We have been hearing a lot about the 70th anniversary of the first use of a nuclear weapon on human beings, in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The more important anniversary, however, is Aug. 9, when the last nuclear weapon was used in war, on the city of Nagasaki.
It was predictable that atomic bombs would be used as soon as they were developed in 1945. It was the sixth year of World War II, and more than 60 million people had been killed already. But nobody would have believed then that nuclear weapons would not be used again in future wars.
We cannot be sure that they never will be used in war again, of course, but 70 years is already an impressive accomplishment. How did we manage that? One way to answer that question is to consider the behavior of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who was the man who decided to drop the first atomic bombs in 1945 — and the first man to decide not to drop them, in 1951.