GOV 312L Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mutual Assured Destruction, Tsar Bomba, Conventional Warfare
Document Summary
Module 15: nuclear weapons and us foreign policy i. Aug 6 and 9 of 1945 dropped the atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki. 2 bombs killed between 130,000 - 225,000 people. Terminated ww2 in asia because the japanese gov surrendered (sept. 2nd 1945) This altered the course of international politics. The us tried to deny all other states access to. They are destructive, the largest bomb of ussr is 50 megatons. If the same hiroshima bomb was dropped in midtown manhattan, it would kill about 500,000 people. If tsar bomba was dropped in austin 800,000 dead, 400,000 injured. This is why the us worked so hard to try and keep others from having bombs (destructiveness is a big threat) Radically changes the challenges in protecting civilians (altered the us"s national security strategy) Can"t block the access of nukes like you would do in the pre nuclear era. States ability to protect their people dropped dramatically in the nuclear era.
