Veteran Views 'The Bomb' As
Necessary To End War
1

"I believe it was the right decision." This is the earnest, considered opinion of Colonel Delos H. Burks, 21 years after the Bomb ended the war with Japan. From the vantage point of V-J Day anniversary, the Air National Guard legal officer declares, "I was of the opinion then - and still am - that it was the proper step to shorten the war against the fanatical Japanese war lords."

He believes that President Harry S. Truman, who made the final decision "saw his duty and did it. I believe it was the right decision. There are perhaps a million of us alive today who might have lost our lives if it hadn't been for the A Bomb to shorten the war."
  He quotes General George C. Marshall, who told Truman that if the "new weapon" was as successful as predicted, it would save from a quarter million to a million American lives. This, according to Burks, was while Marshall was top commander, attending the Potsdam Conference shortly before the first bomb fell on Hiroshima.

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