American Nuclear Weapons ...
American policy makers in the late 1940s debated the very controversial topic of nuclear weapons testing on American soil. Previously, American policy makers such as Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) head Sumner Pike stated that, "only a national emergency could justify testing in the United States" (Ball 27-28). As the Soviet Union and communism expanded half a world away, hostilities broke out in Korea, which authorities asserted was a national emergency that would warrant nuclear testing on American soil. Authorities within the AEC believed that in order to maintain nuclear superiority and preserve national security, nuclear tests would have to be conducted in the continental United States. The Nevada Test Site (NTS) was chosen for a few primary reasons: it was a flat area with little rainfall to minimize radioactive fallout, the winds traditionally blew east towards the relatively "uninhabited" portions of Nevada and Utah and away from the heavy population concentrations of the West coast (Cheney 36). Nuclear weapons' testing was essential for national security, yet it was not absolutely necessary for these tests to take place within the continental United
Certainly, American scientists could have perfected their weapons using the knowledge gained from these tests, and create theoretical designs that would not have to be tested in the atmosphere where radioactive fallout could cause more unnecessary deaths (Ball 32. In a letter to the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Military Liaison Committee claimed that, "indoctrination in essential physical protective measures under simulated combat conditions and observations of the psychological effects of an atomic explosion are reasons for this desired participation" in reference to the demand that military troops be allowed on to the Nevada Test Site (Ball 29). More importantly, there were no security breaches as a result of these tests (Nuclear Testing). As Professor Howard Ball writes, "AEC commissioners concluded that no continental site in America could be considered 'a completely safe alternative to overseas sites'" (quoted in Ball 29). As Glenn Cheney, a radioactivity researcher and author, comments on the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, "To fall behind, to become weaker, might be to practically ask for attack" (Cheney 37). Of course, the people of those islands would be resettled and compensated for giving up their lands, yet this action would have prevented the American public from radiation exposure and cost much less in the long run. The ominous result of these tests was the distribution of radioactive particles throughout the United States with areas in eastern Nevada and southern Utah especially affected (Some Questions 1). The tests were conducted to enhance the American nuclear arsenal - the goal wasn't only to achieve the biggest bomb, it included the development of tactical nuclear devices that could be used on the battlefield against enemy troops without causing harm to friendly troops. Glenn Cheney adds to this argument by stating that, "The military had two objectives for carrying out the tests: to train the troops to operate during an atomic attack, and to assess their psychological response to a nearby atomic explosion (51). The Marshall Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific, were a United Nations Trust Territory that was administered by the United States following World War II (Nuclear Testing 2). As such, nuclear weapons' testing was indispensable to the national security of the United States during the Cold War. The idea of MAD was a result of years of nuclear weapons testing which kept the American arsenal superior or equal to that of the Soviet Union throughout all of the Cold War. The Department of Defense used nuclear weapons tests in Nevada to "train military unites to become familiar with new weapons and their characteristics" (Ball 31). Testing at the Nevada Test Site began in early 1951 and within the next seven years 90 nuclear explosions occurred in the Nevada desert. The experimental tests of new weapons designs were absolutely necessary in order to maintain superiority over the weapons systems of the Soviet Union.
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Acceptance Essays
