Nuclear Weapons In The 1940s To 1990's

The end of World War Two in Europe, or V-E day made two things very clear. First, that America showed itself as a world power, and the second was that Russia had no intentions of leaving the land it had taken on its way to Berlin. With the war in the pacific still ongoing, the Americans had to turn its focus to the war on the islands and deal with Russia afterwards. Eventually in July of 1945, an end to the pacific theater of war came (V-J day) with the dropping of the two atomic bombs, little boy and fat man, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The decision to drop the first bomb was made by new president Harry Truman, and was not only used to force Japan into an unconditional surrender, but also to intimidate the Solviet Union.

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

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.

Australia has had a diverse history with nuclear weapons during the 1950’s and until the 1960’s. During this time numerous senior officials and ministers were coming to the land and started to monitor and investigate the land to see if it was fit for testing nuclear weapons. These weapons were coming from the United Kingdom and United States. A nuclear bomb was then tested at the Montebello Islands just off the coast of Western Australia on the 3rd of October in 1952. As a result of the ministers and senior officials not knowing the result of nuclear bombs they continued to practices many more series of tests off the Emu Fields and Maralinga in South Australia. The bombing in South Australia had left some of the indigenous people of the land

Well, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb on August 29th, 1949. Edward Teller used fear and a strong national security policy to convince the United States Government to start a hydrogen bomb program to stay ahead of the Soviets. Eventually President Truman agreed to build a thermonuclear weapon involving nuclear fission and nuclear fusion; the program began in January of 1950. Stanislaw Ulam proved that Tellers’ design would not work, and so Teller sought more physicists to make a working design. Edward and Ulam eventually came up with a design that worked and was detonated on November 1st, 1952. Edward Teller was not present to see the test, but his long time obsession with the hydrogen bomb was now validated as he saw the results via

Nuclear weapons provide a great and purposeful value clearly worth the time and money spent on them in the 1940’s. The research in nuclear weapons has lead to many discoveries and ideas that still influence the world today. These ideas have led to the

In ww2 , the atomic bomb was dropped on japan to put an immediate end to the war and not draw other countries (i.e. the soviet union or china) into fighting combatively against the U.S. As far as foreign relations go, it proved to the world that the U.S was the most powerful country in that time ( superpower) . This also relates to several years later during the cold war. It prompted the Soviet Union to develop their own nuclear warfare. (i.e us comes out with hydrogen bomb and a year later USSR develops one). It's also the first introduction of Nuclear weapons to the world

When the United States created the atomic bombs during World War II, American officials questioned when and where the bombs would be used. A select group of people comprised of, “government officials, military advisors, and scientists” were brought together in order to decide how the United States should proceed with the new

Without the bomb, we would have kept on fighting until all Japanese were destroyed, killing more people than with the bomb. About 140,000 people were killed or died within months when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. A couple days later, about 80,000 people died after the U.S bombed Nagasaki. The U.S decision to develop and use the atomic bomb during WWII was to end the war, reduce the amount of American and Japanese casualties, and to destroy Japan’s war production sites, eventually ending the war.

World War II ended suddenly as America destroyed two Japanese cities not with traditional strategic bombing, yet with the extremely powerful atomic bombs. As a result of dropping the atomic bombs, the world was thrust into the nuclear age. Just a few short years after World War II, the Korean War started. The Korean War challenged many assumptions held about war within a nuclear era. Three of the assumptions challenged were that nuclear weapons would deter war, that war would not be limited, and finally, that the Soviet Union would be America’s next military enemy.

The quintessential opinion of the atomic bomb in the 1950s was summarized in this short story from Reader’s Digest: “My son and his family, who live in California not too far from the atomic-bomb testing grounds in Nevada, are becoming used to seeing a flash and some minutes later feeling the house rock. One night recently he woke from a sound sleep and asked, ‘What’s that?’ ‘Oh go back to sleep,’ said his wife. ‘It’s only an atomic bomb.’ My son settled back. ‘All right. I was afraid one of the kids had fallen out of bed’” (Miller and Nowak 43). The atomic bomb, one of the destructive forces that ended World War II, was considered a force that did not need to be reckoned with. It was common place and even more, it was a comfort.

This article is a great resource for my paper because it will help me to write my paper in time order leading up to the use of the atomic bombs. Also this article is great because it helps to understand how the atomic bombs changed the world.

On the morning of August 6th, 1945 Japan was rocked by an unbelievably deadly weapon, a weapon no one had ever seen before. This weapon was none other than the atomic bomb, crafted by the United States of America. Ever since that day people have had two opinions about the usage of the atomic bomb in the Second World War. The U.S. either receives acclaim or a large amount of shame. While many historians agree that the atomic bomb was a horrendous piece of equipment, many also believe that the United States had no other option and that they were justified in using the powerful technology. While the ethical and moral sides of the argument will never see a logical close because of the subjective nature of morality, the argument over the necessity of the atomic bomb’s usage can come to an easy close. The dropping of the Atomic Bomb on the sovereign nation of Japan was the only reasonable and effective solution to ending the Second World War.

President Truman as the head of the committee of scientists protesting the use of the atomic bomb, I advise you to not use the atomic bomb as a military weapon. The committee and I would prefer if there was a demonstration of the bomb showing the nations how much of a threat the United States is without taking the action of exposing others to this nuclear power. One of the reasons I believe you should not use the atomic bomb is that after dropping the atomic bomb an arms race could occur within other countries causing them to have a mass production of weapons to use against us. Another reason that the atomic bomb should not be used is that after deploying the bomb in warfare, how the bomb was constructed will no longer be a secret and in a

The development of nuclear weapons helped to end World War II, but in turn created their own war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The development of modified military missiles such as the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM, by Americans and the Soviets, had an impact on the struggle of power of the Cold War. The importance of military involvement in the creation of modified missiles and engines were critical events of the Cold War. Additionally, the steps taken to get to space were a byproduct of this Arms Race and the Cold War. Because the United States and the Soviet Union feared what the other country would or could do with weapons of mass destruction and the thought of the opposing country being able to control