To what extent was the nuclear arms race a stabilising factor in the cold war between 1949 and 1963? The nuclear arms race was very much a stabilising factor in the cold war, nuclear weapons were never used in an aggressive way. It was more the fear of each country using nuclear weapons against one another that aided the stabilisation of the cold war. It allowed the cold war to continue to be dormant and lives were not lost as a result of a catastrophic explosion. And with the cold war the likelihood would have been that once one side had launched a nuclear bomb, the other would and the cold war would have turned into a world- wide disaster.
During the Cold War, there was a massive increase nuclear weapons manufactured. This disposed a danger because a small conflict could have escalated into a full-scale nuclear war. This possibility forced the two powers to co-exist is a forced friendship. Instead of fighting each other directly, indirect confrontation was chosen instead, and on several occasions. There are several reasons as to why they never met each other directly on the battlefield.
On August 9th, three days later, Japan still hadn’t said they surrendered and the USA dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 50,000. The term justified in this context means the dropping of the bombs were reasonable and fair. Different views on the dropping of the atomic bombs exist because there are arguments for and against it. Someone’s interpretation and opinion is affected by factors like their age, country, family and peer’s views, and their own morals. I will be looking at two views: They are both justified, or that none are justified.
The Soviet Union saw this opportunity to expand its communistic views to other countries and began to do so by establishing satellite states throughout Eastern Europe, also know as the iron curtain. It was evident that Russia was on a mission to become a world super power and had done so with the ability to launch nuclear weapons. The distrust of America and Russia was no secret. With strong conflicting views of capitalism and communism, tensions between the nations were always high and have been before the 60’s. In 1949, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of being Russian spies and were executed for providing Russia with secrets of the construction of the Atomic bomb (The Atom Spy Case.
But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba. In a separate deal, the United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, the arms race was not. The realisation by both countries that the
To what extent was the nuclear arms race a stabilising factor in the Cold War between 1949 and 1963? The nuclear arms race was undoubtedly a significant factor is stabilising the relations between the superpowers of the Soviet Union and USA in the period 1949 to 1963. Although the superpowers came close to war on four occasions during this period: the Berlin Crisis, the Korean War, the Taiwan Strait Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Whilst all these crises indicate major tensions and possibly instability, the fact that the superpowers did not engage in a direct war shows that nuclear weapons created a balance of terror and therefore could be considered a major stabilising factor in the Cold War. Stalin was determined to make the Soviet Union a nuclear power, after the USA created the first atomic bombs during the Second World War, which were tested in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Rumors have been said that in April 21, 2011 the military-designed artificial intelligence system called Skynet will become self-aware and turn against its creators. Skynet is the fictional computer network owned by Cyberdyne Systems Corporation featured as the never-seen villain of The Terminator film series. If Skynet does become self aware the human race can be all wiped out. Our country today fears terrorism, but I believe that Skynet being self aware should be our biggest fear because it can cause more impact to us compare to terrorism. The creation of Skynet started in the mid 1990s when America felt that they needed a combat link, a focal point that would search for, detect, evaluate, and respond to any threat to national security or national territories.
If Truman hadn’t used the bomb the general public would’ve questioned why he wasted so much money and so many American lives by not using the only weapon that could end the war quickly. This would also effect his impression of him to the Americans. Truman could have been convinced that the atomic bomb would not have much of an after effect according to a letter to the President from the US Government War Department: “The bomb has no after effects that we know about, although we are not sure with such a new type of weapon.” This shows that the president did not know there would be such a significant after effect. This reason might have also helped with the decision because Truman did not think that there was going to be an after effect that would affect the future generations of Japan. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was clearly for trying to stop the war, but according to a booklet published by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1985 the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was just an experiment to try out the second type of atomic bomb the scientists had
Controversy still exists about dropping the two atomic bombs on Japan. Killing 100,000 or more innocent people just to have an influence in war. The atomic bomb is considered the most powerful mass destructive weapon since the 1940’s. The Creation of the bomb took approximately 63 years ago. (Rodreyer, Smith) The creation of the bomb was considered by many scientists during the 1930’s and 1940’s.
How far was the nuclear arms race a threat to world peace 1949-1963? The period of 1949 to 1963 saw increasing developments in nuclear technology by the Soviet Union and the Americans. The word ‘race’ meant that both superpowers aimed to match each other and gain the upper hand in terms of nuclear missile technology. Nuclear arms were seen as a form of scare tactic against the opposition as they both felt threatened by each other’s ideological capabilities. It was also used as a defence mechanism in case of future attack.