Harry Targ
In these early August days we reflect on the decision to
drop atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. The
official explanation for the use of these horrific new weapons was that they
were required to end the World War in Asia. But subsequent historical research
has indicated that the United States chose to drop the bombs to threaten the
former Soviet Union and as a result to facilitate the United States
construction of a post-war world order that would maximize its economic and
political vision.
United States foreign policy over the last 150 years has
been a reflection of many forces including economics, politics, militarism and
the desire to control territory. The most important idea used by each
presidential administration to gain support from the citizenry for the pursuit
of empire is the claim that America is “exceptional”.
Think about the view of “the city on the hill” articulated
by Puritan ancestors who claimed that they were creating a social experiment
that would inspire the world. Over three hundred years later President Reagan
again spoke of “the city on the hill” (and the image of American Exceptionalism
continued as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the Clintons and others referred to the US as
‘the indispensable nation’).
One can recall public addresses by turn of the twentieth
century luminaries such as former President Theodore Roosevelt who claimed that
the white race from Europe and North America was civilizing the peoples of what
we would now call the Global South. Indiana Senator Beveridge’s stated
it clearly: “It is elemental….It is racial.”
From the proclamation of the new nation’s special purpose
in Puritan America, to Ronald Reagan’s reiteration of the idea, to similar
claims by virtually all politicians of all political affiliations, Americans
hear over and over that we are different, special, and a shining example of
public virtue that all other peoples should use as their guide for building a
better society and polity.
However, the United States has been involved in wars for
201 years from 1776 to 2011. Ten million indigenous people had been
exterminated as the “new” nation moved westward between the 17th and the
20th centuries and at least 10 million people were killed, mostly from
developing countries, between 1945 and 2010 in wars in which the United States
had some role. In addition, world affairs was transformed by the use of the two
atomic bombs; one dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 instantly killing
80,000 people and the other on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 killing another
70,000.
Comparing the image of exceptionalism with the domestic
reality of American life suggests stark contrasts as well: continuous and
growing gaps between rich and poor, inadequate nutrition and health care for
significant portions of the population, massive domestic gun violence, and
inadequate access to the best education that the society has the capacity to
provide to all. Of course, the United States was a slave society for over 200
years formally racially segregated for another 100, and now incarcerates 15
percent of African American men in their twenties.
Although, the United States is not the only country that
has a history of imperialism, exploitation, violence, and racism US citizens
should understand that its foreign policy and economic and political system are
not exceptional and must be changed.
Finally, are there any
common threads that run from 1945 when
two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese people? First, a
small number of politicians, elected and appointed, made decisions of
monumental importance to the victims of the bombing and the subsequent danger
of nuclear war.
Second, the decisions were made in the face of overwhelming
evidence that the use of these horrific bombs was not needed to end the war in
Asia.
Third, Truman and his aides made their decisions in
contradiction to warnings of the dangers of atomic war for civilization.
Opposition came from significant sectors of the scientific community, including
some scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the bomb.
Fourth, the decision to use atomic weapons was profoundly
political. Demonstrating that the United States had this powerful new weapon
sent a message to the Soviet Union. In addition, key decisionmakers including
General Leslie Groves, Director of the Manhattan Project; James Forrestal who
would become the first Secretary of Defense; and James Byrnes, Secretary of
State, were virulently anti-communist. Also, the decision to drop the bomb,
whether a motivation or not, communicated to the American people that President
Truman, not seen as particularly qualified for the job, was tough and
potentially a great leader. He, like some historians and former advisors,
continued to defend the decision for years to follow.
Finally, a better future and the survival of humanity
require a realization, as Paul Robeson once suggested, that what is precious
about all people is not their differences but their commonalities.
Exceptionalist thinking separates people and facilitates decisions like the
dropping of the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sharing what we have in common
as human beings, both our troubles and our talents, is the only basis for
creating a peaceful and just world.
