e are plenty of examples which show that Lippmann has hit on a key point here. One such example is the bombing of Nagasaki (second atomic bomb) and President Harry Truman. It has long been debated whether the second atomic bomb was really necessary to bring World War II to an end. There has been much evidence that the Japanese had indicated a desire to surrender prior to the bombing but with the only condition that they be allowed to keep their emperor. An important clue was the diary of President Truman. The following is an excerpt from his diary concerning the use of the atomic bomb: “Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.”When the official order for using the bombs was given there was no mention of sparing cities or civilian targets. The cities were the targets themselves. The point is that Truman’s own personal stereotypes of the Japanese are evident in this entry. The entry can be interpreted as Truman viewing the Japanese as being less than human. When one views another group as being less than human it becomes much less difficult to give an order which will end the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. So it is quite possible that his own personal stereotypes played a role along with the argument that the bombs would expedite the end of the war and save Amercian lives. Yet the general public rarely knows these stereotypes. That is because the personalities of leaders are largely manufactured as stated by Lippmann on page 5 of his book. We view leaders as holding certain opinions and inclinations because either they themselves or their supporters want us to see that. Lippmann goes into much detail concerning the process and motivation behind the creation of any government (including Presidential) policy in his book. He states on page 153, “Ever...
