Command and Control

“a secret armament race of a rather desperate character”: Henry L. Stimson, “Memorandum for the President, Subject: Proposed Action for the Control of Atomic Bombs,” September 11, 1945 (TOP SECRET/declassified), reproduced in Merrill, Documentary History of Truman Presidency, p. 222.

“The only way you can make a man trustworthy”: Ibid., p. 224.

“We tried that once with Hitler”: Quoted in Walter Millis and E. S. Duffield, eds., The Forrestal Diaries (New York: Viking, 1951), p. 96.

“There is nothing — I repeat nothing”: “The Charge in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State,” Moscow, September 30, 1945, in United States State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Volume 5, Europe (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 885.

“highly dangerous”: Ibid.

executed tens of thousands of their citizens: Within a year of invading Poland during the fall of 1939, the Soviets imprisoned and executed more than twenty thousand Polish officers, policemen, and civilians. And then the Soviet Union denied that fact for more than fifty years. See Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva, Wojciech Materski, eds., Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008).

the deaths of perhaps three hundred thousand Japanese: See Frank, Downfall, pp. 325–26.

killed almost as many Russians as the Nazis had: The actual number killed by Hitler and Stalin remains a subject of debate. Both men were responsible for many millions of deaths. Dmitri Volkogonov, a scholar who gained access to Soviet archives, claimed that Stalin killed about twelve million Russians — not including those who died during the Second World War. According to the historian Timothy Snyder, the Nazis deliberately killed about twelve million civilians, while the Soviets killed about nine million during Stalin’s years in power. The historian Anne Applebaum has argued that Snyder’s estimates for Stalin seem too low, noting “Soviet citizens were just as likely to die during the war years because of decisions made by Stalin, or because of the interaction between Stalin and Hitler, as they were from the commands of Hitler alone.” See Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1988), p. 524; Anne Applebaum, “The Worst of the Madness,” New York Review of Books, November 11, 2010; and Timothy Snyder, “Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Killed More?” New York Review of Books, March 10, 2011.

“a militaristic oligarchy”: Quoted in Peter Douglas Feaver, Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), p. 100.

The president was given the sole authority: The historian Garry Wills has argued that the decision to give this unchecked power to the executive branch had a lasting and profound effect on American democracy. See Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State (New York: Penguin Press, 2010). For the constitutional and legal basis for such power, see Frank Klotz, Jr., “The President and the Control of Nuclear Weapons,” in David C. Kozak and Kenneth N. Ciboski, eds., The American Presidency: A Policy Perspective from Readings and Documents (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1987), pp. 47–58.

“We are here to make a choice”: For the full text of Bernard Baruch’s remarks, see “Baruch Reviews Portent of A-Bomb,” Washington Post, June 15, 1946.

“all atomic-energy activities potentially dangerous”: Ibid.

willing to hand over its “winning weapons”: Ibid.

The number of soldiers in the U.S. Army: In August 1945 the Army had more than 8 million soldiers and by July 1, 1947, it had only 989,664—a remarkably swift dismantling of a victorious military force. See John C. Sparrow, History of Personnel Demobilization in the United States Army (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1952), pp. 139, 263.

from almost 80,000 to fewer than 25,000: See Bernard C. Nalty, ed., Winged Shield, Winged Sword: A History of the United States Air Force, Volume 1, 1907–1950 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997), p. 378.

only one fifth of those planes: Ibid.

the defense budget was cut by almost 90 percent: The United States spent about $83 billion on defense in 1945—and about $9 billion in 1948. Cited in “National Defense Budget Estimates for FYH 2013,” Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), March 2012, p. 246.

“No major strategic threat or requirement”: Quoted in Walton S. Moody, Building a Strategic Air Force (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1995), p. 78.