President Harry S Truman shall always be one of those that took the bull by the horns and wrestled it effectively. No easy task being a vice president, promoted to president through attrition after the passing of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and serving in that capacity through the Korean War. His contribution to this nation was astounding in spite of several criticisms. No one is perfect, not even US Presidents. Far from it! Still. He did things that most of us would freak out about and be at a real loss. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances are president, always. Never a boring moment for those men that have commandeered the Oval Office for the life of the nation.
I chose to mention him for he has done better than our current president. To make this short, Truman ordered Japan to be bombed twice with atomic weapons until they had formally surrendered. Now. We must brace ourselves because this was a huge horrific thing. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by the atom bombs dropped on them from U. S. Army Air Force B-29 bombers sent to the cities mentioned. It had essentially made everything stop, the war was over. The acts themselves had killed hundreds of thousand and severely injured over hundreds of thousands more. Purely horrifying and surreal would be the best way to put the damage done. Radiation burns and other maladies remained with so many Japanese citizens for decades until their collective deaths. Not a good thing by any measure in what it was when used. However, there are so many arguments for it that in the long run, it only made perfect sense and the only viable move available by the Allied Forces to put an end to World War II.
Harry S Truman had really had a very hard time with that one. He was informed that the development of the atomic bomb was finally completed. The ongoing war had compelled Truman and his people to painstakingly go over the proposed of ‘Little Man’ and ‘Fat Boy’, respective names for the actual atom bombs. When he heard of what they could probably do, it floored him. No one had ever used something of that magnitude. That was one thing. Another was how much damage total had been unthinkable beforehand. A reality that they had a ‘really big stick’ was the notion and perceived as tested and feasible. Debate about using the damn thing had reigned for a little while, but Truman always got the casualty reports for the Allied Forces and it was still significant enough. Regardless, the very notion that a weapon like that was necessary to win was still a big question.
He decided to use them successively. The reason? This is why I chose President Truman for this blog. High ranking generals had told him that invading the mainland islands of Japan itself with conventional forces would cost us up to one million dead troops and perhaps all of the remaining military force and even civilians since they would fight to the last. He didn’t like what he did, granted. The man was decent and down to earth. Something that is lacking these days indeed.
So the score card ….
President Truman — Took action during World War II, ended the war and saved (1) one million troops.
President Trump — 225,000 and more people died up to this point due to COIVD-19. Actions of any kind, inefficient and a factor in the high numbers of death.
Which is better?
I know that no one is perfect, but some folks do great things, even if it has a dark side, regardlees.
President Trump cannot surpass anyone for efficiency, but inefficiency!
November 3rd….time for hard decisions!!!