This volume chronicles the first five months of Harry Truman's presidency, encompassing not only the destruction and defeat of the Axis Powers in Germany and Japan, but also the dropping of the first atomic bombs, the birth of the United Nations, the death of colonialism and the beginning of the Cold War. From the summons to FDR's deathbed early on April 2, 1945, through to the Japanese surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri, Moskin tracks this unexpected president through some of the most uncertain times in the United States' history.