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Admiral William D. Leahy

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Submitted By theguy421
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My name is William Leahy. I was a navy admiral from 1927-1959. I happended to be the highest ranked military officer at the time and was very close to President Roosevlet. Before the tragic incident at Pearl Harbour, we, military and navy officers were looked down on by the public as dangerous at worst and useless at best. We were thought to be of no help at all and were just ruining the possible democratic solutions at hand. But soon, all of this was going to change. Before WWII, we were a peaceful country that did not want to get involved in any war, and were focusing on building on our nation. When WWII started, we clandestinely supported Britain and publically remained neutral. Then at December 7, 1941, the Japanese airforce came and bombed Pearl Harbour, hoping to neutralize our navy. We had sustained heavy losses including losing 4 battleships, 3 cruisers and destroyers, 188 aircrafts, and 2,042 personnels. We also lost a shipyard, powerstation, and a torpedo and fuel storage facility. This act shocked the U.S. All of the military advisors gathered around and decided to stop this from happening again by entering the war. It had nearly been four years of fighting with Japan and Germany and there seemed to be no end. In the year of 1942, I met with atomic energy scientists and General Grove and ordered the immediate construction of an atomic bomb. After it had been tested, President Truman had decided to use this devastating weapon against Japan. I personally thought that this weapon was necessary because we were lossing men fast and we needed the war to end. After some debate, the U.S dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan on August 6, 1945 hoping Japan to surrender. At the sight of such devastating force, I felt touched at how many innocent lives were killed by this deadly weapon.They suffered heavy casualities but chose to remain in the war. I could not

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