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NUCLEAR WEAPONS

During WWII, the United States set up the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb.

An atomic bomb is a weapon with great explosive power that results from the sudden release of energy upon the splitting of the nuclei of a heavy element such as plutonium or uranium.

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THE ATOMIC BOMB

In August 1945, the United States dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
This caused huge destruction and immediately killed around 120,000 people.
Thousands more died later of radiation poisoning.
The Americans said that using the bombs was justified because it sped up the end of the war and saved Allied lives.

START OF NUCLEAR ARMS RACE

In 1949, the Soviet Union produced its own atomic bomb.
This was the start of the nuclear arms race.
Each side was afraid of the other, so it “raced” to produce more and better nuclear weapons than the other side.

THE HYDROGEN BOMB

1952: The United States produced the hydrogen bomb (H-bomb), which was 2,500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
1953: The Soviet Union produced its own H-Bomb.

ICBM’s

1957: The Soviet Union and then the United States developed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s), which were missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers.
Each side was spending huge sums of money on weapons and had enough nuclear missiles to destroy the whole world.

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION

Each side soon had so many powerful weapons that if one side attacked and the other side responded, both would be destroyed.

CUBA

In the 1950’s, Cuba was ruled by a military dictator named Fulgencio Batista, and lots of U.S. businesses operated in Cuba.
In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and established a communist state.
He nationalized U.S.-run businesses, and Cuba became a close partner of the Soviet Union.

BAY OF PIGS INVASION

The United States was worried about having a communist country nearby.
In 1961, it trained Cuban anti-communist rebels and helped them to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
The rebels were easily defeated, which was humiliating for the United States.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

After the invasion, Castro asked the Soviets for military assistance.
In 1962, the U.S. discovered that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba.
This frightened the U.S. because it would not have time to respond to an attack from Cuba.
The U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, demanded that all Soviet weapons be removed from Cuba.

NAVAL BLOCKADE

President John F. Kennedy announced a naval blockade: the United States would stop and search all ships coming to Cuba from the Soviet Union.
Soviet ships carrying missiles continued sailing towards Cuba.
People all over the world were terrified-it seemed that there would be a nuclear war.

END OF CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

The crisis ended when Kennedy and Khrushchev reached an agreement.
The Soviets ordered the ships to turn back and removed its missiles from Cuba; the United States promised not to invade Cuba and removed its missiles from Turkey.

DETENTÉ

Afterwards, the relationship between the two powers improved- this is known as detenté.
The two leaders set up a direct telephone hotline.
In 1963, they signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which banned further nuclear weapons testing.

REDUCING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

In 1968, in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty they agreed to stop nuclear technology from spreading to other countries.
In 1972, both sides agreed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons by signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).

THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE QUESTIONS

THE NUCLEAR ARMS RACE QUESTIONS

What is the meaning of Mutually Assured Destruction?
What do some people think the arms race prevented?
Who overthrew Batista and what did they establish?
What was the name of the invasion of anti-communist rebels in Cuba in 1961?
What did the U.S. discover in 1962 and how did President Kennedy respond?
What happened during the naval blockade?
What are the names of 3 treaties that were signed after the Cuban Missile Crisis?