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REEL 5 - 7/23/53 - Page ( (VH) VOICE: Well, the thing was really put up in a different way. The argument was on the subject as to whether one ought to invade the home islands; that you should not invade the home islands, conduct an air attack on the Japan without an invasion; that you should not use ax/atomic bomb - Byrnes At the beginning of this discussion, Burns thought the prospect of the atomic bomb being any good was extremely low. He took a very dim view of it. XEXEX: this is a serious gamble. Well, then, all of this projection, if MR. ACHESON: it involves going into China with American troops, get himself in trouble with the fact that the atomic bomb, in fact, did go off, and that the whole thing collapsed within a month. left up in the air on that. Sg ARCHIVES E "NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN VOICE: (I must say) they shouldn't have used the atomic bomb (confused) COVERIMMEN Where would you have stood if you fought on for another year, and then said, "Well, we didn't want to end the war, because A) it's a nasty weapon, and B) we wanted to fix up Chiang Kai Shek!? I mean, this seems to me to reach the heights of political unreality. VOICE: Or political reality - whichever you want to call it. (laughter) VOICE: The things that is, after all, so strongly adduced in 147 and '48,