This is CBS I On The World with John Bachelor.

Here's John Bachelor.

1945.

It is March, late winter early spring of 1945.

And a flight of B-29s goes out from the islands in the Pacific towards Tokyo.

The ambition is to burn Tokyo, the night of the March 9 into the 10th.

That is an expression of the power of the American U.S. Army Air Force, late in the war.

Germany is still in the contest, but Japan is burning.

A man who learns about this mission within hours of its success, the burning of Tokyo, is

Henry Lewis Stimson, the Secretary of War.

Henry Lewis Stimson forms the point of view, the moral high ground point of view, in a

new book, The Road to Surrender.

Three men in the countdown to the end of World War II, I welcome the distinguished author,

Evan Thomas, to comment on who Henry Stimson is at this point in his life.

He has served several presidents, most importantly, Frank and Roosevelt.

At this point, he's also weighed down by the demands of his office and his own health issues.

Evan, congratulations and good evening.

What do we understand about Henry Stimson at this point in his life, the least of which

being that he's a Victorian gentleman, good evening to you Evan.

Good evening to you, John.

Henry Stimson is a morally upright person.

He sees himself that way.

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