Truman Decision - Short Essay

Truman Decision

The Rational Actor Model is what President Harry S. Truman used in making his decision to drop the atomic bomb on the towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman used this model in many ways to help him make and justify his decision. I feel that he was very justified in making his decision.
  The Rational Actor Model is a big process. You first have to set goals and rank them. Next you have to consider your options. Then you have to assess the consequences. Finally you have to look at all possible results for you goals and see which one fits you best.
  President Truman used the Rational Actor Model to justify his decision. He did all the steps in the model. He set goals. He wanted to end World War 2 by making the Japanese surrender and he wanted to show the Soviets that the United States was the most powerful country. He considered many options. One option was to tell and show the Japanese about the atomic bombs. They ruled this option out because they felt that the Japanese would start to build their own atomic bombs and prepare to withstand being hit with an atomic bomb. There were many consequences of dropping the atomic bomb. The consequence of not dropping the bomb was worse than dropping the bomb. More American and Japanese lives would be taken if we kept fighting the war. If we drop the bomb more lives would be saved but still many would be lost. Also if we didn’t drop the bomb the Soviets would help the Japanese fight against us Americans. With dropping the bomb that would show who is a more powerful country and would scare the soviets away.
There were two possible results to this situation. Either we bomb Japan to end the war and prove to the soviets who is more powerful country or we don’t drop the bomb and continue fighting the war and let the Soviets join the Japanese side.