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In August 1945 during the late Pacific War the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities. A traditional view of the event suggests that the bombs had no other function then to force Japan’s surrender, thus ending the war. Not long after the war, the former anti-axis coalition confronted each other in the Cold War, but even before that, a potential conflict had been obvious. Based on diplomatic, military and political primary sources and in recognition of the most recent academic literature this study reveals the degree to which the implications of the atomic bomb strikes were based on anti-soviet motivation. The analysis shows that even before the first bomb test, American government officials, especially Secretary of State Byrnes, had envisioned the weapon as a diplomatic lever in dealing with the difficult Soviet ally. However, the tested bomb in their hand proved to surpass all their expectations. Wiping out several Japanese cities would display the power of the weapon in a spectacular way, de-livering a psychological doomsday message. In this way it promised to fulfill several diplo-matic goals at once: on the one hand speeding up the Japanese surrender and on the other hand, in an act of Realpolitik, giving the Soviets a powerful impression of America’s political and military might. During the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 the U.S. acted accordingly. Stalin, who already knew details of the atomic project from his spies, felt betrayed by the U.S. and regarded their behavior as atomic blackmail. In conclusion, the analysis points out that the atomic bomb, although it was released over Japan, was also intended to send a message to Moscow. The decision of its use wasn’t exclusively influenced by anti-soviet diplomatic purposes, but it ended up shaping the passage into the Cold War.