A Brief History
On August 29, 1949, nuclear scientists in the Soviet Union (USSR) successfully tested their first atomic bomb, an implosion type device they called “First Lightning.” Although the Soviet atom bomb program had started during World War II, the United States in coordination with scientists from Canada and the United Kingdom was the first nuclear power, testing the first atom bombs and dropping 2 of them on Japan in 1945.
Digging Deeper
The implosion type device is the type used in the Nagasaki bomb called “Fat Man.” Greatly simplified, it consists of a hollow sphere of Plutonium surrounded by high explosives that are set to explode at a precise simultaneous way in order to suddenly create a critical mass that yields an atomic blast. The type of nuke dropped on Hiroshima was a somewhat simpler bomb, called a “gun” type, where 2 chunks of enriched Uranium are forced at each other at high speed by explosives through a pipe where they meet with critical mass and produce the nuclear blast.
Sound simple? Sure, here it seems that way, but the enrichment of Uranium and creation of Plutonium and the precise machining and calculations to make it all work are quite complicated. Russian (and captured German) nuclear physicists were greatly aided in their efforts to make a workable bomb through the espionage efforts of the Soviet spy system. Many left-leaning Westerners (notably Julius and Ethel Rosenberg among others) were anxious to get atomic secrets to the Soviets in the belief that as long as the US was the only nuclear armed country militant American leaders would be tempted to use the horrible weapons. As it turns out, so far that sentiment has been correct, for no nuclear bomb has been used against another country since.
Head of the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project was Igor Kurchatov, a scientist known as “The Father of the Soviet atomic bomb.” Like the Americans, the Soviets were initially limited to potentially delivering their atom bomb by airplane, although soon enough bombs became small enough and missile/rocket technology advanced enough that in 1957 the Soviets developed the world’s first nuclear armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), the R-7. The US quickly followed and soon there were sub-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear cruise missiles, nuclear artillery, and all sorts of varieties of nuclear weapons, including the fiendish US weapon, the Neutron Bomb that used a smaller blast but larger dose of radiation to destroy less property and kill more people. Nice.
Today there are 9 countries believed to have nuclear weapons, plus South Africa which had but no longer has such bombs. They include the US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan, with North Korea recently joining the club. At its peak, the Soviet military is believed to have had as many as 45,000 nuclear warheads in their arsenal, with the US peaking at around 32,000. Today, Russia has about 7300 nuclear warheads and the US maintains 7100. Other countries range from France with 300 to North Korea with perhaps 8 nuclear bombs, leaving about 1093 nuclear warheads between the 7 smaller arsenals.
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump caused quite a stir when he suggested on March 29, 2016 that it might be a good thing for Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to develop their own nukes so that they were not reliant on the US nuclear umbrella for their own protection!
Question for students (and subscribers): What do you think? Should all nukes be phased out somehow, or should even more nations have them to prevent anyone from using them? How could we get rid of them? Please share your ideas with your fellow readers in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Craig, Prof. Campbell. The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War. Yale University Press, 2008.
Herken, Gregg F. The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War 1945-1950. Knopf, 1981.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="14638 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=14638">80 Comments
If it was up to me, I would like to get rid of all nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, I do not see that happening. Nukes should never be used because they destroy innocent human lives. Human’s have the power to destroy the world with the push of a button but why? Because people want power and instead of focusing on the world as one, we focus on the power of our country.
I would find it very interesting to know where the United States stores the 7,100 nuclear warheads.
It’s scary to think that as of today if we were to get into war with Russia, that they have more nuclear warheads than we do!
It is scary to think that donald trump is not dismissing the possibility of using a nuclear weapon.
I believe that the Cold War must have encouraged the Soviets to acquire as much (if not more) war heads and weapons than the United States.
I can not believe Trump would encourage the development and use of nuclear weapons.
I don’t think you can get rid of the bombs. There will always be countries that will build them in secret. I do agree South Korea needs more protection. They are so vulnerable to North Korea. When my son was stationed there, I always worried about him.
I agree with Diana (see below), I think phasing out all bombs would be near impossible.
I would have thought that we would have more Nuclear bombs than any other country. It is good that there has not been a reason to drop any since we dropped them on Japan to stop the war.
I am surprised that a nuclear bomb has not been used again. I think it would be impossible to get rid of them because there is no way to stop people from making them or hiding them.
Those bombs are pretty wild and big and could just blow up anything in its path and sad to see and also no i dont think u could get rid of bombs 1 reason rules are meant to be broken and 2 people will make them illegally.
I think that it is going to be almost impossible to get rid of all bombs.
I pray no one ever uses a nuclear bomb ever again. I would be just fine if they all were banished from.
I agree that it caused quite a stir when President Donald Trump suggested that Japan and South Korea develop their own nukes so that they do not rely on the United States. Personally, I have not done enough research on this topic to develop a valid argument.
The cold war,a terrible arms race that let to the development to such terrifying weapons. the most amazing thing i learned was after the h bomb nuclear testing was off limits
Ahhh yes the bomb that started the cold war.
I think that these weapons should be phased out because a nuclear war could quite literally end the world.
I believe these weapons make peace either because once someone shoots one you can guarantee one will be coming back to you. They fear of retaliation I believe is enough of a safety of these weapons.
I do not agree with the use of atomic bombs because of their mass destruction, but I also believe that it would be impossible to phase them out altogether.
The Soviets were trying to show superiority by code naming their first nuke “Fat Man” when the US had one called “Little Boy.”
I understand atomic bombs may be there today but I find them very destructive and can cause a lot of issues.
I find it humerus that they called it the “Fat Man” and I agree with Brandon in that they were trying to show superiority.
When the Soviets became the second nation to have nuclear bombs this created much more of a threat throughout the world. This kick started other nations to continue to advance neuclear warfare.
I wish nuclear bombs could be taken away, but in all reality, this is how countries threaten each other to protect themselves. It us scary to think of the risks involved with creating such a destructive weapon.
I am not a huge fan of the atomic bomb, but unfortunately it was needed in order to protect from a major threat. It is hard to imagine how one is made, and still know how devastating it can be when used. I too agree with Brandon when he mentioned how the Soviets wanting to show superiority.
A bomb modeled after the sun is pretty interesting.
The great destructive power of the first atomic bomb persuaded many leaders of the need to constrain that power. We should limit to use this weapon in order to achieve peace.
Anyway atomic bomb has its reason to necessary exist. But I don’t think atomic bomb is the best way to protect the countries.
There is no need for atomic bombs, the efface they have during and after is too powerful.
nuclear bombs should be limited, but i believe they keep powers balanced between nations.
I can understand why these bombs exist but I’m not sure in what kind of situation it would be justifiable.
I think that nuclear bombs should be limited in when they are used, but I think they keep the power distributed evenly throughout the nations.
I did not realize how many countries had nuclear weapons. I hope everyone acts responsible with them.
The only situation that I can ever possibly seeing nuclear missiles acceptable is to blow up asteroids that are threatening to come into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Sometimes I do not understand why nations have nuclear bombs.
Scary to think all these countries have nuclear bombs and weapons. Although after seeing what happened with Hiroshima i don’t think anyone would want to be responsible for the affect math. Deaths of too many innocent civilians.
I believe that it would be very hard to just get rid of the bombs.
I am glad that these weapons are now banned from all war. I cannot imagine what the world would be like today if these were being dropped all over the place.
It is interesting that it took the soviets so much time to develop an identical weapon the ours after the war ended previously.
more booms leas humans
It is pretty scary to think about the fact that there are likely countries that continue to create bombs in secrecy & they could be used at any given moment.
nuclear weapons are such a waste of government funding
Nuclear weapons is very bad idea.
The unfortunate thing is that nuclear bombs are kind of like toothpaste. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube once it’s out. I do not see any way to safely phase out nuclear weapons, they must be maintained because we don’t actually know what countries even have them.
I believe there should be no nuclear weapons, by that cat is already out of the bag. Therefore, all we can do is monitor who has them and introduce sanctions should anyone be testing them.
All of these chemicals remind me of “Back to the Future”. It is terrible to know that these bombs exist, but hopefully they never will be used again.
The production of these weapons is pure evil. I can’t believe someone would want to create or others would support something that could kill so many people.
Nuclear weapons can cause so much harm. I believe it is something we should do away with.
Nuclear bomb are so scary to think about. Why would trump tell other countries tries to developers their own? I would think that would put us in greater danger in the future. I’m comfortable with us having the option if need be, but it’s terrifying to think another country using it against us.
This was no surprise the the soviets were the 2nd to have nuclear weapons. they were and are still one of the world powers.
What an amazing scientific discovery the Atomic Bomb was. The bombs whether American or Soviet, were created beyond their time. One should really watch the show “The Manhattan Project” to understand how revolutionary this time was.
Nuclear weapons cannot be phased out. There is too much at stake to not have that retaliation threat and power. There would be no guarantee that a countries promise to eliminate all their nukes would happen.
I don’t think that it is realistic to phase out nuclear weapons because I believe that countries will claim to have gotten rid of them but still have a secret arsenal just in case. I think in theory that it’s a good idea, but I don’t think it would actually ever work.
Even if every country phased out nuclear weapons someone would create another weapon of just as equal if not more powerful destructive power. Arms races and weapons technology have always been a part of history. As long as the majority of countries have them I do not think anybody will use them due to the fact that it would literally mean the end of civilization as we know it.
The problem is not nuclear weapons is the people that have the weapons. If we get rid of nuclear weapons not everyone will follow that rule and someone will use it to get upper hand. Second, if we get rid of nuclear weapons does not mean that terrorist group will.
No they should not be phased out. We could never trust if another country actually got rid of all of theirs.
I believe that all of the nuclear bombs should be phased out. If every country had nuclear weapons it would not make everything equal. Some country’s don’t care about retaliation, due to the fact that they are suicidal.
The use of nuclear weapons in a modern day society is scary. There should be no reason diplomacy can not reach agreement to satisfy each side. Nevertheless, the known presence of power deters other countries from bullying tactics. Take Iran and North Korea; it is a known fact these two nations would not hesitate to use weapons to destroy the U.S. and others that have the same value. Yes, it is necessary to have nuclear weapons.
Dropping bombs in general are just dangerous. Today there are 9 different countries that believed to have nuclear weapons.
I think the nine countries that have the nukes need to get rid of them. it is dangerous for the people and the countries that have them.
I’m not sure how they would get rid of them, but I think nuclear bombs should not be used. They are too dangerous.
I think atomic bombs are very serious and they shouldn’t be used. The damage that is done with those bombs can destroy a lot as it was seen in 1945.
A scary topic when you start talking about these types of bombs.
I get scared sometimes when I hear stuff like this. The dropping of those 2 atomic bombs on Japan have changed the world completely.
It is scary to think that all of these countries have atomic bombs. In a perfect world these would not be needed nonetheless we do not have a perfect world and these bombs do exist. The countries that have this bombs could come to an agreement that everyone would destroy this type of bomb but the skeptical side of me says someone would say they destroyed theirs but would not really. Really when it comes to warfare who can you really trust?
It is frightening knowing that other countries have these bombs, just as I am sure they are just as scared because we have them as well. Every country has to have the power to protect themselves against any threat.
I feel like if everyone had them it would be an inevitable outcome that the world would be destroyed! I’m not really sure how we could get rid of them all or even if we could.
If everyone had these types of bombs, I believe it could lead to the end of the world. Everyone dropping bombs on one another because they feel they are being attacked. I think the ones that have them now could keep them but they should be monitored. Countries should not be allowed to develop new ones.
Mutually-assured destruction. That principle is what I think has guided the relationship of the U.S, and U.S.S.R./Russia for over a half-century. With other countries with nukes on the world’s stage as well, it’s no surprise at all the threat that nuclear proliferation is to all of us.
Nuclear weapons are not going anywhere. The issue that I have with them is the amount of innocent civilians that are killed with the use of these weapons.
I agree with other posters’ statements that these types of military weapons are probably not likely to go away. Unfortunately, it would probably take a nuclear bomb going off to remind the public just how devastating of a toll they take on human life and society. I would never wish that one devastate any part of the world, but I don’t see what else might get the global community on the same page regarding these weapons.
When it comes to dropping bombs I totally disagree because what if the bomb doesn’t land on the intended target. Here today we are dealing with this very thing as we have many countries that have nuclear weapons.
I do not agree with nuclear warfare. This kind of weaponry is not only effective immediately, they tend to have long lasting effects as well with cancers and radiation poisoning. Although I don’t foresee this type of weapon going away, I wish these weapons were not seen as a form of blackmailing each other to behave.
The concept of nuclear warfare is terrifying to me. I do not agree with it.
I do not agree with nuclear warfare by any means. I believe it is the worst type of war due to so many innocent people are harmed by it.
After seeing some pictures of the devastation in Japan from what a nuclear bomb can do, I don’t think nuclear warfare is the answer. How it can take out buildings and obviously people.
Nuclear bombing is so devastating. I remember learning about it and seeing the effects it had on the country and to the people.. it’s so heart-breaking.
While the Soviet Union developed the nuclear weapons, the United States had lost the dominant position in making nuclear weapon.
I think that nuclear bombs are just taking things beyond too far. There are already enough casualties during war time and nuclear bombs are incredibly invasive. I know we can’t all be in unison and believe the same things, but we can find a way to have empathy and compassion.
It is a big change of power by atom bomb into nuclear fission. It is great by knowing American has a lot of nuclear fission weapon.