kept atomic energy
between U.S. and G.B.
Changes in ● Confidence
Foreign Policy: ○ July 16, 1945
Truman and Stalin ○ First successful atomic
bomb test
● Showing Strength
○ “A weapon of unusual
destructive force.”
○ No longer a secret
Roosevelt knew...
● The power and the possibility of the bomb when he
approved the research.
● Enemies were creating a similar device
● The military advantages to having
atomic bomb
Truman...
● Leaned on Roosevelt advisors, cabinet, and committees
○ Framed as “When,” not “If.”
● Assumed the bomb was a military weapon
● Was not briefed as Vice President
The Main Change
● Foreign Policy with Soviet Union
○ Roosevelt was accommodating
○ Truman became aggressive
Conclusion
● Roosevelt’s actions do not show that he would have used
the atomic bomb in any other way than Truman did.
● The bomb seemed to be inevitable.
“There was no decision to be made.
Truman could no more have stopped
it than he could have stopped a train
moving down the tracks.”
-George Elsey, military aide for
Roosevelt and Truman
 Sources

Alperovitz, Gar. Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam. New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, Inc, 1965.

Atomic Heritage Foundation, National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, Einstein-Szilard Letter, 2019, https://www.atomicheritage.org/key-documents/ei

szilard-letter

Bernstein, Barton J. “The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered.” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1. (1995): 135-52. doi:10.2307/20047025.

Dobbs, Michael. Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, Truman and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2012

Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Miscamble, Wilson D. The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Roosevelt, Franklin D., F.D.R.: His Personal Letters 1928-1945. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950.

Truman, Harry. Memoirs Volume I: Year of Decisions. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources, A Tentative Decision to Drop the Bomb, 2019, https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-pr
history/Events/1939-1942/tentative_decision_build.htm

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, Aide-Memoire Initialed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, 2019.
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1944Quebec/d299