291, Stalin the opportunist. Posted by HoChiGrimm, Sun Aug-08-04 05:03 PM
>Yeah; if you think "surrender" equates to splitting up Asia >between them and the Soviets, as the "Magic Summaries" >detailed. > >And if the Soviets actually believed that Japan was trying >to surrender, why did they invade Manchuria right after >Hiroshima and the day before Nagasaki was bombed?
The Soviet Union did not fully convey to Truman the Japanese interest in surre- nder--because the Soviets wanted to enter the war and secure a place at the barga- ining table. (Keep in mind that technically the Soviet Union remained an ally of Japan throughout World War II, and no state of war existed between them. The Soviets actually declared war on Japan August 8th, two days after the first atomic bomb was exploded.)
Source: Gar Alperovitz, author of Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam, that appeared in the New York Times Op-ed page (August 3, 1989
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