Interim Committee - Press Releases

Press Releases

The Interim Committee was given responsibility for the preparation of separate prepared statements for the President and the Secretary of War to be released when nuclear weapons were used. The job of drafting them was given to William Laurence. Laurence submitted them to Arthur W. Page for review, and he in turn passed them on to the Interim Committee. At its meeting on July 6, the Interim Committee considered and adopted a set of British suggestions. The final draft of President Truman's speech was handed to him at the Potsdam Conference on August 1. Following the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, Truman read out the press release, which declared that:

With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development. It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

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