My late father who lived to 101 always felt Truman was the greatest president of his lifetime because he authorized use of those two atomic bombs. See my father knew he would have been part of that invasion of the Japanese mainland.

At the end of his life nothing angered him more than people trying to say that decision was a mistake. I told him that these advocates weren't alive at the time and thus couldn't understand his point of view. They focus on what horrible destruction it caused and not the price Americans would pay if it had not been used. If there had been a ground invasion of Japan far more people would have died, both Japanese and Americans.