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Afaik the time window for that (going to war with USSR) was very narrow. As well, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki the US had not enough material to build another b

• ericmay 4y ago
  The US had momentum, was supplying the Soviets, had the bluff of the weapons (Soviets had no clue how many the US had) and the US could have engaged in war and then started building more and then using them. It’s also entirely possible that they could have just straight up won a conventional war. They opted not to. Moreso the US would have continued building atomic bombs and would had had enough to win a nuclear exchange with the Soviets and very well could have put an end to any nuclear proliferation and “nuked half the world”. But they didn’t. They chose peace and ending war instead.
• Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
  We were already in the process of assembling another Fat Man on Tinian. It wasn't likely to be used like the first two, but we were planning on using about five in Operation Olympic, the invasion of the first Japanese home island of Kyuushuu scheduled to begin three months later. In part because the original plan was blown by Japanese military intelligence for once getting the timing and locations correct, the former from simply logistics, and being believed so that nine divisions of troops had been moved to the island, blowing up the usual math required for an opposed amphibious assault and generally successful campaign. Those who didn't know about the Manhattan Project were planning on using poison gas. The Soviet program to make nuclear weapons didn't get really serious until we demonstrated they could work in Japan, and their equivalent of our Trinity test took another four years.