I visited the Hiroshima atomic bomb museum
where they have a collection of interesting military articles which document the debates leading up to the decision to drop the A-bomb.

I forget the exact wording, so I'll paraphrase it, but one Top Secret memo, possibly from Oppenheimer and his buddies, stated:

"We, the scientific advisors to the US Military Command are united in our advice.

We wish to reinforce in the *strongest possible terms* that to drop an atomic weapon on Japan without first giving due warning will have grave consequences.

Our strongest allies will have due cause to be suspicious and concerned about our military capabilities which may, in turn, lead to a devastating arms race to build a new generation of nuclear weapons with the potential to cause unprecedented destruction"

An lo', they didn't listen and the Cold War began, bringing humanity to the very brink of self-annihilation. One wonders how often this sort of thing happens.
( chart cat has an itch, Tue 21 Apr 2009, 10:58, 1 reply)

I suspect
An arms race was inevitable anyway. Probably better the cold war than the real war which would have taken its place.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Tue 21 Apr 2009, 15:50, closed)