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The same morning Roosevelt died, Truman was inaugurated in his office. The whole nation was upset. Truman looked like a little, friendly man, such as every American had somewhere in his neighbourhood. This man was going to be the President of the United States of America? Could this man handle the current problems? The United States where in the middle of a war and a couple of great unsolved problems were just about to arise.
In his first official speech, Truman promised to follow Roosevelt's goals, which were: unconditioned surrender of Germany and Japan and an continuation of the New Deal. He immediately started to work, and just as he was used to it, he began the day early in the morning and ended it late at night. He acted very sovereign, and was very friendly to the media - a wise decision, which was honoured by very positive reports about him. He made some changes in his staff and chose some of his older fellows as secretaries. Among his best Secretaries was Dean Achenson, who would remain a life-long friend.
His first steps in foreign politics nevertheless showed his inexperience. In a meeting with the Soviet foreign minister Molotov he spoke very harsh to him, which was exactly the opposite, as the charming, talkative Roosevelt had treated the Soviets. .
A month later, Hitler was defeated, the war in Europe was over. But while the people all over the world celebrated the end of the nazi regime, the real problems were still ahead for Truman. Europe was divided into those areas "freed" by the Soviet, and those freed by the Britains, the French and the Americans. It was rumoured, that in the Soviet occupation zone the governments were strongly influenced and Stalin announced, that the Red Army would remain in Europe, as long as the danger of fascism existed. (In his opinion, it still did.)
An even greater problem was the war against Japan. Although the Japanese had no chance to win at all, Emperor Hirohito refused to surrender. The cities were under continuos bombing, but by every American occupation was accompanied by heavy casualties, since the Japanese forced their civilians to "kamikaze", suicide attacks. The only hope lasted in the secret "Manhattan"-project, which had been initiated by Roosevelt for exactly such a situation. The aim of this project at Los Alamos was the construction of thermonuclear weapons and it was predicted to succeed.
The first probation of Truman's diplomatic abilities was the Potsdam conference. It lasted from July 17 until August 2 and was the first and last meeting of the "Big Three". Churchill, Stalin and Truman. Until this point they had been allies, and it was now up to them to create rules for the post-war world. First of all, the leaders met each other face-to-face. Truman liked Churchill but to his own surprise he also like the "Old Major" Stalin. Stalin told him very soon that, Russia would enter the war with Japan in August, but this was the only concession he would make for the 2 weeks. He didn't failed his goal in misguiding Truman.
"I can deal with Stalin. He is honest - but smart as hell." Truman wrote into his diary. It seemed, that he underestimated the Soviet dictator completely.
In the meetings of Stalin, Churchill and Truman only a few thing were decided. The division of the German fleet among the Allies, the Nuremberg Trials and a few other details could be decided but main topics such as the future of Germany, the exact Polish borders, and the retreat of the Soviet armies couldn't be discussed. Stalin simply refused to talk about it, postponed them. Once Churchill explained his view that Europe was divided by an "iron Curtain", whereupon Stalin shouted "All fairy tales!"
Then, in the middle of the conference, Churchill lost the elections in the UK and was replaced by C. Attlee. The only real success of the conference at Potsdam was the "Declaration of Potsdam", signed on July 27. It declared, that if Japan wouldn't surrender without condition, Russia would enter into the war very soon.
During the conference, Truman received a call from the White House, in which he was told, that the Manhattan project had succeeded. The a-bomb was ready for use. He decided to tell Stalin about it (the English knew it already, since it had been a joint project), and remarked to him at the end of the conference that the Americans had a quiet powerful, new weapon. Stalin pretended being not interested at all, but in fact the Russians already knew about it through their spy network. They were working on nuclear weapons too, but with less success.
In the U.S., the conference could be presented as a victory, but Truman knew that the question of the communistic imperialism had to be treated sooner or later.
But first, he had to deal with Japan.
On August 5, 1945, a message went around the world. A nuclear bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. The reactions were overwhelming positive, the media hoped it would end the war. But after some days, it became a fact, that 200,000 people had died in Hiroshima.
A lot of people asked, if the bomb had been really necessary. But Truman had gone through this question before, and for him it was. First of all, the bomb had been built to be used. As long as it remained a secret, it was worth nothing. Truman knew, that nuclear weapons was something very dangerous, and he later admitted, "not to have liked the bomb", so it's destructive power must have been shown to the world. Of course it was discussed just to destroy some Japanese landscape, but to Truman it seemed, that it wouldn't be enough. The cities on the Japanese mainland had been bombed by conventional weapons for months, causing even more destruction as the atomic bomb has, but the Japanese hadn't surrendered.
Truman wasn't sure, if the Japanese would surrender, and so it was an objective to hit a military target, which Hiroshima was indeed. It was the headquarter of the southern army of Japan and a huge ammunition depot. Unfortunately the industrial buildings, that produced weapons, where just in the centre of the city.
Another important fact is, that without the Japanese surrender, the Allies would have had to occupy Japan, which would have caused large casualties. General Marshall speculated on 500.000 to 1,000,000 victims among the U.S. troops and even more on the Japanese side. In his memoirs Truman writes, the he thought, there would be only 20,000 victims, which was the number he has been told by the head of the Manhattan project Oppenheimer. For Truman there had never been a real alternative to Hiroshima, but after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he hoped he would never have to use the weapon again.
But there came no reaction from Japan. On August 9 another thermonuclear weapon hit Japan, this time in Nagasaki. The order had not come from Truman personally, but in his order to bomb Hiroshima, he had also allowed further bombing if necessary. This second attack caused 70,000 victims.
After Nagasaki, the Japanese reacted immediately. Emperor Hirohito proclaimed a "de facto" unconditional surrender, with the only condition, the he could remain the head of Japan.
The Allies accepted this, and on August 14, the 2nd World War was over.
The day was celebrated all over the World, and Truman was really satisfied. Not just once during the past month, he had wished, someone else would have done the job instead of him. Although, he hardly ever complained, in his diary he often mentioned, that Roosevelt would have handled things better. But now the war was over, and it had been a success for the United States. Even more it had been a success for Harry Truman. His popularity was at an all-time high (87% approval, according to a Gallup poll) and the press was full of praise for him. The Time magazine elected him "Man of the Year 1945" and once more, his head appeared on the cover. In his memoirs, Truman called the Year 1945 "the year of decisions."
In 1945 it seemed, that those decisions were right.
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