Was America justified in dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945?

Was America justified in dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945? The Atomic bomb was dropped on 6th August 1945 on Hiroshima and on 9th August on Nagasaki, Japan by the order president of America, Harry S. Truman. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in history up to date. In most of Europe war had ended, but in Asia, Japan were still resisting. With the recent surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), America was thinking on launching a full scale invasion. However it was said that there would be too many casualties on both sides Was America justified in using the atomic bomb? In my opinion America was justified because America had only attempted to end the war and they gave Japan a chance to surrender before they dropped the Atom bombs known as The Potsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration, issued in July, demanded that Japan surrender by August third or face "prompt and utter destruction." The Japanese did not surrender, and destruction came in the form of the atom bomb. Much of Hiroshima was destroyed by the "Little Boy," with perhaps as many as 90,000 deaths almost instantaneously and estimates of additional deaths by the end of the year from injury, burns, and radiation poison 100,000. The Japanese still did not surrender, even after the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 8 and on August 9 the A-bomb was

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Who was to blame for the Cold War?

As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signified, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold but not clothed." This statement could be directly applied to the Cold War. The term "Cold War" means "a state of political hostility and military tension between two countries or power blocs, involving propaganda, subversion, threats, etc" (Cold War Def.). The Cold War lasted from the end of WWII, in 1945, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1989. It also included the Korean and Vietnam Wars and other conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. Both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were responsible for the political, economic, militaristic and ideological causes of the Cold War. Following the Second World War, Germany was separated into four independent quarters, Russian, American, British and French; from this division, the Cold War emerged (Collier 26). This proximity led to tensions and hostilities that surfaced in the years following WWII. There are three theses regarding the origins of the Cold War: the "Orthodox" belief that "the intransigence of Leninist ideology, the sinister dynamics of a totalitarian society, and the madness of Stalin" (McCauley 88) caused the Cold War; the "Revisionist" idea that "American policy offered the Russians

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The NAACP was the organisation that achieved most for African Americans during the 20th century. Do you agree?

THE NAACP WAS THE ORGANISATION THAT ACHIEVED MOST FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS DURING THE 20TH CENTURY. DO YOU AGREE? DANIEL BIMPSON 13-8 To assess this statement; it is useful to look at achievements for African Americans in terms of separate factors. Perhaps the most obvious example of African-American disenfranchisement was economic inequality. As well as there being virtually no blacks in the highest paid jobs, black unemployment was high, and those with jobs usually found themselves being paid less money than whites for the same work. In this area, the NAACP, however, could actually claim to have achieved very little; its greatest achievement here probably being the "Freedom Schools" that were established as part of the "Freedom Summer" campaign. Along with a curriculum that included things such as black history and the philosophy of civil rights, it gave young African Americans job training, improving their employability and hence, it was hoped, their economic position. However, the NAACP can only take partial credit for the program as it was a joint venture with the SNCC & CORE, and was only based in Mississippi. However, this was arguably the greatest economic achievement of CORE & the SNCC also. Those groups who did make advancements had a variety of serious limitations: for example, the UNIA, under the leadership of Marcus Garvey, founded a number of black enterprises-

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Do you agree that Martin Luther King was the most important factor in helping blacks gain more civil rights in the 1960s?

Do you agree that Martin Luther King was the most important factor in helping blacks gain more civil rights in the 1960s? In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed by Lyndon B Johnson, giving black people civil rights for the first time. This was followed by the Voting Bill in 1965, an act which scrapped the literacy tests given to blacks, and gave all black people the right to vote. Many things led up to these acts, such as the work of Martin Luther King, various protest groups and the experiences of many black Americans during the Second World War. Martin Luther King was born on 15th January 1929, the son of a preacher man and a teacher, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a passionate, charismatic man, and was no doubt influenced by the Baptist Church that he grew up with. Whilst a college, Martin Luther King was introduced to the work and ideas of Mahatma Ghandi, another influence on his ideas for peaceful protest. Throughout much of the world outside America, Martin Luther King was seen as a hero and a figurehead for change, however in the eyes of many racist Americans from the southern states, he was nothing more than a trouble maker and someone to be put down. One of the first civil rights groups Martin Luther King was involved with was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). By the time he became involved, he was a preacher, and was named president of the

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Who was the most influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s? What impact did he/she have?

Who was the most influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s? What impact did he/she have? Until the 1950s, African American faced discrimination in every aspect of their lives. In practice, many US lawmakers and law enforcers approved systematic segregation according to race. This resulted in African Americans becoming victims of mob rule and lynching, being forced to use separate entrances to buildings, being separated in theatres and on buses, denied access to "whites only" swimming pools, hospitals, school and even cemeteries. During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans, along with other people of other racial groups within the United States, embarked on a campaign to change this situation. This campaign, the Civil Rights Movement, challenged the discrimination and fought to achieve the equality that the American constitution promised for its entire people One of the principle leader and the most influential figure in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, the eldest son of Martin Luther King, Sr., he entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of 18. Graduating from Crozer Theological Seminary as class president in 1951, he then did postgraduate work at Boston University. King's studies at Crozer and Boston led him to

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Student Protesters in the 1960s were just a bunch of kids rebelling against their parents views. How far do the sources support this statement?

"Student Protesters in the 1960's were just a bunch of kids rebelling against their parents views. " How far do the sources support this statement? This sources display a wide variety of information relating to the protest movements by students. Source A shows figures of student enrolment in the USA. These figures clearly show that more women are attending university as time progresses - 1 a12% rise from 1947 to 1970. This could represent that women are moving away from their engrained 'stay at home' lives and are wishing to advance in life. However, this source does not specify the age of the students or how many of the students complete their courses, but the underlying message is still that more people wish to break from their pre-defined moulds of the earlier generation. Source B, a statement by the SDS, shows the ideals of the movement. It says that they are campaigning for 'freedom and equality for everyone'. This was especially evident in the situation with the Black Civil Rights Protesters, and showed that the SDS had bigger aims than simply rebelling against authority. It is worth noting however, that this is a political speech and as such, not everything said within it may be entirely factual. Source C, a song written by Bob Dylan, is one of the most influential sources shown. Songs were popular at the time for the attraction that they posed to a wide variety of

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U.S. foreign policy after the World Wars.

Essay 25 U.S. foreign policy has always been characterized by a commitment to free trade, protection of American interests, and a concern for human rights. The United States foreign policy after World War I was isolationism and withdrawal from world affairs, in which they refused to join the League of Nations. After World War II, there was full engagement with world affairs on a global scale. In the United States foreign policy post World War I, there was restricted immigration with the Emergency Quota Act and the Immigration Act. These were intended as temporary legislation but these Acts proved in the long run the most important turning-point in American immigration policy. The United States entered a period of isolationism with the passage of the various Neutrality Acts of the 1930's. These were passed in response to the growing problems in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. The US was sought to limit future warfare by the Kellogg-Briand Pact that outlawed war as a means of problem solving. The United States sought to find communists and other agitators through the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act. In the United States foreign policy post World War II, the US was heavily involved in foreign affairs through the policy of Containment hopes of stopping the spread of Communism. The Truman Doctrine stated that the US would support Greece and

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Why did the US decide to adopt the Truman Doctrine?

Why did the US decide to adopt the Truman Doctrine? The government in USA was deeply unhappy with the Communism's expansion to eastern Europe, which seemed to go further and further, threatening the power of capitalism. Traditionally America's policy was based on isolationism, but the threat of Communism expansion made the Americans realise that this was no longer possible if it wanted to have a world, where the dominant ideology would be based on capitalism, and not its opposite, communism. At Yalta it was agreed that each liberated country would have an emergency government set up and then free elections would be held. However, Stalin misunderstood - or as many historians suspect ignored - this and he gave leading positions to Communists in governments in eastern Europe, then held rigged elections and soon Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland fell under the control of the USSR due to these steps that strengthened the Communist Soviets' control in the government of these countries . This angered very much the Americans, who afraid of a possible continuity of this expansion towards Western Europe (or even worse - a map of the world dominated by the communist ideology) , decided to reject isolationism and try to stop Communism spread out. Relations between the USA and the USSR deteriorated significantly during 1946. Soviet troops after the war still remained

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Watergate scandal

Describe the main features of the Watergate scandal in the USA. The Watergate Scandal was caused by an attempt to bug the offices of the Democrat Party in the Watergate building in Washington. Five men were arrested in June 1972. The men were employed by CREEP, Committee to re-elect the President. Some of the key features were the secretive activites CREEP, dirty tricks, the cover-up, role of television, senate hearings, Nixon's registration and the scandal's impact on politics. In 1968, Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate, was elected president. In 1972 he would have to seek-reelection. Concerned that he might not be re-elected, he set up CREEP, "Committee to Re-elect the President". It was led by John Mitchell, a close adviser to Nixon, who was encouraged to use any tactics he saw fit to ensure Nixon's re-election, including dirty tricks or illegal methods. Sixty million dollars were illegally collected to fight this campaign, with $350,000 set aside for these dirty tricks, including the idea of "bugging" the Democrat offices at Watergate. This campaign led to the break in which started scandal and led to the cover-up. On 17th June, five members of CREEP were arrested for breaking into the Watergate offices. These burglars turned out to be rather unusual. They were not stealing from the offices, but instead planting electronic bugging devices. One burglar turned out

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