Reddit reviews Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War

> Two days later, the bombing of Nagasaki made it obvious to the entire world that Japan was defeated and had no choice but to surrender. The U.S.S.R. had no choice but to call off any invasion and join the Allies in victory.

This is completely wrong. It was not clear that the Japanese were going to surrender after Nagasaki, and it's not clear that Nagasaki had anything to do with their actual surrender. And I don't see any evidence that it stopped the Soviets' plans — they certainly continued invading Japanese territory on the Asian landmass, and even took the Kurils sometime afterwards. The USSR didn't "call off" anything. If the Soviets had plans to invade Hokkaido, they were called off later, when Japan actually indicated they were going to surrender. But even then, Stalin didn't order the invasion of the Kurils until after Japan indicated it would accept the Potsdam terms.

Great book on the uncertainty that reigned between August 9 and August 15: Michael D. Gordin, _Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War_.

Lastly, the notion that this was a big "choice" for Truman is incorrect. Truman and his advisors did not see this as a "use the bomb, or invade" question. It was a "we have a bomb, of course we'll use it," and they were still planning to invade if they needed to. They didn't know if the bomb would compel Japan to surrender. And, in fact, there is considerable evidence that it didn't.

Well, firelock_ny, I think you'll find that this guy uses the term that way. So did this person. And, you know, this dictionary. Or this site, or this site, or this page.

But, no, you're totally right, firelock_ny, I'm the only one.

Edit: Also, nice job slipping "primarily" in there, knowing full well nobody said it was primarily anything.