...Nuclear War Jonathan Griner HIS/145 July 7, 2014 Jody Bell Nuclear War So what if today the sirens went off. I hate that we never know what is going to happen next all we know for now is to seek shelter, keep calm and pray for the best. If I were to be living under these circumstances every day I believe it would be unbearable. Could you imagine what it would be like to have bombs literally falling from the sky? And what if you had small children and you were in no way prepared for this event. Some might say that a nuclear threat is close to in similarity with the terrorism threats it also has its differences. A few similarities of these two very gruesome and spontaneous threats is that both are hateful acts against mankind. They are unannounced and can happen at any given time of day. And because of this it makes both a very scary thought. We as people prepare for natural disasters that can happen anytime but with warning. A few differences for instance in a nuclear war what can one do to prepare for that sort of tragedy? I can only imagine in the earlier years in America family’s had real yards that they could put shelters in. but, now America is so over populated and most people live in condos or apartments they have no space, they have no bomb shelter. But in a terrorist act that too is unpredictable. For instance take 9/11 no one could have ever seen something like that happen. That was so horrifying all those innocent people lost their lives for no reason at...
Words: 355 - Pages: 2
...Nuclear Warfare Jessica Mendez History 1000c Professor Herbin December 3, 2012 Today I write to you, Mr. President, with understanding that we, as a nation, sit in a tough predicament. The war has been going on for quite sometime now and although we’ve made some advances on the front lines, it still doesn’t seem like enough to defeat those threatening us. Innocent lives have been taken on both our part as well as our enemies’ and our nation is looking to you in hopes that you may have some sort of a strategy to end this war once and for all. It has been brought to my attention that the use of nuclear weapons has been proposed to you as a strategy to bring this long war to an end. Nuclear weapons have proved somewhat successful in the past (WWII) and are still available for use in an even larger quantity. The reason why my saying that it was “somewhat successful” is because although it brought an ending to World War II, it caused a tremendous amount of hurt to many innocent people and to nature. The use of the nuclear weapon also tickled the curiosity of many nations to begin building their own nuclear bombs. When it was first used, we were the only ones that had successfully harnessed the nuclear energy to use it as weapons of mass destruction. Now in time, that is no longer the case. Many nations now also have a line up of nuclear weapons of mass destruction hidden away and ready to be used at a moments notice. Personally, I don’t believe that the use of such...
Words: 1717 - Pages: 7
...Nuclear warfare (sometimes atomic warfare or thermonuclear warfare) is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage, and in a much shorter time frame. A major nuclear exchange would have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to a "nuclear winter" that could last for decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack.[1][2] Some analysts claim that with this potential nuclear winter side-effect of a nuclear war almost every human on Earth could starve to death,[3][4] While other analysts, that dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis, calculate that with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War highs, in a surprise countervalue global nuclear war, megadeaths to billions of casualties would have resulted but billions of people would nevertheless have survived the global thermonuclear war.[5][6][7][8] Only two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type device (code name "Little Boy") was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium implosion-type device (code name "Fat Man") was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 people from acute injuries sustained in...
Words: 446 - Pages: 2
...Joshua Roberts Dr. Stanford-Bowers English 102 21 July 2013 Environmental Effects of Nuclear War Thesis: If large scale nuclear war broke out, it would make large areas of the earth uninhabitable and almost completely destroy the environment. I. Immediate effect to the environment a. The Nuclear Blast b. The Thermal Radiation c. Direct nuclear Radiation II. Effects That bring about nuclear winter d. Surface temperature drops e. Upper atmosphere heats causing ozone loss III. Fallout and its effects on the environment f. How people are exposed to fallout g. The effects of this exposure h. How long nuclear fallout last The atomic bomb is our single greatest piece of technology and also the worst piece of destruction we have ever created. It is because of the research in to nuclear weapons that we have had some of our greatest technological breakthroughs in electrical power and medicine. On the other hand, it is this research and testing that have changed our world completely and not for the better. According to Ramesh Thakur “When Manhattan project director J Robert Oppenheim first saw a nuclear explosion he quoted the bhagavad gita”Now I am become death, the shatterer of worlds”” (28). Because of all the superpowers dependence on nuclear weapons we are getting closer to seeing our worst nightmares of an all-out nuclear war becoming a reality. It is through the accident at the Chernobyl power plant and the dropping...
Words: 2290 - Pages: 10
...Nuclear War. The end of human civilization. The threat of such a war hovers over nations today and the consequences of one conflict would be immense. Nuclear weapons have been around for some time now. The first nuclear bomb test happened in New Mexico, July 16, 1945, near the end of World War II. As a result, most people might dismiss the threat saying “It’s safe.” Therefore, in order to better protect the Earth and its inhabitants, nuclear weapons should be banned from warfare. Rising political tensions are increasing the possibility of a nuclear World War III. According to Retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, “the chance of having a nuclear war with North Korea is 10%, where the chance of a global Nuclear War is 20-30%.” Tensions have been this high before however, during the Cold War, when Fidel Castro overthrew the previous pro-American Cuban leader, Fulgencio Batista. Known as the “Bay of Pigs Invasion”, the CIA’s failed attempt to overthrow Castro, in order to keep American Influence on the island, was heard about throughout the nation....
Words: 503 - Pages: 3
...Threats of Nuclear War and Terrorism Living in the United States of America can be a great opportunity for people all over the world. However, there are many historical and current events that people need to be aware of. The United States has been considered one of the greatest places to live however is not well liked by some countries. There are many countries in the world who want to conquer the United States for power and for wars that have happened in the past. The United States is currently a very big nuclear threat in the world even though other countries have nuclear weapon capability. In reality, only two nuclear weapons have ever been used in the course of warfare, both were by the United States near the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, a uranium device that was code named “Little Boy” was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days after on August 9th a plutonium device named “Fat Man” exploded over Nagasaki, Japan (How Americans Lived. Aug. 2013). The popular consensus was that these bombs helped win World War II. The situation changed when the soviets acquired atomic bomb capabilities in 1949. With this new threat brought the Cold War and the age of Civil Defense, and Nuclear Fallout. (How Americans Lived. Aug. 2013). During this time Americans lived in fear of an atomic bomb striking the United States since they had seen the destruction it was capable of. The entire nation put emphasis on training citizens on what to do in the event of an...
Words: 422 - Pages: 2
...during peacetime. The nuclear arms race during the cold war was due to the belief that the more weapons a country had, the more powerful they became. Russia and America took part in this arms race, massively expanding their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Both countries attempted to gain more nuclear weapons than the other, creating tension and fear that their opposition could possibly use the weapons if a hot war broke out. Soon after World War II ended, new aggression and animosity emerged between the two super powers, USSR and the USA, known as the cold war. This conflict...
Words: 743 - Pages: 3
...he Cold War was a period of tension and hostility between the US and the Soviet Union. The Cold War dominated a long period of time which began with the end of World War II. It was called the Cold War because there was no active war between the two nations. The two superpowers, US and the Soviet Union, each feared nuclear escalation. The Soviet Union was based on a communist system whereas the US was a capitalist country. There were several confrontations between them including the nuclear arms race, competition to space, and ideology. The nuclear arms race was central to the Cold War. People began to fear that the more nuclear weapons one had the more powerful the country was. Based on this thought the US and the Soviet Union rose to power. “In particular, American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended World War II. Thus began a deadly “arms race.” In 1949, the Soviets...
Words: 581 - Pages: 3
...To what extent was the nuclear arms race a stabilising factor in the Cold War between 1949 and 1963? (June 2011) The view that the nuclear arms race was a stabilising factor in the Cold War between 1949 and 1963 is a view that should be viewed as correct as the stabilising factors outweigh the de-stabilising factors because a nuclear weapon was never used aggressively. It allowed the Cold War to be just that, a Cold War, and not one of direct aggression between the USSR and the United States. Despite this, the anxiety of both nations increased drastically and there were also de-stabilising factors such as the pressure of domestic politics and the fear of each other from both nation’s publics. Also, the ‘hot wars’ in Korea and Vietnam show that indirect aggression remained. Moreover, Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD, shows how the nuclear arms race was much more a stabilising factor than a de-stabilising one. There were many de-stabilising factors that occurred due to the nuclear arms race. The secrecy of the two countries was a major issue as it led to constant beliefs that one was in front of the other. An example of this is the ‘missile gap’ of 1957 that led to many Americans believing they were behind Russia in the arms race and therefore pressurised the increased development of nuclear missiles therefore costing the U.S a lot of money. This also shows de-stabilisation as it meant that the missile stockpiles continued to unnecessarily increase therefore unnecessarily...
Words: 936 - Pages: 4
...Nuclear War vs Terrorism During the early to mid-1900’s the threat that Americans were under from war was evident and frightening. The process of preparing for war against us is better than trying to prepare for a terrorist attack. The threat of terrorism today scares Americans more now than ever. The FBI website separates the term of terrorism into “Domestic Terrorism” and “International Terrorism”. Both definitions include similar content such as “acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law,” (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Terrorism attacks usually are a single event or multiple single events made by the same group towards innocent citizens of a nation. Terrorist attacks are more likely to be surprising attacks by a group or type of people that are defending or promoting a certain religious or political issue. Nuclear war would not be a good thing in these times, especially towards other countries that have limited resources. Nuclear weapons produce more than just geographic harm and economic turmoil, but it also causes severe pollution and health concerns. Some products used to build nuclear weapons are carcinogenic and can pose serious health among those who live near ground zero of a nuclear attack. “History, psychology, and common sense strongly suggest that nuclear war is more probable than most of us would like to believe. This, and the cataclysmic quality of nuclear war, imply that humanity can scarcely afford another half a century in the...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...Bomb. The movie was a satirical comedy about nuclear weaponry and what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button. At the core of the film was the story of top-ranking men of the United States and the Soviet Union who had become so destabilized by their inferiority complexes, they dared to use nuclear war as a way to supplement their short-comings. Ironically, the movie was made during a time when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was, perhaps, at its worst. To the politically-aware, the film could have seemed rather untimely. The film was a ridiculously exaggerated take on Cold War attitudes, with the primary focus being the satirical theory of mutual assured destruction (MAD). Even though MAD was a realistic threat during the time, the film made it seem trivial and funny. The film opened with the mid-air refueling of a long-range bomber with obvious sexual overtones. After that, the movie shifted into gear when General Jack D. Ripper became mentally unhinged and sent bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The subject of the movie was Dr. Strangelove, a mysterious, wheelchair-bound German scientist whose mechanical arm was always on the verge of a Nazi salute. Loaded with thermonuclear weapons, a U.S. bomber piloted by Major T.J. "King" Kong was on a routine flight near the Soviet Union. There, he received orders to commence “Wing Attack Plan R,” best summarized as "Nuclear combat.” The Major relished the thought of...
Words: 1486 - Pages: 6
...Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions of radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium to generate nuclear energy. The energy generates heat to boil water which then causes the steam turbines to rotate and generate electricity inside a nuclear power plant. The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, accounting for 30% of the world’s nuclear generation electricity. The US currently has 100 nuclear reactors in operation, producing 800 million kilowatt hour of electricity in 2015. Since the early 1990s, the United States is currently the only superpower country in the world due to their economy, military, and political influence. The United States relies on nuclear power for over the past three-quarters of...
Words: 1936 - Pages: 8
...atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of civilians. While Japan was still trying to comprehend this devastation three days later, the United States struck again, this time, on Nagasaki.[1] The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. [2] Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on 8 May, but the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945, threatening Japan with "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum, and the United States deployed two nuclear weapons developed by the Manhattan Project. American airmen dropped Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, followed by Fat Man over Nagasaki on 9 August.[3] Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.[4] The Hiroshima prefecture health department...
Words: 4469 - Pages: 18
...Ph.D. ENR 2100 July 10th , 2015 Nuclear Legacy 1.a) United States in New conducted the first nuclear test in Mexico just south of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1945 (Lower and Lower). When the Cold War broke out shortly after the United States used their bombs on Japan, Russia spent all their energy on trying to overtake the United States in the arms race. By 1961, the Russians have taken the lead. At that time, the United States were capable of advanced targeting methods for their nuclear arsenal. To compensate, the Russians chose to widen the area of their nuclear bomb’s effectivity. There is a a 50-60 megaton Soviet atomic bomb codenamed Tsar to get the culmination of this competition (Lower and Lower). 1.b) A New York Times article titled Obama’s Youth Shaped His Nuclear-Free Vision reads, to achieve the goal of global denuclearization for Mr. Obama is very crucial. (Broad and Sanger A1). He thought that it is too naive to keep developing the advanced nuclear weapons in order to stop the countries like Iran and North Krean. The most powerful man in the world having this kind of opinion is a great step towards the stoppage of production of nuclear weapons. This, however, looks like it’s the most that can be done right now with nuclear weapons. Nuclear testing sites such as Los Alamos National Laboratory fields and the Novaya Zemlya are still largely left deserted. When it comes to cleaning up of ecosystems affected by nuclear waste, it seems like Russia and the...
Words: 1622 - Pages: 7
...Nuclear Power During a time of hatred, indifference, and excessive pride for one’s country there was a war, a war between the Axis of Evil of WWII the major players being Germany, Italy, and Japan against the United States and its allies. The war caused a lot of deaths and casualties in addition to the destruction of whole cities during the combat. On the morning of August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, Japan was bombed with the most lethal weapon in world history, “The Atomic Bomb.” Not only did this seal up the victory for the U.S. and the world, but it also destroyed the lives of many innocent people of Japan. This part in history brings up the controversy that we are still facing today. Is pursuing nuclear power the right way to go? Some proclaim that it is a great alternative to electric power, an alternative that can help the economy by way of reducing cost. According to the report of a major European study of the external costs of various fuel cycles, focusing on coal and nuclear, was released in mid 2001. It shows that in clear cash terms nuclear energy makes about one tenth of the costs of coal (ExternE). But there is another group of people who think that nuclear power is harmful to the earth and the military uses from it can cause nations to fall and the earth to be heavily contaminated. With the thought of earth in the picture the use of nuclear power not only can harm this planet but it can also help it as well. This is because researches have found out that nuclear...
Words: 1126 - Pages: 5
