Throughout my life and in all of my history classes, I have heard about the Cold War. I would hear people talk of it on the news or would watch movies that took place in that specific era. I never had a course that was aimed to specifically teach national security or give organized lectures about the Cold War. Generally speaking, all I knew up to this course, was that the Cold War was a time when the United States and USSR were threatening each other by the action of using nuclear weapons. I was aware that there were much tension and citizens in this country were preparing for the worst. Not until I took this course did I learn about how much nuclear capability there was between the two countries and how close we actually came to a nuclear holocaust. The concept of deterrence is the most impacting and significantly interesting concept I have learned in this course. To say it was an effective defense policy is an understatement. The fact is, deterrence was the most effective and successful way to deter the use of nuclear weapons to this date. This paper will go in-depth to explain the concept of nuclear deterrence; it's an effect in the Cold War and in the future, will it still work against the threats of today?
             The first nuclear explosion and the dawn of the nuclear age was born on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico when the Manhattan Project (the name for atom bomb development) was tested. General Lesley Grove, commander of the Manhattan Project, was heard to say, "This is the end of traditional warfare". This statement is false because traditional warfare still continued even after the new destructive capability was introduced. What did come about from the birth of the atom bomb was that this technology was going to dictate all wars in the future. "The clear difference, however, is that wars are now conducted under the shadow of the mushroom-shaped cloud, especially when nuclear-capable states are involved" (Snow; Pg 214). During the...