Nuclear Weapons And The Cold War

This committee decided that the United States should retain nuclear superiority, in the event that international relations deteriorated following World War II (US Department of Energy). This decision is a foreshadowing of the Cold War, and nuclear arms race which followed the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan. The interim committee also decreed that a regulatory system should be created to control the development of nuclear weapons, since other nations would inevitably obtain the technology needed to develop weapons. Possibly, the most influential decision made by the interim committee was to keep the details of the atomic bomb a secret, to maintain the shock effect, until after it had been dropped on Japan. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first bomb dropped was a uranium bomb, nick-named Little Boy, was untested before its detonation (US Department of Energy). The second, dropped after the Japanese did not surrender, was a plutonium bomb, nick-named Fat Man. The dropping of these bombs propelled the United States to a seat of world power, as they were the only country to obtain a weapon of mass destruction. The Manhattan Project became scientific and engineering feat, employing over 100,000 individuals. The exceptional organizational model the Manhattan Project provided, allowed for great scientific achievements in the later part of

The Manhattan Project was a secret problem barely anyone knew about.Many of the scientists that were involved with the Manhattan Project heard about the Axis powers gaining knowledge of how to make nuclear weapons that could destroy a whole nation.The Manhattan Project produced two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan.The atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Hiroshima was chosen as the target for the first atomic bomb because it was a large port city with an army base. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki missed its target by over a mile.

From a United States and Soviet Union perspective that conveys that the Space Race had a minor impact on the improvisation of United States defense technologies; the Space Race was in a way responsible for the United State’s production of new technology of missiles and defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles. In the late 1950s the United States Air Force started a series of advanced strategic missile projects under the Weapon System WS-199A called Martin's Bold Orion air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM). Similar to ICBMs the purpose of the ALBM was to destroy satellites sent into orbit that posed a intellectual and physical threat to the US. The ALBM was created due to the increasing pressure that the Soviets were to launch a satellite before the United States, and since the United States would not know of the capabilities of this

When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.

Following the detonation of two atomic bombs over Japan and the closure of World War II, the United States of America and the Soviet Union entered a period of ideological conflict, the Cold War. The United States sought to preserve and protect democracy throughout the world while the Soviet Union established communist satellite states. During the Cold War, the United States government pushed for the expansion of the United States space program in an attempt to demonstrate power and innovation over the Russians, and in doing so, accelerated the process of space exploration and endangered the lives of their astronauts.

Since the invention of nuclear weapons, they have presented the world with a significant danger, one that was shown in reality during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, nuclear weapons have not only served in combat, but they have also played a role in keeping the world peaceful by the concept of deterrence. The usage of nuclear weapons would lead to mutual destruction and during the Cold War, nuclear weapons were necessary to maintain international security, as a means of deterrence. However, by the end of the Cold War, reliance on nuclear weapons for maintaining peace became increasingly difficult and less effective (Shultz, et. al, 2007). The development of technology has also provided increasing opportunities for states

“We believe that . . . an early unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable. If the United States were to be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race for armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons. Much more favorable conditions could be created if nuclear bombs were first revealed to the world by a demonstration in an appropriately selected uninhabited area.” The initial test for the atomic bomb was dropped in Alamogordo, Mexico with experts observing more than 20 miles away. The explosion was estimated to be a blast of about 10,000 tons of TNT. The Atomic bomb’s intense and destructive power frightened many scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project (Knebel 78). Including the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer felt as if he had created something that would bring forth destruction to the world, instead of using his brilliant scientific mind to improve and usher the world into an era of peace like he intended to. In fact, many scientists within the Manhattan Project were shocked and against using such a powerful weapon as the atomic bomb against other humans, so much that a group of scientists and

During the war, the United States started developing a weapon that would prove to be devastating to its enemies. The creation of the atomic bomb was made when a group of scientists discovered that splitting uranium atoms could cause massive destruction. President Harry Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt made the executive decision to use this atomic weapon against Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end sooner. On August 6th, 1945, the atomic bomb was loaded on the Enola Gay. The plane left the Mariana Islands in search of Hiroshima about six hours away to drop the first atomic bomb. The bomb devastated the city, killing between 90,000 and 146,000 people. Three days later, a second

After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers and subsequently a period of tension and hostility arose, known as the Cold War. During this time, a new possibility of complete nuclear destruction that would claim the lives of many emerged, therefore “the easing or relaxing of tensions” on both sides was needed, this period would be known as detente. Both countries had been guaranteed mutually assured destruction as they had both managed to stay ahead in the development of nuclear arsenals. By the late 1960s the Soviets had surpassed the United States in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) by 1,300 to 1,054. Although the U.S was still ahead

The secret construction was named after the birth place of where the spark was lit by many refugee physicists in the United States. The construction was slowly organized after German scientist had discovered nuclear fission, which worried the US that Hitler would try to create a fission bomb. With the idea of the Germans making the first atomic bomb hanging over our heads, Leo Szilard and many other scientist had urged Albert Einstein to write a letter to the president regarding the need for more help on the research and creation of the bomb. His letters turned out to be a success and President Roosevelt established the Manhattan Project and the physicists wasted no time in finding answers to the questions on how neutrons were emitted into fusion and what elements wouldn’t capture

Starting in the 1949 with the explosion of an atomic bomb(RDS-1) in Russia and ending with the dissolvement of the Soviet Union, the nuclear arms race was an extremely tense few decades that forever changed the United States in many ways. The Arms Race is exactly what it sounds like; a race to amass more advance weapons. During these four decades, the Nuclear Arms Race affected Americans socially through instilling a variety of emotions ranging from fear, to awe of the power of the nuclear weapons, economically through enlarging governmental role within the economy and mostly importantly, the political impacts were more involvement required by the U.S government in world affairs and as a force against Russia.

Finally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unjustified because of the lack of testing. Although the project to design the first atomic bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project, began in 1941, the first bomb was not ready to be tested until the month before it would be used in 1945. When it was tested at Trinity Site in New Mexico, the detonation caused unexpected results (“The Manhattan Project”). It caused “A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. When the cloud returned to earth it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass” (“The

The U.S’s research in nuclear weapons in the 1940’s contributed to ending the second world war as well as led the way to bountiful ideas in scientific research that we still use today.

The machines and processes designed during the 1940’s had adverse consequences as well. The first nuclear reactor was built by Enrico Fermi in 1942. The Chicago Pile 1 was the “world’s first man-made controlled nuclear chain reaction”. This caused the creation of other nuclear reactors and the atomic bomb (CP-1). The atomic bomb was developed and successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico in July 16, 1945. In August 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and killing an estimated 340,000 people (Sherrow 88).

The Cold war dated from 1947-1991. It was characterized by both political and military superiority between United States, which was backed by its NATO allies, and Soviet Union that led the communist side. The cold war was mainly started after the success of the alliance that was formed against Nazi Germany. This competition supremacy on nuclear warfare attracted other countries that also started making nuclear weapons due to the tension that existed in the world. Both sides directed huge sums of money to their military budgets with each side trying to outdo the other.