Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima And Potsdam

by Gar Alperovits, Alperovitz, Gar Alperovitz

Book Overview

'A daring and elaborate work of historical reconstruction.' New York Review of Books

'Since its publication almost everyone who has written about the beginning of the atomic age has praised or denounced the book.' New York Times

'Tightly written and well presented this seminal work] is very accessible.' Bob Hulteen, Sojourners (Canada)

'Atomic Diplomacy is a classic account of the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074530947X
• ISBN13: 9780745309477
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 414 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

"You Can't Handle the Truth!"

So said Jack Nicholson's character in the film, "A Few Good Men," and so says Mr. Alperovitz to his prosecutors in the reviews below. One reviewer in particular took great lengths - with little evidence - to state the book's conclusions were based on statements taken out of context. This can be refuted by just one statement that Admiral Nimitz made to author James Michener in 1944, referring to the blockade: "We have the Japs beat." And as the only effective fighting force the "Japs" possessed at this time was the Kwantung Army, cut off and then subsequently bottled up in Manchuria by Soviet occupation, the notion that US forces would have had to turn Tokyo into Stalingrad becomes even more preposterous. There is no doubt that the desire to use the Bomb on the "Japs" is in direct proportion to the widespread use of said racist term itself. I cannot imagine the US testing this device on Berlin (though Hitler would have used it on the tip of a rocket if he'd had it in time.) Mr. Alperovitz does an excellent job debunking the patriotic propaganda that has wrapped a major war crime in the Stars and Stripes, proving that the "values of Nuremurg" were indeed but a display of victors' justice.

Atomic Decision ..

My father was present at these events. He was drafted out of Graduate School at Harvard, selected by virtue of performance on IQ tests given there and was directly involved in the code breaking and analysis in the far east. He reported to a Lt General in the US Army for the wartime effort he was officially an officer in Army Intelligence. He read the cables at this time and performed analysis for the Army high command. The story he has related to me is essentially identical to the story this book relates. The bulk of the upper echelon's of the US armed forces realized that Japan was done and was sending out feelers for peace. Japan realized that she was cooked before the Atomic bomb was dropped. My father's specific recollection is that Japan was only requesting that the Emperor not be treated as a war criminal, a condition that was fulfilled anyway. Hence my father has never believed that the dropping of the bomb was required. This book fills in many details of what was going on inside the US government at that time but it basically is entirely consistent with what my father has said since I was old enough to understand. It is mystifying to me why some people react violently and negatively to the story related in this book. The book is not alleging some grand conspiracy just the normal pushing and pulling inside the government which is typical of decision making in a democracy. The book is well documented.

Its not about whether to drop the bomb or not

The above reviews suck...Ok, the book if you (with exception to the third review) read the preface jackson, is about "HOW" the bomb was used in dimplomacy...ok, just read the title maybe that will give you a clue..bible of revisionism give me a break.

Great book -

All indications from the secret negotiations between the Americans and the Japanese and, retrospectively, from the complete devastation of Japan point to Dr. Alperovitz's claim: The atomic bombs were unnecessary for the war's conclusion.Given the fact that more than 200K civilians were specifically targeted and instantaneously incinerated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this book leaves me the following thought: What a dreadful sin we have committed ...

The tragedy of American diplomacy, 1945

"Atomic Diplomacy" describes how the atomic bomb seduced the United States government in 1945 into the fantasy that it could intimidate the Russians into abandoning their strategic objectives after World War II. To convey this message to the Kremlin, approximately 200,000 Japanese were dispatched in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "Atomic Diplomacy" tells the beginning of a sad story of hubris on a world historical scale. It is a tragic irony that a weapon which in the end we did not need to win the war ended up bewitching our leaders into losing the peace