I read the article in Old Dog's first link. As with most stories, there is probably a certain amount of truth in it. I do find it hard to believe that all that bombing didn't have a significant effect on Japan's will to resist, but I tend to agree that the two nuclear attacks didn't win the war all by themselves. Many historians contend that Hitler might have won the war if he hadn't prematurely opened up that second front with Russia, so it's quite reasonable to assume that Russia's entry into the Pacific theater, late though it was, was decisive in the defeat of Japan.
I knew that Russia declared war on Japan quite late in the game, but I didn't know why until now. The mention of Yalta brought back memories of my Bircher days. It was, and probably still is, the Bircher's contention that FDR sold Eastern Europe down the river at that Yalta meeting, setting the stage for the Cold War that was to come. FDR made no secret of his admiration for Stalin although, to be fair, I'm not sure that the bulk of Stalin's atrocities were well known in the West at the time.
At least till Vietnam, war was like one big chess game to the higher ups, while the rest of their people were the sacrificial pawns in the game. I'm not sure that's true about our current conflict with the Islamic terrorists, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
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