Charting the development of war powers and technology with Fred Borch
Air Dates: July 28 – August 3, 2025
Eighty years ago, World War II ended in the Pacific with the first, and thus far, only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. The widely popular decision to use the bomb at the time has become fodder for historians to debate in subsequent decades. Fred Borch helps us view the decision to drop the bomb from the perspective of American leaders in that summer of 1945.
Fred L. Borch is a historian, lawyer and soldier by profession. He has three history degrees, three law degrees and an M.A. in national security strategy from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He served on active duty as an Army lawyer from 1980 to 2005 in a variety of roles, at one point having chief responsibility for overall prosecution efforts against alleged terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After retiring as a colonel, Fred returned to the Army for a civilian position as the professor of legal history and leadership at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has authored 10 books and more than 200 articles on legal and non-legal topics.
On this episode of “Story in the Public Square,” Borch explored the reasons behind President Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons against Japan in 1945. He compared the development of war technology during World War II and today and said, “even though technology has changed, the one constant is that human beings, what makes us happy, angry, sad, upset, is no different than what made our grandparents or our great-great-great grandparents happy, upset, angry.”
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