Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2012 Reflections on the Atomic Bomb’s effect on America since its dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Matt Grogan Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Military History Commons, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Grogan, Matt, "Reflections on the Atomic Bomb’s effect on America since its dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (2012). Honors Theses. 828. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/828 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Reflections on the Atomic Bomb’s effect on America since its dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Matt Grogan 2012 History Department i Table of Contents Abstract…………………….iii Chapter 1: The Decision to Drop the Bomb and the Initial Reactions……..1 Chapter 2: Stimson, Truman, and John Hersey……………17 Chapter 3: The Origins of the Cold War, the Hydrogen Bomb and the Cuban Missile Crisis………………………………………….33 Chapter 4: The Ripple Effects of Hiroshima and the Atomic Bomb in modern times……………………………………………….50 Bibliography…………………………..66 ii Thesis Abstract This thesis examines the issues and controversies that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused in the United States. Four chapters all deal with different periods in the history of these controversies. The first chapter deals with the actual decision to drop the bomb and the American public’s initial reactions, while the second chapter deals with subsequent reactions as the topic got more controversial.