Its Public and Political Acceptance.

After U.S. bombers shocked the world in August 1945 by dropping horrendously destructive atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the administration of President Harry S Truman pledged never again to introduce atomic weapons into a conflict. By November 1950, however, the president was reconsidering. Responding to reports by military advisers that A-bombs could shorten the Korean War by efficiently destroying Soviet military bases in Asia and forcing the Soviet and Chinese Communists to think twice before intervening, Truman made veiled references to the option of atomic force to end the conflict.

Public Support for the Bomb.

If Truman had decided to employ atomic weapons in Korea, he would have had little trouble selling the idea to the American people. In 1949 a Gallup poll determined that 70 percent of Americans were against their government's pledge of no...