Western Civilizations History - Research Paper Example

?Sur Lecturer Western Civilizations History The letter that President Roosevelt received from Albert Einstein laid down important details about the possibility of creating bomb when uranium element had undergone nuclear fission and went further ahead to emit energy and a great deal of it. Einstein explained the probability of sustained nuclear reaction which could have been made with the end result being a possible powerful bomb. Einstein went ahead to explain that these bombs, after their manufacture and when they are ready for use could be transported by ships even with a remote possibility that they could possibly be transported by planes. From the same understanding, Einstein made it clear that it was possible that Germany had already thought of this possibility and were probably thinking about starting production. This idea that Germany could be in production stage was arrived at after it was observed that they had suspended the uranium export that they had previously engaged in so as to use it to manufacture atomic bombs1. This kind of warning was taken seriously by the Roosevelt administration such that within one month, a research committee was constituted. A nuclear program was then introduced by the US under the guidance of Army Corps in the year 1942. This was in a bid to build a weapon before either Japan or Germany had the idea materialized into something lethal before America had their own systems of attack ready. In May of the same year, the president signed the authorization to develop a secret project that would bring about the development of a nuclear weapon. This project was said to be one of the largest projects ever carried out by the United States government. The engineers that were responsible for its construction were given a name that would not suggest the real agenda behind their secret discovery. They were therefore named the Manhattan Engineering District which was later to be referred to as the Manhattan Project. There was a corresponding British company that had the same agenda and they were called the Tube Alloys and it was incorporated to facilitate the development of this new discovery2. The discovery went on underground and the first major development was the manufacture of an atomic bomb in Los Alamos in New Mexico. The site was chiefly disguised as a school and the site produced two bombs whereby one was used to detonate plutonium and the other one was a weapon that resembled a gun in its features. Then there came the relevant search for a test site that would not draw much attention to the enemies. The site chosen was that which had scarce population in Alamogordo and it was given the code name trinity. July 16 of the year 1945 was when the detonation was carried out of the first ever atomic bomb. There was a crater created by the explosion that was more or less equivalent to nearly an amount of TNT close to 20, 000 tons. The Manhattan project managed to facilitate the production of three major bombs. The first one was given the name Gadget, still to avoid landing on the ears of the spies from the enemy countries. The Gadget was also used for test purposes but due to large expenses observed in further testing as the expenses would firmly reduce the rates of production; there were no further unnecessary tests to be done. The two remaining atomic bombs were packed and made ready for Hiroshima and Nagasaki3. A plane that was specifically designed to carry one huge bomb left the Tinian air base on the sixth day of August in the year 1945 at around 2: 45 am. The bomb that was carried in this plane was set to change the course of history for decades to come. The simple plane that carried one simple cargo piece was bound for Hiroshima to facilitate a retaliatory attack and was set to drop the cargo in just about five hours from the departure time. Enola Gay, which was the name of the plane, carried the first bomb of this kind to be used in an area of such magnitude and population. The second such bomb was dropped about five days later. This one was majorly dropped by the plane called Bock’s car. This one was dropped in Nagasaki by the Americans just as Hiroshima was settling down to the reality that they had been hit exactly below the belt. These two events that followed each closely devastated Japan and shattered the nation. There were about 350, 000 casualties from the bombing raids and it also unleashed a new wave of fear, horror and death for the islands of Japan and opened new systems of worry for the rest of the world as they wondered the possibility of what happened and what would happen next4. The major reason as to why the US dropped the atomic bombs on the two major areas in Japan was to pay back for what Japan had started. However, questions arose as to the kind of activities that would have been witnessed, had Germany been the brainchild behind the manufacture of the atomic bomb. The possibility provokes a whole different kind of imagination. This brings about an understanding that had they decided to get serious with issue, a number of bad ideas could rise from the whole endeavor5. First of all the Nazis had never initially pursued the idea of an atomic weapon. And the fact still remains that in case they had decided to do it anyway, the limits on rates of production that could have been witnessed at this initial stage without advanced technology to manufacture fissionable material would mean that they would require more time than the US ever used to manufacture the bombs. The US therefore managed to acquire the atomic bombs first as they had every form of preparation to carry out the manufacture. Germany also lacked the kinds of planes that could have been used to carry the bombs. They had the V-2 rockets6 that could never have the capacity to carry the heavy weapons. The Nazis lacked a bomber that could carry and drop the weapons in record time and at the right place. On the other hand, the Germans had different enemies of great weapon strength and that had large areas like Russia. Dropping such bombs in any of their enemies land would have little effect if anything that happened in Japan was anything to go by. The kind of attack they would have lodged would not have influenced any of their adversaries to throw in the towel. There is another questionable assumption that states that a German bomb could possibly just have the same effect to match the Hiroshima bomb or even possibly less than that. An example was the kind of nuclear test that was carried by India in 1974 that yielded merely four kilotons that when compared to the 20 kilotons that was dropped in Hiroshima and hence some of the nations at this specific period of time lacked the capacity to facilitate the manufacture of such magnitude in atomic weaponry7. On the other hand, the effect of Germany dropping a bomb on American soil would shaken the States from the reverie and hence it would spark the Americans desire for retaliation and they would have to launch the Manhattan Project. The Atlantic Ocean would shield America from these attacks in the first place and furthermore, America would have managed to make their own bomb and would have successfully used it to stop further destructions from the Nazis and they would have successfully used either Russia or Britain as their base to launch these forms of attacks on the Nazis. It is therefore quite unimaginable for a scenario whereby Nazi Germany would have possibly conquered the world8. The possibility of the Nazi carrying the day during the war got to diminish further when one scrutinizes the events that surrounded the war especially after America entered the war in the year 1941. Even granted the upper hand in acquisition before America managed to get a breakthrough in the manufacture, the Nazis wouldn’t have had the ability to manufacture the size that almost matches the size that downed Japan. But the imagination that they would be fighting against three strong opponents put together means the chances of the Nazis ever winning against all the three strong adversaries on the offensive would be impossible as even a handful of the bombs would possibly have managed to compel the grand alliance to give up on the war and to throw in the towel. The possibility of Germany using atomic bombs tended to diminish further when the events that surround the period of war are put into consideration. One major reason why this could have been practically difficult was the entrance of America into the war in the year 1941. But giving the Nazis an upper hand of possibly gaining the bombs before America laid out the questions as to the possibility of facing the three allies9 that worked together during the first war would have given the provision for the Nazis to do as they please. The kinds of bombs that Germans could have accessed during these periods would mean little effect on the Grand Alliance to make them surrender. The three allies had major cities from the initial stages of development. The Russians looked rather secure from the kind of effect the bomb would have on its cities. Britain might have had a few cities leveled on the ground but that would have made them agitated enough to start their own major form of retaliation. Would the Americans part way with the British during these tough times, of course not and that means that the kind of aggressive response would have adverse effects and that idea would obviously discourage the Nazis from ever building up on the hope of launching the atomic bombs. When we consider the various instances whereby Germany had suffered major reversal of their fortunes in the battle ground, then a better approach would be for them to embrace atomic technology and use the atomic bombs on their enemies as well as their armies. For some reason, they would have had the courage to attack the soviet union so as to attempt to eradicate the Bolshevism menace but then again the fact that Russia was still willing to fight on despite losing the major armies they had should have given out the suggestion that nothing, even nuclear attacks might have managed to stop the Red Army10.  In case the Germans had acquired the atomic bombs right before the Americans did, then they would have been major centers of target especially from the western allies. They could have targeted Germany through the amphibious landings as these landings were sort of geographically concentrated and hence that in effect made them a worthy target. The possibility of Germany owning atomic bombs would have made it practically impossible for a second front. In such an event, it would have also been possible for the Soviets to negotiate a different form of peace with the Nazis11. With all these ideas from the western allies, came the difficulty for the Nazis to have made the first move in nuclear weaponry as the intelligence got to the Americans first. The kind of secrecy used to manufacture the weapons was of top design and that may have failed the Germans, had they decided to try their luck on production of the weapons. It is for that reason that the United States managed to acquire the atomic bomb before the Germans. The allies and the resources coupled up with the intelligence levels of the Americans played a major role in constituting the final idea that even the Germans wouldn’t have managed to execute flawlessly12. Works cited Darren, Court. White Sands Missile Range: Boston, Mc Graw Hill, 1989 Ellen, Klages. The Green Glass Sea: New York, Mc Graw Hill, 2000 Hershey, John. Hiroshima: Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994 Nizer, Louis. The Implosion Conspiracy: New York, New York State University, 1999 Richard, Rhodes. Making of the Atomic Bomb: Yale, Yale University Press, 1987 http://www.free-definition.com/Gyokuon-housou.html http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB159/index.html http://www.japanorama.com/surrendr.html http://www.trinityremembered.com/ http://www.wholeworldonfire.com/ Read More