![]() ![]() Also wartime experience had shown that there had been no defence against German V2 rockets. This left the Americans to ponder the problems of security in an atomicallyarmed world. This, the Americans assumed, would take between eight and 15 years, given the wartime devastation the Soviet Union had suffered. Also, it was certain that the Soviet Union would develop atomic weapons of their own, and as rapidly as possible. Soviet leaders became even more intransigent in negotiations, determined to show they would not be intimidated. John Swift examines a vital element of the Cold War and assesses the motives of the Superpowers. Arguably Right: The test explosion of an American nuclear bomb in the Marshall Islands. The Americans, it was clear, would use them in defence of Western Europe in the face of a Soviet invasion – a step Joseph Stalin never seems to have seriously contemplated – but no American government could justify their use in order to force political reforms on Eastern Europe. The Soviet leadership quickly realised their limitations. As an aid to American diplomacy, however, the possession of atomic weapons proved of little value. Indeed there is reason to suspect that the real purpose in using them was less to force a Japanese defeat than to warn the Soviet Union to be amenable to American wishes in the construction of the postwar world. The rapid surrender of Japan in 1945 certainly suggested that the United States possessed the most decisive of weapons. Did Cold War leaders act irrationally through fear and distrust? Or was there a degree of rationality and reason behind the colossal arms build-up? A New Superweapon? Stockpiles of fearsome weapons were built up to levels far beyond any conceivable purpose, and only seemed to add to the uncertainty and instability of the age. A single reckless leader, or even a mistake or misunderstanding, could initiate the extinction of mankind. There were widespread fears that humanity could not survive. An entire generation grew up under the shadow of imminent catastrophe. This lasted until the signing of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty of November 1990. The destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American atomic weapons in August 1945 began an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. ![]()
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