As he explained to the nationalist Chinese foreign access minister, who had come to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance later that summer, ‘in the past, Russia wanted an alliance with Japan in order to break up China. Now we want an alliance with China to curb Japan. Before the treaty was signed on 14 August, the United States had dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima that in effect obviated the American need for Soviet intervention on which the agreement to Stalin’s terms had been based. Stalin hastily declared war on Japan and launched a rapid offensive against the Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea. This not only ensured Soviet control of Manchuria, but also guaranteed Soviet dominance of Korea north of the 38th Parallel, as agreed with the United States earlier in August 1945.