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World War 2 and nuclear weapons technology
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World War 2 and nuclear weapons technology
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Nuclear testing was a global issue during the 1960s. With threats of nuclear war from the communist countries of the Russia, Cuba and China, the United States was anxious to protect itself with a nuclear arsenal of its own. After the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the United States did additional nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, Nevada and New Mexico. General knowledge of nuclear radiation was minimal to the public at that time and the United States government could not warn their citizens about the dangerous effects of exposure to nuclear radiation. The diseases and disorders that arose as result of nuclear testing could have been prevented if the government of the United States had advised people about radiation and had implemented a mandatory evacuation around the test areas.
The technology of nuclear testing was relatively new and unexplored during the late 40’s and early 50’s. In October 1946, United States president Harry Truman assumed the responsibilities of the Atomic Energy Commission, or the AEC, and appointed five men to serve on the AEC on an interim basis (Ball 22). However, into Truman’s second term as president, Russia implied to the world that they were developing a nuclear arsenal. This led to two major American decisions which were unanimously backed by Truman: to construct a “super bomb” and to develop a major atomic weapons testing facility in the continental United States (Ball 24).
With the news of Russia successfully testing a nuclear device in 1949, Congress expanded the funding of the AEC to $1.5 billion dollars. The United States also discovered that the Russians had received information about the Manhattan Project from spies who had worked at the Los Alamos plant. By June 1950, the United States and Russia’s nuclear arms race escalated to a new high with the outbreak of the Korean War (Ball 24, 25, 27).
The AEC rushed in response to Russia’s nuclear device. Shot Harry, the name for the ninth nuclear test at the Nevada test site, was scheduled to be tested on May 2, 1953 but was postponed when a previous nuclear test, Shot Simon, had emitted more radiation then originally anticipated. On May 16th, the test was again delayed because of unfavorable weather conditions. The winds would not hold up on May 19t...
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... the form of downwind. The fallout would never have occurred if the United States wasn’t so eager to protect itself from Russia. Was it really worth it, the United States causing the needless deaths of the downwinders just to ensure national security? Some high ranking military officials would agree it was a good decision but to the downwinders who suffer to this day, passing the genes through their family and repeatedly seeing their loved ones die of radiation-related diseases, their answer would ultimately be no.
Works Cited
Ball, Howard. Justice Downwind. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Bertell, Rosalie. No Immediate Danger, Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth. Summerton:
The Book Publishing Company, n.d. 29, April 2003 .
Divine, Robert A. Blowing on the Wind, The Nuclear Test Ban Debate 1954-1960. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Fradkin, Philip L. Fallout, An American Nuclear Tragedy. Tucson: The University of
Arizona Press, 1989.
Fuller, John G. The Day We Bombed Utah: America’s Most Lethal Secret. New York:
New American Library, 1984.