In 1947 president Harry S. Truman authorized U.S. aid to anti-Communist forces in Greece and Turkey. The policy attempted to justify support for any nation that the U.S. government considered to be threatened by a Soviet expansion. This policy (containment doctrine), was aimed at holding back and restricting the spread of Communism worldwide.
Containment became the official U.S. policy towards the USSR. Meanwhile, the Russians obtained top secret blueprints of the original Trinity design ( a code name given to the first nuclear weapon detonated by the United States as a part of the Manhattan project.)
On August 29th, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. This quickly intensifies
...ills and built bomb shelters in preparation for possible nuclear warfare. The U.S. also built up its army and its air force, just to be prepared. Overseas, the U.S. enforced the Eisenhower Doctrine, which was a threat warning communist countries not to attack the Middle East, lest they wanted to begin and all out war. The United States also engaged in an Arms Race with the Soviet Union to see who could build the most powerful and destructive weapons and technologies. Brinkmanship was effective in preventing war because neither the United States or the Soviet Union was really prepared to fight yet another war.
The type of policy known as containment was the foreign policy that the United States of America used between the times of 1947 (two years after World War Two) until 1989 (he fall of the Berlin Wall). The definition of containment in this case is strategies whether it was diplomatically, militarily or economically to contain the forming and progression of communism and to give America an influential advantage abroad. The policy of containment all started out with what was known as the Yalta conference, which consisted of Franklin D Roosevelt, the president of the United States at the time, Winston Churchill, the prime minister of the United kingdom, and Joseph Stain, leader of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). It was during this conference that the three men came to an agreement that these three countries would separate the world into three different parts and have their influence on those three parts. This was known as the sphere of influence and it was divided like this; The United States would have control of influence the western hemisphere meaning all of the Americ...
Containment and the Cold War In February 1946, George F. Kennan, an American diplomat in Moscow, proposed a policy of containment. Containment is the blocking of another nation’s attempts to spread its influence. During the late 1940s and early 1950s the United States used this policy against the Soviets. The United States wanted to take measures to prevent any extension of communist rule to other countries.
The first atomic bomb was not tested at all. It was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 killing over 80,000 people and almost completely leveling the entire city. It destroyed more than 4 square miles, or 60% of the city. The flash of the blast was so intense it discolored the pavement and left imprints on the ground cast by the shadows of building and people.
Holloway, David, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–1956, (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1994).
On January 31st, 1950. President Harry S. Truman announces his decision for the development of the hydrogen bomb. The hydrogen bomb was theorized to be way more powerful then the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan during World War II. Five months earlier, America lost their powerful nuclear supremacy to the Soviet Union, due to the country successfully detonating an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan. Several weeks later, Britain and the U.S. intelligence came to the conclusion that German-born Klaus Fuchs, a top ranking scientists in the U.S. nuclear program, was a spy for the Soviet Union. With the collection of these events, Truman approved the massive funding for the superpower race to complete the world’s first “superbomb”.
Humanity’s first exploration into space changed the world of astronautics by revolutionizing space travel for both the USSR and the United States. After WWII ended, many countries were torn apart and general enmity radiated from opposing countries. This period of political and military hostility is known as the Cold War, and it lasted from 1945-1991 (Kramer) However, two powerful nations were the main antagonists of the Cold War- Russia, (formerly known as the USSR), and the United States. As these two countries started threatening each other with attacks, the compulsion to defend themselves skyrocketed. Their nuclear weapon stockpiles increased dramatically, and on October 30, 1961, the USSR tested and detonated their biggest nuclear bomb, called the Tsar Bomba. This bomb was unique in the fact that it was the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated (and remains so), having the energy equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT (“Th...
Of all the weapons that were fired in WWII, one was loud enough for an entire country to hear: The Atomic Bomb. During early tests, it was referred too as “The Manhattan Project” and kept under extreme secrecy, above Top-Secret. The United States developed it in conjunction with Canada and the United Kingdom. The image depicted here is the replica of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The blast sent a mushroom cloud over 11 miles into the sky.
Two o’clock in the morning on August 29,1949 the first nuclear atomic bomb was dropped known as the “First Lighting.” It was dropped on the testing site in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. This nuclear bomb was produced by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) also known as the Soviet Union.
Both Truman’s and Eisenhower’s governments were engaged in the Cold War, and contributed to increased tensions with Russia. Truman was the initiator of the containment policy, which was implemented throughout the duration of the Cold War. This policy was put into effect in order to prevent the spread of communism.
During last 50 years of development, the nuclear bomb, as the ultimate weapon became the peacekeeping force on the earth. The nuclear bomb was developed in Manhattan project during the WW II and was successfully tested in the New Mexico on July 16 1945. At this point started the change of nuclear weapon from ultimate weapon to political weapon. USA decided to use the atomic bomb to defeat Japan in order to save around 500.000 lives of American soldiers that were needed to end the war and in the summer 1945 the USA dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nuclear weapon raised the confidence of USA but president Truman did not ordered its mass production because at that time he saw no explicit political function for the bomb. USA even tried to internationalize control of the bomb under the UNITED NATIONS but the Soviets were reluctant to support American plan for two reasons. To stop soviet nuclear program before developing the first soviet bomb would give Americans permanent lead in nuclear weapons technology. Soviets believed that instruments of force always have political capabilities. For the Kremlin weapons were political tools. This led Americans to the same conclusion. The beginning of Cold War created several political functions of nuclear weapons: nuclear deterrence, alliance building, and international prestige.
Influenced by the fear of communism by American society and containment beliefs of people like George Kennan, who advocated that the US should use diplomatic, economic, and military action to contain communism, Truman established the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the US would protect democracies throughout the world, pledging the US would fight it around the world. This doctrine was an extension to both the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary. In dealing with foreign policy, Truman did everything to protect nations of being consumed by communism, such as the Berlin Airlift, in which Truman decided to avoid the Soviet blockade of West Berlin and flew supplies directly over to the people in need. In Asia, Truman decided to use limited warfare, meaning the lack of atomic weapons, and was highly criticized by Douglas MacArthur, commander of the army, who he later dismissed for not following US policy.
When the United States caught word that Germany was close to creating the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer and other scientists wanted to create it first, for the U.S. After three years of research, the first small atomic device was exploded on July 16, 1945 in the lab at Los Alamos. Having proved their concept worked, a larger scale bomb was built. Less than a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan (Rosenberg).
Stalin had promised not to try to take over Greece, and he kept his word, but that did no stop Greek Communists trying to take over the government by force. A unit of British soldiers was stopping them, but in February 1947, the British informed Truman that they were pulling out. Truman acted. He sent American soldiers to Greece, and on 12 March 1947 he told Congress that it was America’s duty to preserve freedom and democracy in Europe. The key basis to what became known as the ‘Truman Doctrine’ was ‘containment’ – the decision to stop any further expansion of communism.
However, on August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union shocked the entire world with their first nuclear bomb named “First Lightning”. The world did not think that the Soviet Union was this far along in their nuclear weapons. The United States felt threatened. The nuclear arms race had began.