by A. J. Baime
“Over any such tangled wave”: Ibid., May 15, 1945.
“it seems a terrible thing”: Ibid.
“It seems to me that”: Churchill to Truman, May 21, 1945, Naval Aide to the President File, box 7, Truman Papers.
“When he’s talking to some”: Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (New York: Random House, 2003), p. 80.
“the purity of St. Francis”: Alfred Steinberg, Sam Rayburn: A Biography (New York: Hawthorn, 1975), p. 140.
“looked like death”: Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 881.
“The skin of his face”: Ibid.
“I asked him to go to Stalin”: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1980), p. 31.
“make it clear to Uncle Joe”: Ibid.
“Hopkins was the first Western”: W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946 (New York: Random House, 1975), p. 268.
“He wanted me to go to London”: Davies diary, May 21, 1945, Davies Papers, box 17.
“He told me then of the atomic bomb”: Ibid.
“Hopkins and Davies left simultaneously”: Ferrell, Off the Record, p. 32.
Chapter 24
“unreal, light as fantastic glass”: Michael S. Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), p. 274.
“The sheer number of bombs”: Robert Guillain, I Saw Tokyo Burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), p. 210.
“The last of old Tokyo’s”: Ibid., p. 211.
“We plastered the as-yet-unburned”: Curtis E. LeMay with MacKinlay Kantor, Mission with LeMay: My Story (New York: Doubleday, 1965), p. 373.
“I feel that the destruction”: Ibid.
FILLING “GOOP BOMBS”: “Filling ‘Goop Bombs’ That Are Frying Japan Like Mixing Cake Dough,” Boston Globe, July 1, 1945.
“The M-69s”: “Behind the World War II Fire Bombing Attack of Tokyo,” Time, March 9, 2015.
“I told him I was anxious”: Henry L. Stimson diary, June 6, 1945, Henry Lewis Stimson Papers, Yale University Library.
“yellow bastards,” “yellow monkeys”: See John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1986).
“Japanese atrocities marked fall”: “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking from Chinese Command,” New York Times, January 9, 1938.
“racial menace”: Dower, p. 7.
“The best psychological warfare”: William D. Leahy, I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on His Notes and Diaries Made at the Time (New York: Whittlesey House, 1950), p. 72.
“Apparently, the atrocities”: Diary of Henry H. Arnold, John W. Huston, ed., American Airpower Comes of Age: General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold’s World War II Diaries (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 2002), pp. 332–33.
“Apply full and unremitting pressure”: Leslie M. Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (New York: Da Capo, 1962), p. 263.
“The Japanese are a fanatical”: Diary of Joseph C. Grew, May 28, 1945, WHCF:OF, file 1926, Truman Papers.
“If some indication can now”: Ibid.
“The Emperor Hirohito was Japan”: “The God-Emperor,” Time, May 21, 1945. Also quoted in Michael Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power, p. 303.
“The Japanese campaign involves”: Stimson diary, May 15, 1945.
Chapter 25
“all the prerogatives”: Memorandum for the president, “Visit of Iraqi Regent,” May 25, 1945, PSF, box 158, Truman Papers.
“Your Royal Highness”: Memorandum, “Covering the Procedure to be Followed for the Visit of the Regent of Iraq,” May 28, 1945, SMOF: White House Social Office Files, box 25, Truman Papers.
“If such rights are given to us”: “Visit of Iraqi Regent” memo.
“Iraq is extremely rich in oil”: Ibid.
“Our real interest in the Middle East”: Ibid.
“The Arabs, not only in Palestine”: Ibid.
“no decision affecting the basic”: Franklin D. Roosevelt to Prince Abdul Ilah, April 12, 1945, PSF, box 158, Truman Papers.
“It was truly a magnificent”: Margaret Truman, The President’s House: A First Daughter Shares the History and Secrets of the World’s Most Famous Home (New York: Ballantine, 2003), p. 95.
“I want to say to the Regent”: Informal Remarks of the President, May 29, 1945, PSF, box 190, Truman Papers.
“He told us in the morning”: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), p. 34.
“I’m one American who didn’t”: Ibid., p. 29.
“There are letters addressed”: Ibid., p. 32.
“A Convalescent Taxpayer”: A Convalescent taxpayer to Harry Truman, June 2, 1945, file unknown, Truman Papers.
“Whole Nation Reflects Era”: “Whole Nation Reflects Era of Good Feeling Inspired by President,” Washington Post, July 8, 1945.
“There is one thing about President”: “Talk of the Town,” New Yorker, April 28, 1945.
An overwhelming majority: “Presidential Timber in 1948?” Washington Post, May 16, 1945.
“Although President Truman stepped”: “Poll Finds Majority Gives Truman Approval,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1945.
“He is capable and”: Ayers diary, Ferrell, Truman in the White House, p. 31.
“I have some Cabinet changes I want”: Transcript of press conference, May 23, 1945, PSF, box 51, Truman Papers.
“I don’t give a damn”: Ayers diary, Ferrell, Truman in the White House, p. 33.
“[Stalin] said that if the United States”: Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 894.
“If the refusal to continue”: Ibid.
“I am distressed to have”: Winston S. Churchill to Harry S. Truman, May 28, 1945, SMOF: Naval Aide to the President Files, box 7, Truman Papers.
“This cut the pipeline”: Oral history of Robert G. Nixon, p. 167, Truman Library.
“Daughter was in”: Longhand note, June 1, 1945, PSF:LNF, box 283, Truman Papers.
“It is the extraordinary isolation”: Emmet John Hughes, The Living Presidency: The Resources and Dilemmas of the American Presidential Office (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973), p. 26.
“The White House becomes especially”: Truman, The President’s House, p. 14.
“I shall be very glad to meet”: Churchill to Truman, May 29, 1945, Naval Aide to the President Files, Box 7, Truman Papers.
“I have no objections against”: Joseph Stalin to Harry S. Truman, May 30, 1945, SMOF: Naval Aide to the President Files, box 9, Truman Papers.
“I will gladly come to Berlin”: Churchill to Truman, June 1, 1945, SMOF: Naval Aide to the President Files, box 8, Truman Papers.
“Nothing really important”: Ibid.
Chapter 26
“It looks as though Stalin”: Harry Hopkins to Harry S. Truman, May 30, 1945, SMOF:MRF, box 1, Truman Papers.
“Harry Hopkins has just sent me”: Winston S. Churchill to Truman, June 1, 1945, Naval Aide to the President Files, box 8, Truman Papers.
“If this is true”: Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), p. 39.
“plans for bringing about unconditional”: Special Message to the Congress on Winning the War with Japan, June 1, 1945, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/viewpapers.php?pid=52.
“I always get those dirty”: Harry S. Truman to Martha Ellen Truman and Mary Jane Truman, June 16, 1945, FBPAP:FCF, box 19, Truman Papers.
“Can you imagine a fat pig”: Ibid.
“Their [the British] un
animous view”: Memorandum for the president, “War Criminals,” April 19, 1945, Samuel I. Rosenman Papers, box 10, Truman Library.
“Its size and character”: Henry Stimson, quoted in Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Touchstone, 1986), p. 642.
“He thought these weapons might”: Memorandum of conversation with General Marshall, May 29, 1945, Henry L. Stimson Papers, box 12, National Archives, College Park, MD.
“Every effort should be made”: Ibid.
“[Marshall] spoke of the type of gas”: Ibid.
“Every feature of his body”: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York: Vintage, 2005), p. 29.
“the granddaddy of today’s”: Ernest O. Lawrence and the Cyclotron, R&D Accomplishments, U.S. Department of Energy website, https://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/lawrence.html.
“this project should not”: Notes of meeting of the Interim Committee, May 31, 1945, Truman Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?documentdate=1945-05-31&documentid=39&pagenumber=1.
“This discovery might be compared”: Ibid.
“a scientific certainty”: Ibid.
“tremendous”: Ibid.
“The basic endeavors”: Ibid.
“Stalin would ask to be”: Ibid.
“should seek to make a profound”: Ibid.
“a foregone conclusion that”: Arthur Holly Compton, Atomic Quest: A Personal Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 238.
“While recognizing that the final”: Notes of meeting of the Interim Committee, June 1, 1945, Truman Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/index.php?documentdate=1945-06-01&documentid=40&pagenumber=1.
“Leonard,” Truman uttered: Oral history interview, J. Leonard Reinsch, p. 61, Truman Library.
“This is a lonesome place”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, June 3, 1945, FBPAP:FCF, box 14, Truman Papers.
“I’m always so lonesome”: Longhand note, Harry Truman, June 1, 1945, PSF:LNF, box 283. Note: This document is dated June 1, but in it Truman discusses going to church, which, according to his daily calendar, made the date June 3, a Sunday.
“Don’t think over six people”: Ibid.
“rather dull,” he wrote: Ibid.
“It came as something”: Drew Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Washington Post, June 11, 1945.
“You evidently are just finding”: H. S. Truman to Margaret Truman, June 11, 1945, FBPAP:FCF, box 18, Truman Papers.
“the Great White Jail”: “Harry Truman and the Potsdam Conference,” Truman Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/potsdam.htm.
“I’m just a prisoner”: “Town Talk,” Washington Post, June 5, 1945.
“you son of a bitch”: Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1991), p. 72.
“He loved these wild games”: Oral history interview, Robert G. Nixon, p. 270, Truman Library.
“Have been going through some”: Longhand note, June 1, 1945.
“I’m a damn fool I guess”: Ibid.
Chapter 27
“Stalin overruled Molotov”: Harry H. Hopkins to Harry L. Truman, telegram, June 6, 1945, SMOF:MRF, box 1, Truman Papers.
“I was fully in sympathy”: Diary of Henry L. Stimson, June 6, 1945, Henry Lewis Stimson Papers, Yale University Library.
“Those French ought to be”: Diary of Eben A. Ayers, Robert H. Ferrell, ed., Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), p. 37.
“the almost unbelievable threat”: Joseph C. Grew to Ambassador Caffery in France (to forward a letter from Truman to de Gaulle), June 6, 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States, Department of State, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945v04/d699.
“General DeGaulle agrees to”: Allied Headquarters, Caserta, Italy, to War Department, June 10, 1945, William D. Leahy Papers, Records of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, box 12, record group 218, National Archives, College Park, MD.
“Mr. President,” he said: Memorandum of conversation, Cabinet Meeting, June 8, 1945, WHCF:OF, box 1928, Truman Papers.
“Tell me,” Truman asked: Diary of Joseph E. Davies, June 4, 1945, Joseph Edward Davies Papers, box 17, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
“chemical soup”: Ibid., May 26, 1945.
“was not a ‘smooth’ session”: Ibid.
“Great, you did a splendid job”: Ibid.
“To the great American Envoy”: Ibid.
“He was completely fed up”: Joseph E. Davies, “Full Report to Truman on Mission to Churchill,” June 12, 1945, Davies Papers, box 17.
“even more bitter towards”: Ibid.
“communist propagandists and leaders”: Ibid.
“As I listened to his denunciation”: Davies diary, May 26, 1945, Davies Papers, box 17.
“Europe would be prostrate”: “Davies, “Report to Truman on Mission to Churchill.”
“Perhaps it would fall to a very”: William D. Leahy, I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on His Notes and Diaries Made at the Time (New York: Whittlesey House, 1950), p. 379.
“A great man, but first, last”: Ibid.
“[She] had an extraordinary”: Charles E. Bohlen, Witness to History: 1929–1969 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973), p. 221.
“Two months ago,” Hopkins began: Minutes of Stalin-Hopkins meeting, May 26, 1945, Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 888.
“felt a certain alarm”: Ibid., May 27, 1945, p. 893.
“properly deployed”: Hopkins to Truman, May 29, 1945, SMOF:MRF, box 1, Truman Papers.
“must have a good reason”: Ibid.
“Japan is doomed and the Japanese”: Hopkins to Truman, May 30, 1945, SMOF:MRF, box 1, Truman Papers.
“The Marshal expects that Russia”: Ibid.
“He stated categorically”: Hopkins to Truman, May 29, 1945.
“a battery of photographers greeted”: Davies diary, June 13, 1945, box 17.
“This was an extraordinary”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 916.
Chapter 28
“I sit here in this old house”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Truman, June 12, 1945, FBPAP:FCF, box 14, Truman Papers.
“Just two months ago today”: Ibid.
“It was nice to talk”: H. S. Truman to B. W. Truman, June 15, 1945, FBPAP:FCF, box 14.
“His family is gone”: Steve Neal, ed., Eleanor and Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (New York: Citadel, 2002), p. 22.
The total program for the new: Press release, “President Requests $39 Billion Military Budget for War Department,” June 11, 1945, PSF, box 197, Truman Papers.
“The supply lines to feed”: Statement by the President on the Continued Need for Food, June 2, 1945, Truman Library, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=56&st=&st1=.
“Took Ross, Snyder and Rosenman”: Longhand note, June 5, 1945, PSF:LNF, box 283, Truman Papers.
“has answered by actions”: “Truman Steers Back from Rule by New Dealers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1945.
“The President has to look out”: Harry S. Truman, Address at Memorial Hall in Buffalo, October 9, 1952, PSF, box 28, Truman Library.
“practically identical”: Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House on 18 June 1945, Truman Papers, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/pdfs/21.pdf.
“the only course to pursue”: Ibid.
“Our estimates are that our”: Ibid.
“It is a grim fact”: Ibid.
“every individual moving”: Ibid.
“vitalize the Chinese”: Minutes of Meeting, 18 June 1945.
“s
ubmerged class”: Ibid.
“would result only in making”: Ibid.
“We gave up unconditional surrender”: John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), p. 10.
“Truman was always a good”: William D. Leahy, I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on His Notes and Diaries Made at the Time (New York: Whittlesey House, 1950), p. 385.
“McCloy, you didn’t express”: This conversation is from McCloy’s recollections, quoted at length in Len Giovannitti and Fred Freed, The Decision to Drop the Bomb (New York: Coward-McCann, 1965), p. 136.
“We were told that it”: Transcript of testimony by J. Robert Oppenheimer, April 12, 1954, United States Atomic Energy Commission (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1954).
“Almost everyone knew that”: Gerard DeGroot, The Bomb: A History of Hell on Earth (London: Pimlico, 2005), p. 42.
“We feel compelled to take”: Franck Report, excerpted in Barton J. Bernstein and Allen J. Matusow, eds., The Truman Administration: A Documentary History (New York: Harper Colophon, 1966), p. 11.
“a nuclear armament race”: Ibid., p. 12.
“large accumulations of poison gas”: Ibid.
“a demonstration of the new weapon”: Ibid., p. 13.
“The opinions of our scientific”: “Recommendations on the Immediate Use of Nuclear Weapons,” June 17, 1945, National Security Archive online, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/19.pdf.
“definitely the biggest crowd”: “Hero’s Welcome: Million Out to See ‘Ike’ in the Capital,” Atlanta Constitution, June 19, 1945.
“greatest ovation in 25 years”: “Congress Accords Ike Its Greatest Ovation in 25 Years,” Washington News, June 19, 1945.
“looked nervous and embarrassed”: Diary of Allen Drury, June 18, 1945, A Senate Journal: 1943–1945 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), p. 449.
“a real man”: Harry S. Truman to Martha Ellen Truman and Mary Jane Truman, June 16, 1945, WHCF:PPF, box 19, Truman Papers.
“Eisenhower’s party was”: Harry S. Truman to Bess W. Truman, June 19, 1945, WHCF:PPF, box 14.