The Strategic Defense Initiative: Star Wars By Ronald Reagan

The Manhattan Project was the American program for researching and developing the first atomic bombs. The weapons produced were based solely upon the principles of nuclear fission of uranium 235 and plutonium 239, The project as a whole cost approximately 2 billion dollars of taxpayer’s money and employed over 120,000 people . It was a massive undertaking to say the least. A project of this size needed justification and it seemingly came in the form of attacking the Japanese . The President's chief of staff Admiral Leahy The democrats would have suffered a political death blow if they were not able to justify the investment.

The North Atlantic Treaty was written to form an alliance between the anticommunist Western European and North American nations. When it was written, in 1949, the twelve nations that would initially make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, all came to the agreement that if any one of the member countries were attacked, such attack would be taken as an offense to all of the member countries, and a counter assault would certainly take place (North Atlantic Treaty). Because NATO was a defense organization, being prepared to fight back in the event of an attack from the Soviet Union embodied one of its most important requirements. Therefore, much consideration and money went into assembling an array of potent nuclear weapons that could overwhelm the Soviets and inhibit them from triggering a nuclear war (North Atlantic Treaty Organization 4). The main purpose of this protective alliance was to contain communism and thus to prevent it from spreading around

During World War II, the Americans fought a two-front war, with pressure from both Japan and Germany. The United States, aware that Germany was threatening to build an atomic weapon, created a secret project to develop the technology first. Under the codename, the Manhattan Project, leading scientists carried out top secret research on fission and the technology needed to create the first atomic bomb. The immediate impact of the Manhattan Project was the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, ending the war in the Pacific. However, more important influences of this project can be seen following the detonation of the first bombs. The emergence of the United States as a world superpower following World War II, the tensions derived from the

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

It became known that the German knew how to create an atomic bomb and FDR created a committee to study and create atomic bombs, named the Manhattan Project.The Manhattan Project was significant to the war because it led to the end of World War II and caused the Japanese to surrender to the Americans. The amount of people working together along with the cost and time which led to advancements in technology that was far ahead of any enemy. The creation of the bombs delivered a push in the advancement of science, innovation, designing, military and the entire of society into another age. It drew out the powerhouse that we consider today to be the United States of

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.

In addition to initiating a space race between the two current superpowers, the Sputnik spacecraft launch also had alarming military implications. The Sputnik satellites used intercontinental ballistic missiles that were initially used for their thrust capabilities but could theatrically be capable of flying from the Soviet Union to United States military targets in less than an hour—cutting the flight time to a fraction of a conventional bomber aircraft. In response to the launch of Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The act created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) . To prevent the rise of Soviet dominance in military matters, Eisenhower also established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense. This was symbolic of a serious revelation of the standing of the scientific and technological capabilities of America in comparison to other countries, and also led to President Eisenhower issuing a proclamation to increase funding for education in America in science and engineering to combat this widening deficit. The quick Soviet lead in the newly emerging space race caused much panic, which shaped American foreign policy for the following decade(Document E). An example is avoiding “an all-out war with China” for fear of having to combat communism on two fronts.(Document

Following the end of World War II, the United States became increasingly concerned with the perceived threat of Soviet aggression in

“ The atom bomb was no ‘great decision.’ It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.” This quote was said by Harry S. Truman the first President who used an atomic bomb. The program that was able to create this monstrous power was known as the Manhattan Project. Creating this weapon was their main priority. The United States was in the midst of World War 2. The atomic bomb is considered to be the main factor that ended that war. It was a race against the multiple enemies of the United States, to be the first to acquire this power and use it when necessary. The Manhattan Project was kept strictly confidential and, created the foundation of the future and more powerful nuclear weapons to come.

The U.S and the Soviet Union had mistrusted each other from the beginning, which started the Cold War. when the U.S was attacked on December 1941, The Soviet Union had made an alliance with them along with Britain, which soon followed with the U.S supplying their allies with military supplies. During their alliance against the fascist powers, Stalin was suspicious which made “The Soviets believed that the Western Allies had

Following World War II disputes between soviet and the Western democracies kicked up, particularly dealing with the fate of Eastern European states and the Soviets influential takeover. The communist takeover of Eastern Europe clashed with the democratic rebuilding of Western Europe forming what Winston Churchill described as a “Iron Curtain” a political, military and ideological barrier set by the Soviet Union served to set a metaphorical boundary between the Soviet expansion and the Western democracies. With the fall of the “Iron Curtain” “The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs.”

This preparation took the form of an arms race. The arms race was a “competitive acquisition of weapons by the Soviet Union and the United States.” (Boilard 1). The strategy behind the arms race was to amass more nuclear weapons than the opponent, thus enabling them to win any future nuclear war. It was assumed that if nuclear war happened, then the country with the most nuclear weapons would destroy more of the other country, consequently winning the war (Boilard 1). Under this strategy, the Soviet Union built about 45,000 nuclear warheads, and obtained enough radioactive materials to triple that. The Soviet Union also placed tactical missile sites in many countries from Cuba to Kazakhstan, hoping to be able to perform a fast strike from close range if necessary (O’Neal 1). Likewise, the US placed missiles in Europe and started the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program. The SDI program was meant to defend against a nuclear attack. The SDI program included satellites with lasers and nuclear-powered railguns, which would ideally be able to shoot down approaching missiles long before they reached their target. The SDI program was also referred to as “Star Wars” because its use of lasers in space made it seem like science fiction. Furthermore, the price, amount of electricity needed to power these weapons, and amount of research needed was so great that the project was abandoned several billion dollars later (Rudolph 2). In essence, the

After the coup of Czechoslovakia, U.S. thought that they were in need of an official alliance with the counties opposing communism. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in April 1949. They agreed that they would stand by each other, as one and any attack on a member of the alliance is an attack on all constituents. In 1949 in response to NATO the Soviet Union formed the COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) as a result of the Warsaw Pact, in 1955 that included Eastern European nations such as Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a project costing $1.3 billion, enabled the basing of all four United States Army divisions into Western Europe. Twelve nations agreed to sign this pact that stated "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all." Consequently, a few months later, Stalin "lifted the blockade which had made the city a symbol of resistance to communism." Between the creation of NATO, the National Security Act and CIA, and the Marshall Plan, America was dictating their

In 1941, The United States began an atomic bomb program called the “Manhattan Project.” The main objective of the “Manhattan Project” was to research and build an atomic bomb before Germany could create and use one against the allied forces during World War II. German scientists had started a similar research program four years before the United States began so the scientists of the “Manhattan Project” felt a sense of urgency throughout their work (Wood “Men … Project”).