You’d keep it secret, of course. The Trinity test wasn’t publicized, and the Japanese were warned in the Potsdam declaration only of “prompt and utter destruction.” It was only after Hiroshima that the U.S. warned Japan that they had more bombs and were ready to use them.
Well, the Russians would know. They had just about every bit of our nuke program in their hands through the beginning of 1949. Fuchs gave them full plans for the H-bomb as well.
Yes, but that was in war time where deterrence had failed and they were definitely going to be used. So it made sense to keep them secret to prevent any possible counter measures. Without a specific target, it might be better off to show your strength so you don’t have to use them.
Any speculation as to when we would know that they knew?
Well, the USSR detonated their first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949.
So…Tuesday, Aug. 30th, 1949?
This does not appear to be historical. The documented evidence that the purpose was Japan is overwhelming.
The post war speculation that the target was the Soviets and not Japan comes from comments from the Secretary of State, who was out of the loop concerning war matters and anything he said was ignored by Truman.
It doesn’t necessarily follow that the US was making actual plans against the USSR.
At the time, the US military thought of the bomb as being just a much bigger and much more powerful version of what they were already using. Of course it was special because one bomb could do what it took 1,000 bombers before, but it wasn’t OMG, this is atomic warfare!
The circumstances were of a total war against two evil countries which needed to be stopped no matter what. Truman apparently was shocked about the number of civilian casualties and there are questions how many more he would have authorized. That would have required more debate within the government.
I haven’t seen anything about how he felt about the civilian casualties from conventional bombing, which actually were worse than the atomic bombs.
There are a lot of unknowns. Certainly there would be those asking for authorization, but we don’t know much about those who would be arguing against the use.
When the Rosenbergs were accused (Fuchs was in the same net the FBI discovered) so in 1951…
That didn’t work out too well with the doomsday bomb in Dr. Strangelove.
This really deserves a 15 second video link to the relevant part:
When Gouzenko defected in Ottawa three days after WWII ended, it gave the uS, Britain and Canada a pretty clear indication of the Soviet spy rings, focussing on nuclear secrets.