Question

What other choices did Truman struggle with in the summer of 1945?

Answer 1

If you mean the summer of 1945 when Truman confronted the atomic-bomb decision, he was also wrestling with several other major, interrelated choices:

- Whether to demand unconditional surrender or to allow Japan to keep the emperor. (That question affected possibilities for a negotiated end and the likely Japanese response to surrender demands.)
- Whether to demonstrate the new bomb (a non‑combat test witnessed by Japanese or Allied observers) instead of using it on cities. (Scientists and some officials urged a demonstration to avoid killing civilians; others feared it might fail or not compel surrender.)
- Whether to rely on a Soviet entry into the war against Japan or to try to end the war without Soviet help. (Truman and his advisers weighed the military and diplomatic consequences of Soviet involvement in Asia and the postwar balance of power.)
- Whether to proceed with the planned invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) or to try alternatives that might avoid huge invasion casualties. (Invasion was scheduled for late 1945/1946 and promised very heavy Allied and Japanese losses.)
- How much to inform and involve Allied partners (especially Britain) about the bomb and how to use it. (Secrecy, alliance politics, and postwar diplomacy all mattered.)
- How to shape the immediate postwar order (decisions at Potsdam about occupation zones, treatment of Germany and Eastern Europe, and the role of the United Nations). (Truman met Stalin and Churchill/Attlee at Potsdam in July–August 1945 and had to balance war-ending strategy with longer-term diplomacy.)

If you want, I can go into more detail on any one of these (for example, the “demonstration” debate, the Potsdam Declaration, or the planned invasion).