Nuclear Strikes

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Recommended: Significance of the arms race during the cold war

Nuclear Strikes

Scientifically, there is no obstacle for a nuclear or atomic bomb. There are no secrets in Nuclear Science anymore. Anyone with a reasonable physics degree and access to a good technical library could design a workable atomic bomb in less than 6 months, so why hasn't anyone. Maybe there has been, no one is exactly sure. In the last 52 years there has been enough nuclear warheads made to destroy every city in the world and still have thousands left over.(Church 40) This all happened during the Cold War, a period of 45 years
(1947-1991), between mainly the two superpowers (United States and the Soviet
Union). Other nations were involved, and 2 wars were fought over it (Korea and
Vietnam) and a nuclear war was almost waged (Cuban Missile Crisis). Now with the breakup of the Soviet Union into a loose Commonwealth no one is exactly sure who has all the weapons. Certain nations inherited them, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Ukraine, and Russia, while others tried stealing them, Iran, Libya, and North
Korea. And since the breakup certain people have been caught stealing the materials needed to make a bomb. These terrorists have never been caught in the
United States but numerous times in Europe.(www.pbs.org) As a matter of fact, the Russians say someone stole a bomb simulator, which will explode and make mushroom cloud but has no nuclear component.(Wilkie) People know that despite efforts to keep control on the old Soviet stockpile and waste, terrorists are getting the plutonium and uranium needed to make nuclear weapons to kill masses of people. This is kind of the history of the nuclear & atomic bomb: (all from
Williams) The first atomic bomb was thought up by Albert
Einstein in the late 30's. In 1942 Enrico Fermi brought about first nuclear reaction with isotope Uranium 235. From this the Manhattan Project was brought about and took place in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Then July 16, 1945 near
Alamogordo, New Mexico world's first atomic bomb was set off. Three weeks later on August 6, 1945 "Little Boy" hit Hiroshima and had the force of 26 million pounds of TNT. Next on August 9, 1945 "Fat Man" missed it's mark but still devastated Nagasaki causing an unconditional surrender by the Japanese. Then in
1946 the United Nations tried to outlaw the weapons but the Soviets used their veto power against it. Final...

... middle of paper ...

...ot;Soviet Nukes on the Loose" Time December 16,1991: CD-ROM.

Frontline: Loose Nukes PBS. WMHT Albany, New York. November 19, 1996: 50 minutes.

Luttwak, Edward N. "International Arms Control" Microsoft Encarta 1995

Mayers, Teena. Understanding Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control. Education in world: 1983.

McGirk, Tim. "Pakistan's Radioactive Bazaar" World Press Review July 1996: 35.

Mollins, Carl. "Paying for the Bomb" Macleans August 7, 1995: 38.

Talbot, Strobe. "The History of the Bomb" Time January 30, 1989: CD-ROM.

Waller, Douglas. "Nuclear Ninjas" Time January 8, 1996: 38-40

Weiss, Ann E. The Nuclear Arms Race, Can we survive it? Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1983.

Wilkie Tom. "Terrorist and the Bomb" World Press Review July 1996: 37

Williams, Gene B. Nuclear War, Nuclear Winter New York : Franklin Watts, 1989.

WWW.PBS.ORG/WGBH/PAGES/FRONTLINE/SHOWS/NUKES

No author named. "Operation Sapphire" Macleans December 5, 1994: 35.

No author named. "Bombs across the Ocean" Time April 20, 1989: CD-ROM.

No author mentioned. "A Nasty Spat Against Friends" Time May 8,1989: CD-ROM.

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