可怕的责任：杜鲁门与原子时代控制权的秘密斗争The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic AgeAlex Wellerstein

基本信息

Book Details

ISBN-13: 9780063379435

ISBN-10: 0063379430

Author: Alex Wellerstein

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc

Imprint: Harper

Format: Hardcover

Number of Pages: 432

Release Date: 30 March 2026

Weight: 528g

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 31mm

基本信息仅供参考，具体以实物为准

书籍简介

“我以为自己了解这个故事，但读完后发现了很多我之前不知道的。太棒了！”——理查德·罗兹

杜鲁门总统决定投放原子弹是20世纪具争议的决策。但如果杜鲁门的实际决策并非人们普遍认为的那样呢？

传统的说法是，美国领导人面临一个选择：入侵日本，这将导致数百万盟军和日本人丧生；或者使用原子弹，希望以此迫使日本投降。据说，杜鲁门仔细权衡了利弊，决定对日本城市使用原子弹，认为这是两害相权取其轻的选择。

但核历史学家亚历克斯·韦勒斯坦认为，事实并非如此。

杜鲁门不仅没有参与使用原子弹的决策，而且他做出的一项重大决定也截然不同——直到原子弹被使用后，他自己才完全理解这项决定的意义。这项决定及其误解的严重性，成为二战后美国不再使用原子弹的主要原因。

《可怕的责任》一书通过对历史记录的细致解读表明，尽管杜鲁门以坚定的原子弹拥护者而闻名，但他：

希望避免无辜平民遭受“谋杀”和“屠杀”

认为原子弹永远不应再次使用

希望在他有生之年看到核武器被禁止

韦勒斯坦提出了一个令人震惊的论点：杜鲁门可能是20世纪反对核武器的美国总统，但他的抱负受到了战后世界和冷战初期国内外政治环境的极大制约。对于所有想要真正了解为何在日本投放原子弹以及为何此后未再使用原子弹的人来说，这本书经典。

Summary The Truman Paradox: Reassessing the Atomic Bomb Decision

“I thought I knew the story but learned much that I didn’t know. Outstanding!“— Richard Rhodes

“This is historical research at its best.” — Dan Carlin

President Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if Truman’s actual decision wasn’t what everyone thinks it was?

The conventional narrative is that American leaders had a choice: Invade Japan, which would have cost millions of Allied and Japanese lives, or instead, use the atom bomb in the hope of convincing Japan to surrender. Truman, the story goes, carefully weighed the pros and cons before deciding that the atomic bomb would be used against Japanese cities, as the lesser of two evils.

But nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein argues that is not what happened.

Not only did Truman not take part in the decision to use the bomb, but the one major decision that he did make was a very different one — one that he himself did not fully understand until after the atomic bomb was used. The weight of that decision, and that misunderstanding, became the major reason that atomic bombs have not been used again since World War II.

Based on a close reading of the historical record, The Most Awful Responsibility shows that, despite his reputation as an ardent defender of the atomic bomb, Truman:

Wanted to avoid the “murder” and “slaughter” of innocent civilians

Believed that the atomic bomb should never be used again

Hoped that nuclear weapons would be outlawed in his lifetime

Wellerstein makes a startling case that Truman was possibly the most anti-nuclear American president of the twentieth century, but his ambitions were strongly constrained by the domestic and international politics of the postwar world and the early Cold War. This book is a must-read for all who want to truly understand not only why the bomb was dropped on Japan but also why it has not been used since.

作者简介

亚历克斯·韦勒斯坦是史蒂文斯理工学院科学与技术研究项目的副教授。他是《受限数据：美国核保密史》一书的作者，曾为《纽约客》、《大西洋月刊》、《哈珀斯杂志》等众多刊物撰稿。他为人熟知的身份或许是NUKEMAP的创建者，NUKEMAP是世界上受欢迎的在线核武器效应模拟器。他也是“末日机器”博客的作者，并曾在哈佛大学、麻省理工学院和乔治城大学任教。

Alex Wellerstein is an Associate Professor in the Science and Technology Studies program at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is the author of Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, and he has written for The New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and many other venues. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the NUKEMAP, the world’s most popular online nuclear weapons effects simulator. He is also the author of the Doomsday Machines blog, and he has taught at Harvard, MIT, and Georgetown University.