Nuclear Weapon Proliferation

Nuclear Weapons

[A brief history]

First nuclear weapons

·         Developed by the US during WWII

·         Germany was also working on them

·         Codenamed the Manhattan Project

·         Led by Robert Oppenheimer

·         Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

·         Video!

Specs and figures

·         Each bomb weighed about 5 tons

·         Explosion equivalent to 50-75 million sticks of dynamite

·         Deaths: 90,000-166,000 in Hiroshima

·         60,000-80,000 in Nagasaki

·         Sigh.

Cold War

·         Ideological battle between Communism (sort of) and Capitalism (kind of)

·         Diplomatic tension between USSR and US

·         Leads to innumerable proxy wars, military interventions, and covert operations

·         Also leads to arms race

The Arms Race

·         Race to develop both bigger, scarier bombs and the systems to deliver them or prevent them from launching

·         Dear lord.

Figures

1. Fat man: 22,500 tons
2. Castle Bravo 15,000,000 tons
3. Tsar Bomba 50,000,000 tons

Terms

·         Deterrence

·         Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

·         Containment

·         Detente

Other countries with nukes