14 November 1945, No. 462

November 14, 1945. Wilgress here ponders the atomic bomb as a factor in deteriorating relations between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Wilgress argued that the bomb certainly played a role, though it was not alone in doing so. Wilgress concluded that the atomic bomb's timing, coinciding with the “ascendancy of the tough school” in the United States, contributed to the Soviet Union's diminished interest in cooperation. In rebutting arguments about the centrality of the atomic bomb, Wilgress also took aim at the anti-Soviet overtones used by George Kennan, the US Ambassador to the USSR. Wilgress mimics Kennan’s American football analogy to argue that, tactically, the Western allies were in control of the next play in international relations in November 1945.