American Presidents, Religious Cultural Heritage, and Nuclear Weapons Decisions - Dissertation Example

In 1945, nuclear bomb was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it showed the extent of the devastation and death, which resulted from the use of nuclear bomb. Through it, people became aware of the magnitude of destruction because of the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In turn, these events ushered a new phase in war and military armaments –nuclear warfare and nuclear weapons. It changed the manner in which international relationship among countries was conducted and it altered the view of international politics as the international community adapted to the reality of the threat of nuclear war.

In this context, the necessity of understanding the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear war falls not only from the perspective of politics, but also from the view of religion. Since, religion plays an important role in the shaping and defining of the values and beliefs of the society and then individual. However, this research will focus on the effect of religion pertinent to nuclear decision-making of some Presidents of the United States. Although war has long been part of human story, WW II is different from all other wars noted in history.

It is not because technology is adopted in the development of war armaments. In fact, technological innovations are applied in war regardless of the period. For instance, this shows that idea of applying technology in war is not a distinguishing attribute of WW II. Rather what distinguishes it from other wars in history is the reality of nuclear atomic bomb. The determination of the potential of nuclear atomic bomb and the first nuclear atomic bomb was established by the Manhattan Project at a cost of $2 billion.

This project was known only to a few people and the intention was to build an atomic bomb. The scientists under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer were in a race against the Nazis who they thought were also building atomic bombs.6 When it was first tested and was exploded in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, it was described as “flashing with the brightness of several suns at Midday” 7 The nuclear atomic bomb was first used during WWII. It was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to stop the Japanese onslaught in Asia.

8 On August 6, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola gay dropped