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N0KFQ > TODAY 30.11.15 17:00l 60 Lines 2776 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 75898_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 30
Path: IW8PGT<F1OYP<IK2XDE<IK6ZDE<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 151130/1600Z 75898@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1950
Truman refuses to rule out atomic weapons
On this day in 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces during a
press conference that he is prepared to authorize the use of
atomic weapons in order to achieve peace in Korea. At the time of
Truman's announcement, communist China had joined North Korean
forces in their attacks on United Nations troops, including U.S.
soldiers, who were trying to prevent communist expansion into
South Korea.
Truman blamed the Soviet Union for using communist Chinese
insurgents as part of a devious plan to spread communism into
Asia and pledged to "increase our defenses to a point where we
can talk_as we should always talk_with authority." The press then
asked what Truman planned to do if the Chinese Nationalists, who
were already struggling against the spread of communism in their
own country, failed to get involved in the Korean conflict.
Truman responded that the U.S. would take "whatever steps were
necessary" to contain communist expansion in Korea. A reporter
asked "Will that include the atomic bomb?" to which Truman
replied, "That includes every weapon that we have."
In 1945, Truman authorized the use of two atomic bombs to end the
war with Japan. The bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki and, although the Japanese did surrender, the
horrifying results were still fresh in everyone's minds. At the
time, the U.S. was the only country to possess nuclear weapons.
By the time the Korean conflict erupted, however, the Soviet
Union had also developed an atomic bomb.
After affirming that the president always had to consider the use
of nuclear weaponry in any scenario involving U.S. troops, Truman
went on to assure the press that day that he never wanted to see
the bomb used again. "It is a terrible weapon, and it should not
be used on innocent men, women, and children." Truman continued
to be mindful of the dangers of the nuclear arms race through the
end of his tenure in office. In fact, in his farewell address to
Congress in 1954 he warned, "we are being hurried forward, in our
mastery of the atom_toward yet unforeseeable peaks of destructive
power [when man could] destroy the very structure of a
civilization_such a war is not a possible policy for rational
men."
In the end, the Korean conflict ended in stalemate, and did not
involve the use of atomic weapons by either side. Korea was
partitioned into democratic and communist spheres in the south
and north respectively, with a demilitarized zone separating the
two, which is patrolled by American troops to this day. The North
Korean communist government is currently in the midst of
developing its own nuclear weapons.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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