Notes PROLOGUE RESPONSE TO DUTY 1 Citation for Oak Leaf Cluster to Dis- 4 Accounts have been given of this epi- tinguished Service Medal foi Gen of sode in Pres Truman's Aletiioirs, 11, the Army George C Marshall. read at 85-86, in int bv author 200ct59 with cereinony, Pentagon, 26Nov45, in ap- Sergeant Richard Wing, who took the pendis of Katherine T Marshall, To- call and summoned the General, in ge/har, 290-9 1 int by author 20Jun69 with Marshall's 2 Remxks by Gen Marshall at Penta- driver, Marjorie Payne Lunger I have gon cereniony, 26Nov45, ML followed the account given by Kather- 3 Ibid ine T Marshall, Togelhe), 282 I FINAL BATTLES 1 1 h,jve drawn general details on the Stilwell, 30ct44, WARX 40782, ML last months of the war in the Pacific 3 Samuel E Morison, Leyte, 338 lrorn my ints with Geii Marshall, 4 Ibid Robert Smith, Reticrri lo the Plirlippities, 5 Hanson Baldwin, Bnltles Lost ndll'ori, Samuel E klorison, Leyte, The Libtwi- ch I1 tiorr OJ' /lit> Pliilip/~rnes.and lirfoiy iti the 6 Report of the Cliiefof Stnfoj'tlie I: S ,4rmy PrrrrJir, D Clayton James, The JPnis of to Seoetniy of Ik'n,, 1943-45, 84-86 ~\lnrd4itliii~,11, Thomas Buell, A/astei of 7 JCS nitg with Pres, 18Jun45 Sen Poziw For the development of the 8 Stinison Diniy, 10May45 atomic bomb, I have drawn on my 9 Hewlett and Anderson, Neil1 l\'or/d, ints with Marshall and with Geii Les- Stimson Din,?, 90ct44 lie Groves For general details, I have 10 Hewlett and Anderson, Neui l\bi/d, relied heavily on Richard G Hewlett 46, 51 ' and Oscar E Anderson, Jr , The h?ew 11 Hewlett and Anderson, Nezo ll'otld, Ilbild, I Other ints include those 73 with Gen Thomas T Handy. Harvey 12 Int by author with Marshall, Bundy, Speaker Sam Rayburn Stim- 1 1Feb57, personal information on son's Dint?] was of great value The Groves from ints by author with Lt Army's oflicial tolume, Vincent C Gen Leslie R Groves. 7, 10May70 In Jones, Alnnhnttnri The iiriti.y oiid the Mar42 Marshall directed Brig Gen ,Jtoair Bod4 came out after my manu- William D Styer, Deputy Chief of script for this book had been submit- Staff of the new Army Service Forces, ted Its account of the Army's to keep in contact with the atomic pro- organization is detailed The index, ject For details of the Manhattan Pro- like mine, fails to give any idea of the ject arid its various chiefs, see Jones, number of times Marshall is men- Alntihnitnti The A4itq ant the ..ltoaic tioned in the book For the immediate Boiiib On Groves's appointment, see background, see Forrest C Pogue. the following papers from GCM Files, George C Afnrsiiall Orgnciizei of l'ictoiy, ML Bush to Bundy, ii d (17Sep42 on ch XSII envelope), Harrison and Bundy File 2 JCS directive to MacAr-thur, Nimitz, no 7. WDS/TYR memo 5Mrly42, ASF 550 Notes CG’s file folder Stye? Cones Corres the g un-a s s eiii b I y iii e t h o d to bri n g a Box 64, Marshall to B~iiidy,12Feb42 critical mass of fissionable material to- 13 Int by author with Gen Groves. 7, gether In this method one subcritical 10May70, int by author with hlar- mass of fisgionable material wa\ fired shall. l l Feb57 as a projectile into a second subcriti- 14 Groves. Nozit 11 Cnti Be Told, 185-91 cal mass of. fissionablc material, the According to Buell in his life of King, target, producing momentarily a the Chief of Naval Operations was not supercritical inass which would ex- told of the atomic bomb until 1943 plode This principle was employed in 15 Groves. Nozii It Coir Be Told, 190-98 the design of the Thin Man bomb that 16 Stiinson Din!?, 14,15,18Feb45, int by was dropped on Hiroshima ” author with Marshall, 1 1 Feb57 “Another method was proposed 17 Int by author with Speaker Sam Ray- that utilized the eff-ects of implosion, burn, 6Nov57 See also Bdi to by directing the blast of conventional Bundy. 2-IFeb-H. with note “hltg 18 high explosives inward toward ‘3 Feb 44 by K [‘Katie’] M [Nichols]” in quantity of fi5sionable matei-ial The Harrison and Bundy File, no 7, h4L force of this bldst litterally squeezed 18 Iiit by author with Marshall, the material together until it reached 1 lFeb57 a critical mass and detonated This 19 Int by author with Rayburn. 6Nov57 principle was used In the Fat Man 20 Gen Groves recalled that Trunian ac- bomb which was delivered against cepted the reply with good grace Nagasaki ’’ Groves, :Vozci It CONBe Told, 365 For 28 Harry S Truman, Hcitt? S Ttrittrnii Ale- the moment, Truman left the Secre- ttroi?s. I, 10. says that just after the first tary boiling He wrote in his diary, Cabinet meeting after he had been I3Mar44, “Truman is a nuisance and sworn in as Pres , Secretary Stinison pretty untrustworthy man He talks stayed behind to inforin him briefly of smoothly but acts meanlv ” Although the atomic bomb Tr~~iiaiimentioned Stimson never deleted the comment, that as a senator he had asked Stiinson his later judgments were most gener- ear I i er a bout ce r ta in ni y s t ei-ioci s 011s building projects and had been told 21 Stinison Dioyy. 26Feb45 they were top-secret Truman states 22 Ibid flatly, “I did not learn anything what- 23 Marshall does not give the date, but evei- as to what that secret was until he returned from Yalta about the time the Secretary spoke to me after the mentioned Though he does not first Cabinet meeting ” name the representative, his descrip- 29 Stimson Dial?, 12,3,4May45 tion checks with Stinison’s, int by au- 30 Memo of mtg , Stimson, Marshall, and thor with Marshall, 11Feb57 Rep McCloy, 29May45, init JJMcC, ML George Mahon. a member of the com- Speaking of this and other discussions mittee, in the 1970s told the author during the period when Marshall was that he did not recall the incident and asked to make a recommendation, that it was not characteristic of Mar- McCloy says that he was struck by shall Marshall’s resistance to making a final 2-1 Groves, i\1ozo It Coir Be Told, 365 decision ’4s the fortieth anniversary 2!i Cordell Hull, Mettrorn, 309, John of the dropping of the bomb neared in Wheeler-Bennett and Anthony Ni- 1985, McCloy wrote several memo- chols, The Semblance of Pecice randa about his recollections In three William D Leahy. I Ilks There, 263- telephone conversations with the au- 65, Hewlett and Anderson, Nezii ll‘orld, thor, he quoted Marshall as saying, 327 “Don’t ask ttre to make the decision ” 2 ‘7 Groves to Marshall, 30Dec44, ML , Marshall also said that there were Groves, Nozii It Coil Be Told, 157 more than military matters con- “The most straightforward pro- cerned there were possible eKects posal for the bomb’s design utilized with “primordial considerations ” At Notes 55' the same time. ininutes of these ineet- hooh piibliched in 1955. Truman ings indicate that on purely inllltar)~ takes full responsibility for tlie deci- grounds. Marshall fa\ ored using the sion He says that with tlie directive of bomb to shorten tlie war 24Jii145 to Spaatz, the first use of an 3 1 Ibid David Lilienthal. Joiitiicrk 11. atomic bomb oii a military target had 196, tells of Marshall's mention of this been set in inotion No formal reply conversation in 1947 At the same WAS rcceived, but Radio Tokyo said time he spoke of plans that had been that the Japanese would continue to considered if the home islands had to fight "The bomb was scheduled to be he invaded Assuming there would be dropped after August 3 unless Japan enough bombs, he envisaged the use surrendered before that day " It of several in front of invading units seeins clear that the directive to Supposedly, such ideas were informal Spaatz mentioned above W~Sin mo- plans mulled over by a very few peo- tion No indication has been found to ple in the Pentagon, because MacAr- show that another directive was given thur and Nirnitz were working on by the President )'et on l'LJan53, he act ual i iiv J s io n p I an s before they wrote an editor of tlie Army Air knew of the atomic boinb and before Forces official history that he had sent there were more than two available a directive from mid-ocean to drop The boinbs had not been tested hlar- tlie bomb (See copy of letter to James shall told the autt'ior nbout these ideas L Cate in M' F Craven andJ L Cate, in his int of 1 1Feb57 Th.ittiiy .-lit Fotcec 111 Il'otld Ilir, 11, lJ, 32 Stimson Dint?, 3 1 May45 between 7 12 and 7 13 ) Ti-uinan seem3 33 JCS nitg with Pres, 18June45 to have confused his issuance of ap- 34 Stiinson Dmty 4Juii-15. Hewlett and proval of a i-evised presideiltial an- Andci-son, l\~fW Ii>v/c/, 165 nounceinent to he i5sued after the 35 Iiit by author with Marshall, bomb was dropped ~.hichStimson llFeb57, ML sent him on 30Jul. asking for approval 36 Thc Combined Policy Comm in- by 1Aug The Pres went aboard the cluded Stiinson and Bush for the .iqits/rr on 2Aug.