Anatomy of a decision?

Positives• Quick end to the war• Eventual saving of

lives?

Negatives: • Loss of life• Opening up a

Pandora’s box• Environmental impact• Degree of destruction

August of 1945

• Truman makes the most difficult decision in human history…the decision to drop an atomic device on Japan knowing it’s destructive power.

• Truman a humanitarian at heart warned Japan without giving away military secrets, but they refused to listen.

• 8/6/45: Hiroshima killed about 71,000 people instantly, horrifically wounded and eventually killed another 68,000 leveling 4 square miles of the city.

• 8/9/45: after a refusal to surrender unconditionally a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki with similar results.

Nuclear Development:

• Race between the Germans and US initially, Hitler’s expulsion of Jewish and other ethnic scientists aided the US cause as we gave refuge to the giants: Neils Bohr, Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi.

• US: Manhattan Project-their task?

Types of weapons: Atomic Bomb

• Fission bomb: ground tempature (ground zero) between 7,000 and 10,000 degrees.

Consider this bronze statue from Hiroshima which melted at 1.5 miles away…Bronze melts at 1,600 degrees minimum, depending on purity.

Fission model: Atomic weapons

Hydrogen bomb:

• Developed by the scientist Edward Teller the “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”.

• Uses “Fusion” technology which is a cosmic concept that fuels stars and our sun.

• The goal is to fuse Hydrogen molecules together to form Helium molecules, the energy released in the transfer is significantly more powerful (1000X) than an atomic explosion.

• Core temperature: surface of the sun.

Nuclear Fusion

NUCLEAR GROWTH

• 1946: 6 weapons worldwide…

• 1955: 3,267 weapons worldwide…

• 1965: 38,611 weapons worldwide…

• 1975: 47, 407 weapons worldwide…

• 1985: 63,792 weapons worldwide…

• 1995: 42,321 weapons worldwide

Arms Race and Cold War?

• The competition and conflict between the Soviet Union and the US resulted in amazing levels of nuclear growth. The result of this was a new era in tension and peace—the Cold War. The Cold War’s battlegrounds were classrooms, testing fields, outer space, ideology and through nuclear proliferation.

Deterrent:

• While there was a fear of nuclear proliferation during the Cold War (1945-1989) it is clear that looking back that only in 1963 (Cuban Missile Crisis) was the threat real. In light of modern times, it is clear that the M.A.D principle (Mutually Assured Destruction) was a stronger peace keeper than we have in place today with Terrorists.

Country Suspected Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Suspected Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons

Suspected Total Nuclear Weapons

       

 

China 250 120 400

       

 

France 350 0 350

        

India 60 ? 60+?

        

Israel 100-200 ? 200+?

        

Pakistan 24-48 ? 24-48

        

Russia ~ 6,000 ~ 4,000 ~10,000

        

United Kingdom

180 5 185

        

United States

8,646 2,010 10,656

Radiation victim from 19 miles away…