it is not a stimson decision. it is not a gross decision -- groves decision. it is a battle decision. what effect did the bombings have on stalin? everyone was worried about stalin's reaction, and of course, they were right. a very well-known american russian historian writes in one of his books that the news of hiroshima and nagasaki "struck stalin like a thunderbolt." he was shocked. and there is a wonderful memorandum of a conversation about a week later stalin has bowman --sador harry the american ambassador to the the number twond man is there and takes the notes and writes this memorandum. there are couple of lines in it. harriman, we have entered the war despite your attempts to end it before we did so, and harriman replies the atomic bomb will end the war. expensive, and it was to build. it will have a great impact on post-war international relations. that has to be prepared text. ambassador like averell harriman doesn't say things like that off the top of his head -- it will have an effect on post-war relations, we have it, and you don't. japan was go