Admiral William D. Leahy

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II

---

Leahy was Roosevelt's shadow—following him EVERYWHERE. Roosevelt had a good working relationship with "Uncle Joe" Stalin but the defeat of Nazi Germany changed everything.

When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, Russia redeployed her huge armies to the Far East and was preparing to enter the war against Japan.

Admiral Leahy says use of atomic bomb was "BARBARIC"

Session at Potsdam. President Truman is at the far side of the table with Secretary Byrnes and Admiral Leahy on the left.

President Truman announcing the surrender of Japan. On the left can be seen Secretary Byrnes and Admiral Leahy.

This sinister, cunning, and conniving admiral published his autobiography in 1950. In his memoirs, he condemned the use of the bomb as unnecessary and barbaric.

He was the highest ranking military officer in the U.S.—with full responsibility for the Manhattan Project. He was the boss of EVERYBODY that was involved in the project including Groves and Parsons.

This double-talking admiral said that the use of the bomb was like the use of poison gas—a WAR CRIME!!

Here is a brief excerpt from his autobiography:

"Both sides were prepared throughout the war that had just ended to unloose deadly gases, but not even the fanatical followers of Hitler and Hirohito, who committed so many other unspeakable atrocities dared use poison gas—for fear of retaliation. To me, the atomic bomb belongs in exactly the same category. I have admitted frankly in the preceding chapter that I misjudged the terrible efficiency of this entirely new concept of an explosive. In the fall of 1944 I held conferences with Professor Bush, Lord Cherwell, the British expert on atomic energy, and Major General Groves. They had convinced President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill of the potential effectiveness of atomic energy for military purposes. As a result, vast sums of money were appropriated to push the development with all possible speed. In the spring of 1945 President Truman directed Mr. Byrnes to make a special study of the status and prospects of the new atomic explosive on which two billion dollars already had been spent. Byrnes came to my home on the evening of June 4 to discuss his findings. He was more favorably impressed than I had been up to that time with the prospects of success in the final development and use of this new weapon. Once it had been tested, President Truman faced the decision as to whether to use it. He did not like the idea, but was persuaded that it would shorten the war against Japan and save American lives. It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. It was my reaction that the scientists and others wanted to make this test because of the vast sums that had been spent on the project. Truman knew that, and so did the other people involved. However, the Chief Executive made a decision to use the bomb on two cities in Japan. We had only produced two bombs at that time. We did not know which cities would be the targets, but the President specified that the bombs should be used against military facilities. I realized that my original error in discounting the effectiveness of the atomic bomb was based on long experience with explosives in the Navy. I had specialized in gunnery and at one time headed the Navy Department's Bureau of Ordnance. "Bomb" is the wrong word to use for this new weapon. It is not a bomb. It is not an explosive. It is a poisonous thing that kills people by its deadly radioactive reaction, more than by the explosive force it develops. The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. We were the first to have this weapon in our possession, and the first to use it. There is a practical certainty that potential enemies will have it in the future and that atomic bombs will sometime be used against us. That is why, as a professional military man with a half century of service to his government, I come to the end of my war story with an apprehension about the future. These new concepts of "total war" are basically distasteful to the soldier and sailor of my generation. Employment of the atomic bomb in war will take us back in cruelty toward noncombatants to the days of Genghis Khan. It will be a form of pillage and rape of a society, done impersonally by one state against another, whereas in the Dark Ages it was a result of individual greed and vandalism. These new and terrible instruments of uncivilized warfare represent a modern type of barbarism not worthy of Christian man. One of the professors associated with the Manhattan Project told me that he had hoped the bomb wouldn't work. I wish that he had been right. Perhaps there is some hope that its capacity for death and terror among the defenseless may restrain nations from using the atom bomb against each other, just as in the last war such fears made them avoid employment of the new and deadlier poison gases developed during World War I. However, I am forced to a reluctant conclusion that for the security of my own country, which has been the guiding principle in my approach to all problems faced during my career, there is but one course open to us: Until the United Nations, or some world organization, can guarantee—and have the power to enforce that guarantee—that the world will be spared the terrors of atomic warfare, the United States must have more and better atom bombs than any potential enemy." (Leahy, I Was There, pp. 440-442).

In the journey to Potsdam, Protestant President Truman is surrounded by Roman Catholics Byrnes and Leahy giving him ADVISE on the use of the atomic bomb!!

As the new President, Truman belonged in the White House running the country and giving orders to the military. Instead he was taken by slow ship to Europe and then sightseeing in Germany. Roosevelt took a plane whenever he traveled overseas!!

President Truman sightseeing in Berlin.

Part of their argument was the enormous amount of money that Leahy and the military had already secretly spent. Truman, they said, would have to answer to Congress and that could cost him and the Democrats the next election.

Truman should have been back in the U.S. negotiating for the surrender of Japan—without the use of the bomb.

Byrnes and Leahy made SURE that he would be out of the country and away from the White House during that critical time.

Official Chronology of Admiral William D. Leahy

His ancestors were bitter at the British because of Jesuit engineered "persecution" of the Roman Catholics in his country.

Date	Event
1875	William D. Leahy is born in Hampton, Iowa. His grandparents were Roman Catholic Irish immigrants who came to the U.S. in the early part of the 19th century. His ancestors were bitter at the British because of Jesuit engineered "persecution" of the Roman Catholics in his country.
1897	Graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
1898	Served on the Oregon during the Battle of Santiago when his ship bombarded the Spanish ship Infanta Marie Terese during the Spanish-American war.
1905	Joins the EPISCOPAL congregation. A very good cover because most of the U.S. was Protestant at that time. The Episcopal congregation was like the Anglican congregation in Britain—halfway between Rome and the Reformation.
1927	Promoted to the rank of Real Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
1937	Appointed Chief of Naval Operations by FDR.
1939	Appointed Governor of Puerto Rico.
1940	Appointed Ambassador to Vichy France.
1942	Appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Moves into the East Wing of the White House. He is the highest military officer in the country. He orders general Groves to develop the atomic bomb as quickly as possible.
Feb. 1945	Joins Roosevelt at Yalta. He is privy to all the secrets of the conference. Roosevelt wants Russia to enter the war against Japan at soon as possible. Leahy HATES Russia and this agreement is Roosevelt's death sentence.
April 12, 1945	Roosevelt dies mysteriously in Warm Springs, Georgia, with a letter from atomic scientist Leo Szilard on his desk. Harry Truman is sworn in as President.
May 7, 1945	Germany officially surrenders to the Allies. WWII is all but OVER with the surrender of Nazi Germany. Huge Soviet armies begin to redeploy to the Far East for a showdown with Japan.
July 7, 1945	Leahy and Byrnes hustle President Truman out of the country and off to Potsdam, Germany, in order to keep him away from Leo Szilard and the atomic scientists.
Aug. 6, 1945	First atomic bomb is dropped on Japan in order to get them to surrender QUICKLY before Russia enters the war.
Aug. 7, 1945	Admiral Leahy and President Truman return to the U.S.
Aug. 9, 1945	Russia declares war on Japan. Soviet troops roll into Manchuria. Leahy orders second bomb dropped on Nagasaki to hasten the Japanese surrender. He is determined that the Japanese Manchurian Kwantung Army surrenders to the U.S.
Sept. 2, 1945	Peace is signed at last and World War II is finally over. Leahy is FURIOUS because Russia liberated Manchuria and the Kurile Islands. He was counting on setting up naval bases there to attack Russia from the rear.
1949	With the end of the war there is no more need for a Joint Chiefs so President Truman asks Leahy to resign.
1959	The atomic admiral dies and goes to meet his Maker to answer for all his lies and crimes.

---

References

Adams, Henry H. Witness to Power. The Life of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1985.

Leahy, William D. I Was There. McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, 1950.

---

Back to Main Menu