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There are those who abhor the atomic bombs, and those who almost revere them. To me, unlocking the power within the atom and the ability to control that power in the short period of time that it took the team of scientists, was phenomenal and unprecedented in scientific circles. The compression of the time period was of critical importance because we were in a race with the Germans and the Japanese whose most prominent scientists had studied and experimented with American, British, and European scientists in universities and laboratories all over Europe and the United States. If the Allies had not built successful atomic bombs, Russia or the Axis powers would have, and we would now be a poor, struggling nation living under a cruel dictator.

There will always be controversy about the decision to use the atomic bombs. Was it immoral to drop the A-bombs? Of course it was - but morality cannot be measured in degrees. All acts of war, be they large or small, one life or thousands, are immoral. But were the A-bombs necessary? I believe that they were. General Curtis LeMay had a list of 80 cities to fire bomb and by August first 59 of them had been destroyed with the loss of many hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives. A few major cities including Hiroshima and Nagasaki were on the list but were reserved for A-bombs. If the A-bombs had not been ready before the planned invasion of Japan, all 80 cities would have been fire bombed with a far greater loss of Japanese lives in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki than were killed by the atomic bombs. I rest my case.

[[signed]] William E. Jones [[/signed]]