Operation Crossroads Research Paper

About an hour-and-a-half later a gritty, snow-like substance began raining down on a Japanese fishing vessel called the Lucky Dragon that was about 80 miles east of Bikini. When the 23 fishermen returned to port two weeks later they were all suffering severe radiation sickness and their radio operator later died. In 1955, the United States paid two million dollars as restitution for damage to the Lucky Dragon, its 23 members and its cargo after negotiations with Japanese officials. Marshall Islanders were also exposed to the fallout considering that a few hours after the explosion, radioactive fallout began to drop on the people, into the drinking water, on the food, and into the hands of children who were playing with it.(10) As of December 31, 1997, $63,127,000 has been awarded to or on behalf of 1,549 people of the Marshall Islands, with personal injury claims and several class action suits pending.(11)

The population that was most affected by the radiation was perhaps the Rongelapese of the Rongelap Atoll. In the perspective of the Marshallese, land is not just something where you inhabit, it is the “essence of life” (Barker, 61). The Marshallese people’s culture and existence come from their land. Without the land, they could not carry on their traditional roles. The Marshall Islands is primarily matrilineal meaning that women own land and pass it on to their next generation. The land is where daughters learn from their mothers how to weave and create crafts while sons learn how to fish and navigate from their fathers. But with the evacuation from their homeland, parents could not pass on their knowledge

On March 11, 1862, Lincoln made the decision to remove McClellan as General-in-Chief, demoting him to command only the Army of the Potomac. Chief of Staff, Peyton March, sent a telegram to McClellan in refence to his orders and instructed him to speak first to Governor Dennison. Suspicious of this message McClellan refused the invitation to Washington or to speak to Dennison. Later, the General wrote to his wife that the rascals of Washington were after him again and that if he could come out of this, he would never get himself in this position again. Because of this refusal, he learned of his demotion via the National Intelligencer, a Washington newspaper. Although many leaders in the government continued to resent the commander, he was still

The United States tested nuclear bombs, “215 A- and H-bombs” (www.nukewatch.com) above ground between 1951 and 1963 in the Nevada Test Site. Fifty years later, the U.S government studies stated that over 80,000 people who lived or were born in the U.S suffered from cancer caused by radioactive fall-out from nuclear testing. Over 15,000 of them died. Many of whom were from the states close to the testing sites, called the “downwinders,” Utah, Idaho and other states. From the Nevada Test Site the winds carried nuclear radiation fallout, filled with “iodine-131” which caused “75,000 thyroid cancers, ten percent of which are estimated to have been fatal, and strontium-90 and cesium-137, which are dangerous for between 280 and 300 years,” (nukewatch) likely causes of bone and skin cancer and leukemia. Therefore, there is some strong evidence that nuclear fall-out in the 1950s did cause cancer.

In 1989 under the George H.W Bush administration the United States was involved in war with Panama. In December of that year, the United States Military invaded Panama to overthrow Manuel Noriega, the military dictator of the country. Manuel Noriega was accused of drug trafficking in the United States and also abolished democracy in Panama. He also harmed the stability of the United Nations. Before Noriega was accused of such actions, he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in the attempt to assist the U.S in the plan to reduce communism in Central America. He worked for the United States and then removed from the CIA because of his affiliation with drug trafficking. Then he was brought back to the side of the United

The war in Afghanistan started in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks because of a terrorist group called Al- Qaeda, and its leader, Osama bin Laden, the one who planned the attacks. It was a very long and hard conflict that lasted approximately thirteen years. Canadian troops got involved for more than a decade fighting to make Afghanistan a better place for their citizens. The Canadian forces completed several key military operations, including “Medusa operation”, and more with the help of their allies before ending the conflict successfully on their own terms.

The dropping of the atomic bomb has been significant in understanding the long term effects that radiation has on the body. It was important that the bomb be used in order for our society to comprehend the repercussions of nuclear warfare. In the book Hiroshima, a survivor named Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto briefly describes a commission set up by the United States

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

Towards the end of the war, it was clear that Japan wasn't giving up anytime soon. This began the manhatton project, which started the research and development of the Trinity, Little Boy, and Fat Man nuclear bombs. The Trinity was the first nuclear device made, and was used for testing. After the confirmed test of Trinity, Little Boy and Fat Man were cleared for use on Japan. Both were dropped successfully on Nagasaki and Hiroshima Japan. They killed tens of thousands of people both initial and post blast.

Many Americans make a choice to serve in the military, knowing they could have to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. During Operation Anaconda, many great Soldiers paid this ultimate sacrifice. Further review many experts have deemed this as an unnecessary loss of life due to a multitude of factors we will explore. This Operation has been viewed as a great success in times of uncertainty and challenges. Ultimately, the enemy was defeated but what could have been done differently? The higher headquarters command structure for Operation Anaconda faced challenges planning, making timely decisions, and communicating which lead to mission gaps while developing lessons learned for future joint operations.

The battle for Heartbreak Ridge was a battle fought in the Korean War. If it was not for the Field Artillery Regiments involved in the direct support of ground troops the war would not have had the same outcome which we know of today. Heartbreak ridge can also be identified as Operation Touchdown. Artillery support was increased in support of this operation. All the regiments of the 2nd Army Infantry as well as the French battalion that was attached to the division participated in this battle. The Army division also received support from the 1st Marine Division. The mission was to go up the slopes and take back the North Korean outposts in order to spread out the defenses on top of the ridgeline. Operation Touchdown began on 05 October and by 15 October 1951 the operation was declared a success. The fight to win

Such dire-sounding headlines only fueled the people’s fear of nuclear war more. Upon hearing news of the affected fishermen and the sheer power of such H-bombs, people began to fear not only of other countries, like Soviet Russia, planning to develop similar, if not more destructive hydrogen bombs, but American bomb testings affecting them. “Following atmospheric testing of hydrogen bombs in 1954, people in and around Seattle, Washington began to report mysterious “pitting” damage to auto windshields. [...] The incident was shortly followed by a nationwide rush to buy fallout shelter plans” (Miller 136) The H-bomb testings seemingly spelling doom, according to 1950s media, did not help survival plans make people feel any safer, either. “The film, Duck and Cover, was shown to schoolchildren beginning in 1950. The cartoon turtle, the cheerful theme song, and the practical advice were supposed to reassure children who might worry about an atomic attack. Instead, the images of little Johnny diving off his bicycle convinced children that the bombs could fall at any moment and gave them nightmares” (Walbert). The 1950s was a time where many were scared of being under nuclear attack, children and adults alike. Thus, the unexplainable windshield pittings in Seattle had people easily jumping to a conclusion of nuclear fallout being behind the pittings. Those in Seattle who were “in support of this view … claimed that they found tiny, metallic-looking particles about the

Passing through the St. George area, Estelle remarked on the nuclear contamination in the area from the atomic bomb testing, and the many diverse cases of cancer in the people living here then. Our extraterrestrial visitors became curious as to those events which led us into a long discussion of warfare on Earth and the horrors it had brought, and the worries and politics of Nuclear power. This occupied our conversation for many miles as we lamented the missed potential, the waste and the suffering brought forth by the Nuclear genie.

The first test of a fission bomb was done on Monday, July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, at 5:29:45 A.M., Mountain War Time. This was the test of a plutonium bomb that was given the code name Trinity. The need to avoid sending more ground troops further into Japan was a priority because it was becoming clear that the Japanese forces were fighting more fiercely the closer American forces got to the home islands. Invading and seizing Japanese territories was not easily accomplished because of the 1941 Code of the Japanese Soldier that required victory or death. Hence, the public became aware of the true story about what the bright light and tremor of shock waves that encompassed a 160-mile radius of the Trinity test site truly was when President Harry S. Truman ordered the drop of its second nuclear bomb that detonated over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The second nuclear bomb was the second design that the LAL, under the direction of Oppenheimer, had been working on. The

Although radioactivity was at first just at the surface, later studies showed that these radioactive elements were absorbed by the soil and that their effects would be long-lasting (Gould 69). Within a short amount of time animals consumed these radioactive plants, and these particles worked their way up the food chain. Soon, not only berry crops in Austria had to be discarded, but also milk supplies in Italy (68, 69). More than twenty European nations received enough fallout to require food restrictions, and 100 million people altered their diets in the ensuing months (Flavin 6, 16). Adding to this paranoia was the fact that even the experts had little knowledge of what was happening. Most nations were unprepared, and many implemented differing safety guidelines for food (15). Some governments outright lied to quell the public’s fear (Gould 70). In the end, millions of people were exposed to unhealthy doses of radiation, and estimates for future deaths from cancer caused by this exposure range as high as one million, with half being fatal (Flavin 18). These are clearly examples of the externalities of a nuclear disaster.