The Most Awful Responsibility
Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age
Alex Wellerstein . 2025 . 21+408 pages . 355.0217 WEL . Beaverton Lib
pxi . Introduction
p001 . ch01 - "It Was Very Clear That He Knew Little of the Task into Which He Was Stepping"
p016 . ch02 - "Modern Civilization Might Be Completely Destroyed"
p026 . ch03 - "A Blanket of Fire"
p035 . ch04 - "A Decision Not to Upset the Existing Plans"
p049 . ch05 - "A Profound Psychological Impression"
p058 . ch06 - "It Makes Presiding Over the Senate Seem Tame"
p072 . ch07 - "The Target Will Be a Purely Military One"
p081 . ch08 - "The Greatest Thing in History"
p098 . ch09 - "The Thought of Wiping Out Another 100,000 People Was Too Horrible"
p108 . ch10 - "It Is a Dangerous Thing to Just Give Them the Power and Hope That They Will Not Take Advantage of It"
p126 . ch11 - "I Told Him the Blood Was on My Hands"
p140 . ch12 - "The Battle of the Atom Still Goes On"
p152 . ch13 - "It is Quite Possible to Depopulate Vast Areas of the Earth's Surface"
p162 . ch14 - "If We Aren't Going to Use Them, That Doesn't Make Any Sense"
p176 . ch15 - "An Atomic Explosion Occurred in the Central USSR"
p189 . ch16 - "A Weapon That Will Kill Ten Million People"
p208 . ch17 - "We Are in a Hell of a Mess"
p221 . ch18 - "A Play Actor and a Bunko Man"
p230 . ch19 - "I Assume He Told Someone"
p241 . ch20 - "That Includes Every Weapon That We Have"
p254 . ch21 - "The Enemy Could Not Have Marched Across That Radiated Belt"
p262 . ch22 - "Charting A Course From Which We Cannot Turn"
p282 . ch23 - "We Devoutly Hoped That They Would Not Have to Be Used"
p306 . Conclusion
p321 . Acknowledgements
p323 . Notes
p377 . Bibliography
p391 . Index