Joseph Stalin And The Bombing Of Hiroshima

By Worldview
President Harry Truman, center, talks with Soviet leader Josef Stalin,left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Potsdam Conference near Berlin, on July 17,1945. Historians declare the conference was the start of the Cold War, the division of Germany and Europe into opposing camps. Hiroshima became an A-bomb target while the conference was under way. The nuclear arms race probably began forming in the minds of Soviet leaders while they were there.
President Harry Truman, center, talks with Soviet leader Josef Stalin,left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Potsdam Conference near Berlin, on July 17,1945. Historians declare the conference was the start of the Cold War, the division of Germany and Europe into opposing camps. Hiroshima became an A-bomb target while the conference was under way. The nuclear arms race probably began forming in the minds of Soviet leaders while they were there. AP Photo/files
President Harry Truman, center, talks with Soviet leader Josef Stalin,left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Potsdam Conference near Berlin, on July 17,1945. Historians declare the conference was the start of the Cold War, the division of Germany and Europe into opposing camps. Hiroshima became an A-bomb target while the conference was under way. The nuclear arms race probably began forming in the minds of Soviet leaders while they were there.
President Harry Truman, center, talks with Soviet leader Josef Stalin,left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Potsdam Conference near Berlin, on July 17,1945. Historians declare the conference was the start of the Cold War, the division of Germany and Europe into opposing camps. Hiroshima became an A-bomb target while the conference was under way. The nuclear arms race probably began forming in the minds of Soviet leaders while they were there. AP Photo/files

Joseph Stalin And The Bombing Of Hiroshima

By Worldview
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

President Obama will make a historic visit to Hiroshima on Friday as the first U.S. president to make the trip since the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. 

The bombing marked a major shift in World War II, and not only on the U.S. side. It also weighed into the calculations made by the Soviets. 

We take a look at how the bombing of Hiroshima and the development of the atomic weapon influenced Stalin’s decisions with Sergey Radchenko, professor of international relations at Cardiff University.