sourced story
12 April 1945Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

A president dies with his own vice president still in the dark about the bomb

On the timeline · around 12 April 1945 · Allied VictoryAllied VictoryA president dies with his own vice president still in the dark about the bomb1945

What happened

On the afternoon of 12 April 1945, less than a month before Germany's surrender, President Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait painter at his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, when he suddenly raised his hand to his head, complained of a severe headache, and lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead that afternoon of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Vice President Harry Truman, who had held the office only since January and had met privately with Roosevelt as president only a handful of times, was sworn in that same evening. Truman had not been told the Manhattan Project existed; Secretary of War Henry Stimson had kept him entirely outside the wartime program while he was vice president, and only briefed him on the atomic bomb after he had already taken the presidential oath.

Why it matters

Roosevelt's death handed the war's final and most consequential decisions, whether to use the atomic bomb, how hard to press the coming confrontation with Stalin, what postwar order to insist on, to a man who had been deliberately kept outside the information needed to make them. Truman went from a vice presidency largely occupied with Senate business to being briefed on a working nuclear weapon within about three months, then to authorizing its use against Japan not long after that.

How we know

The FDR Presidential Library, part of the National Archives system, documents the circumstances of Roosevelt's death at Warm Springs, and the Truman Presidential Library's own account of the atomic bomb decision confirms Truman had no advance knowledge of the Manhattan Project as vice president and was briefed only after taking office.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineWorld War II59 events · From a staged skirmish at a bridge outside Beijing to a charter signed in San Francisco, the deadliest conflict in history, every event sourced.View all →
A president dies with his own vice president still in the dark about the bomb · World War II · SourcedStory