However, the arms race acted as a strong deterrent through promise of 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and also creating a limited war due to the capacity of the nuclear weapons. The nuclear arms race made the world a more dangerous place; it evoked a threat coming from the two world superpowers. The destruction capacities of this developed nuclear weapon have increased thousand times more than the atomic bomb. The world greatly changed when the USA exploded the Hydrogen bomb in 1952; following by the Russians creation of the Hydrogen bomb in 1953 this led to the world becoming a much more dangerous place. This stimulated the arms race and creating a resilient competitive atmosphere between the world powers.
, highlighting that he believed without the use of atomic weapons, the Cold War was not an inevitability. Despite the pre-existing tensions between East and West, the use of atomic weaponry amplified the Soviet’s paranoia causing Stalin to authorise ‘a crash Soviet program to catch up’ , signifying the start of the Cold War which would shape the course of the twentieth century. A key significance of the use of atomic weapons in 1945 was the ethical implications that using such weaponry held. As Stalin stated ‘war is barbaric, but using the A-bomb is superbarbarity’ . Stalin’s view is supported by Admiral D Leahy, who in his memoirs writes ‘we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages’ This quote holds a substantial amount of weight to my argument due to Admiral D Leahy’s position as Roosevelt and Truman’s chief of staff, it would be expected for a man of such status to hold a view in support of America’s actions.
In order to end the conflict of the World War II, a weapon that surpassed all other conventional weapons of that time would need to be created. In 1939, rumors of Nazi Germany pursuit to manufacture an atomic bomb and insure their victory in the war terrified the scientist that sought refuge in America. It also heightened the urgency for America to create the atomic bomb first. Albert Einstein was the one of those refugee scientists that was alerted to Germany's intent and wrote letters
The island of Okinawa was the closest island to the Japanese mainland, and the last island battle. Many higher-ups believed that Okinawa could be seen as a trial for an invasion of Japan, yet before the native soil of Japan could be assaulted, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To what extent did the Battle of Okinawa affect the U.S.’s decision to deploy the atomic bomb? The decision to drop the bomb was solely up to the President of the United States at that time, Harry S. Truman. With the bomb came advances in technology, the possibility to end millions of lives, and the beginnings of the Cold War.
During World War II, The Manhattan Project was undergoing. This project was to create a bomb so strong, that it would force the Japanese to surrender. The Atomic bomb is a fission bomb, which means the atomic nuclei of the two elements, uranium or plutonium, are splitting into multiple nuclei. This also produces neutrons in the process which creates a larger chain reaction. As these nuclei are getting hit with the neutrons, they react, split again, and let off more nuclei.
The U.S. believed that if the atomic bomb ended the war, the U.S. would establish postwar supremacy over the Soviets. In addition, the atomic bomb had cost 2 billion dollars and mobilized, at its peak, over 120,000 people. Linking this weapon to the end of the war would help justify that expenditure. In addition to the desire to force Japan's surrender, these considerations led the U.S. to proceed with the atomic bombings. (2) Why did it happen?
When realizing that Japan would be able to defend their home front with the large army that they had, and was able to invade the US, Truman had no other choice. So when the question “was the US justified in dropping the atomic bomb against Japan?” the answer is definitely yes! The US knew that if they dropped the atomic bomb they would end the war much quicker. Their would be prevention in more American casualties because as predicted by the US the invasion of Japan would make Japan loose about one million soldiers, and the US would just loose about five hundred thousand soldiers. So to prevent the massive amount of human loss the atomic bomb would be the best idea.
Kennedy asked how many American causality’s there would be if one of the Soviet Union’s missiles would go off in the United States. The response to his question was around 500,000 (found in the interview). JFK realized the damage that a nuclear war could cause. He believed that if America went to war with the Soviet Union and won, it would be a pointless victory due to all the causality’s. JFK did what he could to ease the tension between the two nations.
In fact, the debates behind using the atomic bombs against Japan began even before the decision was made. Many of the scientists such as Leo Szilard and Dr. James Franck, who made great contributions towards the creation of the bomb, campaigned against its use. President Truman said “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Amercicans”. It is completely understandable that President Truman’s aim was always to save the lives as many American people, but was it necessary to do it by dropping the atomic bombs on Japan? And was the reason behind the decision to drop the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki purely to ‘save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans’?
The arms race began in 1945 when the US dropped their atomic bomb on Japan. Not only did this demonstrate the power of the USA but was the catalyst for an age of rapid weapon development, the arms race. This ended with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, an event that bought the superpowers dangerously close nuclear war. A number of factors other than the accumulating advancements in weaponry lead to the Cuban missile crisis, the personalities of the leaders and the national interests of each country all effected how the arms race developed, leading to the inevitable situation where the USA and USSR were left hovering over the trigger. The main aspect that lead to the Cuban missile crisis was the arms development between 1945-1963.