Nuclear Weapons Changed Politics and Warfare

Evan Norris

History

How Nuclear Weapons Changed Warfare

Ever since the conception of the first Nuclear bombs in World War II, and the shocking display of raw power and destruction that they possess, countries have been seeking to gain their own foothold in nuclear weapons production. The amount of nuclear weapons in production today are enough to put humanity on the brink of destruction. Countries that were spectators during the Nuclear Arms race feared the worst, as the relationships between the United States and Russia during the cold war were shaky, and as the situation progressed, the proliferation, or spreading of nuclear weapons, had reached North Korea, India, Pakistan, and China. Having more nuclear weapons drastically reduced securities for every nation, and it increased the risks of unauthorized use of weapons, and possible escalation to full scale nuclear warfare. With the Cuban Missile Crisis scare during the Cold War, countries began to rally for an Anti-Nuclear Weapons movement. Many countries demanded that nuclear weapons production should cease and the five nuclear weapons states reduce their amount immediately.

During World War II, renowned physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and Einstein sent a letter of proposal which discussed the findings of powerful weapons with destruction capable beyond the imagination at the time. The letter insisted to the United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt that they begin research before other countries develop their own. The president was motivated by the likelihood that Germany could beat America to the creation of the bomb. Germany was very capable of building their own bomb, after all, they were in control of countries that were needed in the development. Einstein’s letter had warned that Germany had all the tools needed because it occupied two countries that harbored crucial resources, Czechoslovakia, for their plutonium, and Norway for their heavy-water plant. (Perisco, pg...