The end of World War II was near; the Nazis were fighting a losing battle in Europe, and the islands under Japanese control were being captured one by one. Despite the growing strength of the Allied Forces, an internal wound had been struck at the hearts of the Americans. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the great American leader, had died. As a result, the weight of the world was on one man’s shoulders, Harry S Truman.

Germany surrendered on May 7th 1945, which ironically was Truman’s birthday. A new weapon, capable of destruction unlike any other before it, was revealed to Truman, the atomic bomb. Created by a team of leading scientists from the United States, Canada, and Europe under the code name the “Manhattan Project,” the atomic bomb was unique. The team racing to first construct the weapon was led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer. The atomic bomb was powered by nuclear fission and packed full of either enriched uranium or plutonium. A successful test of the bomb was completed on July 16 in the desert of New Mexico.

The decision to drop the atomic bomb on a Japan as a final end to World War II fell in the hands of Harry Truman. On one hand was the cost of civilian life in Japan, on the other the heavy cost of life to the Allies. Truman saw the atomic bomb as means to end World War II with minimum loss of life. He never questioned his final decision.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, causing an estimated loss of 80,000 Japanese lives. Despite the heavy casualties, the Japanese refused to surrender. The United States dropped a plutonium bomb, delivered by Bock’s Car on August 9, 1945, named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 75,000 people. The Japanese were finally forced to surrender on August 14, 1945, ending World War II.

In 1947, Truman declared his Truman Doctrine that promised U.S. support to all countries fighting against communist Allies. In 1946, as the Truman Doctrine was being formulated, George Kennan the U.S. ambassador to Russia sent a “long telegram” to Truman saying that he should follow a policy of containment to stop the growing Communist power. That September, Truman's top advisor, Clark Clifford, suggested that the U.S.A. give support to any democratic nation that is menaced by the Soviet Union in any way.

In February of the following year the British government announced that it could not afford to keep its troops in Greece fighting the Communist rebels. The following March, Truman warned Congress that without aid, Greece would fall, and that Turkey as well, he warned, was in a similar situation. He stated as well that if one nation fell to communism others around the world would follow, a so called “domino effect.” He stated that the Cold War was “a choice between freedom and oppression” and that therefore the Americans must become involved in European affairs. The Truman Doctrine overruled the previously issued Monroe Doctrine. The Marshall Plan followed, stimulating economic recovery in western Europe.