The United States had used the bomb to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible. American historians have generally seen the desire to end the war quickly as the primary motive for dropping the atomic bomb, and pressure on the Soviet Union as a secondary, though reinforcing, motive.108 In Soviet minds, however, ending the war quickly could be interpreted as being, in itself, directed against Soviet interests. Stalin had feared that the war with Japan would be over before the Soviet Union could enter and secure its strategic interests in the Far East.
