nuclear weapon

Examples of nuclear weapon in the following topics:

• The Nuclear Arms Race

  • The first nuclear weapon was created by U.S. during the World War II and was developed to be used against the Axis powers.
  • Scientists of the Soviet Union were aware of the potential of nuclear weapons and had also been conducting research in the field.
  • The goal of this assembly was to eliminate the use of all Nuclear weapons.
  • This period also saw some of the first attempts to defend against nuclear weapons.
  • With the end of the Cold War the United States and Russia both cut down on spending for nuclear weapons.

• The Effects of the Cold War

  • Because there was no formalized treaty ending the Cold War, the former superpowers have continued to various degrees—depending on their respective economies—to maintain and even improve or modify existing nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
  • Moreover, other nations not previously acknowledged as nuclear-weapons states have developed and tested nuclear-explosive devices.
  • Moreover, during many decades of nuclear-weapons production and testing, exposure to radiation above normal background levels occurred to scientists, technicians, military personnel, civilians, and animals.
  • Because of the potential risk to national and international security, states with nuclear weapons have inherited substantial responsibilities in protecting and stabilizing their nuclear forces.
  • Not only must nuclear weapons and their delivery systems be secured and protected, other nuclear facilities and devices, such as reactors and propulsion systems, must be safeguarded.

• The Cold War's Costs and Consequences

  • Many specific nuclear legacies can be identified from the Cold War.
  • Formal and informal measures and processes have effectively slowed national incentives and the tempo of international nuclear-weapons proliferation.
  • Because there was no formalized treaty ending the Cold War, the former superpowers have continued to various degrees—depending on their respective economies—to maintain and even improve or modify existing nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
  • Moreover, other nations not previously acknowledged as nuclear-weapons states have developed and tested nuclear-explosive devices.
  • Because of potential risk to national and international security, nuclear-weapons states have inherited substantial responsibilities in protecting and stabilizing their nuclear forces.

• Conclusion: Political Crises in the 70s and 80s

  • Reagan increased the American stockpile of weapons and aided anti-Communist groups in the Caribbean and Central America.
  • The following year, meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland, they surprised the world by announcing that they would try to eliminate nuclear weapons by 1996.
  • In 1987, they agreed to eliminate a whole category of nuclear weapons when they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House.
  • This laid the foundation for future agreements limiting nuclear weapons.

• Containment in Vietnam

  • " President Johnson, the Democratic nominee, answered that rollback risked nuclear war, and won the general election by a wide margin and adhered closely to containment during the Vietnam War.
  • Emphasis was placed on talks with the Soviet Union concerning nuclear weapons (the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks).

• "The Hour of Maximum Danger"

  • Some of the most notable events that stemmed from tenets of JFK's foreign policy initiatives in regard to containing the threat of communism were the Kennedy Doctrine, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
  • Troubled by the long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons proliferation, Kennedy and USSR leader Khrushchev agreed to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty.
  • In the Vienna summit meeting in June 1961, Khrushchev and Kennedy reached an informal understanding against nuclear testing, but the Soviet Union began testing nuclear weapons that September.

• The End of the Cold War

  • During 1987 summit meetings, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to nuclear arms reductions, ushering in the end of the decades-long Cold War.
  • As a result, Gorbachev offered major concessions to the United States on the levels of conventional forces, nuclear weapons, and policy in Eastern Europe.
  • On the third meeting, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

• The Cuban Missile Crisis

  • -built missiles had the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads.
  • The U.S. announced it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons.
  • Both sides already had long-range bombers with nuclear weapons airborne or ready for launch and were only hours away from the first strike.
  • As a result, a telephone “hot line” was installed, linking Washington D.C. and Moscow to avert future crises, and in 1963, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, prohibiting tests of nuclear weapons in Earth’s atmosphere.
  • U-2 reconnaissance photograph of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

• National Security

  • The Truman administration reorganized the postwar military bureaucracy, while attempting to educate the public on nuclear dangers.
  • At the dawn of the nuclear age, evacuation was opposed by the federal government.
  • It argued that in the event of a nuclear war, people need to stay in cities to help repair the infrastructure and man the recovering industries.
  • "Nuclear radiation," it advised, "would only stay in the air a day or two."
  • These shelters would not protect against the blast and heat effects of nuclear weapons, but would provide some protection against the radiation effects that would last for weeks and even affect areas distant from a nuclear explosion.

• The Atomic Bomb

  • It was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear energy project.
  • Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and rounded up German scientists.
  • In the immediate postwar years, the Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads.
  • A relatively simple gun-type fission weapon was made using uranium while a more complex plutonium implosion-type weapon was designed concurrently.
  • The gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so a more complex implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and construction effort at the project's weapons research and design laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.