34. As you read about the “Arms Race” on slides 6 and 7 of 10, think about what might have been the worst-case scenario if both the US and the USSR both used their nuclear weapons. Explain in a fully developed paragraph.

Question

The Arms Race
A woman in a 1950s-style dress views an exhibit of a typical bomb shelter. The small room is surrounded by bricks. There is a bunk bed on one wall and a shelf of food and other necessities on another wall. Pots and pans also hang on the wall. Informative placards sit on a table in the middle of the small room.
As the threat of nuclear attack grew, some American families built bomb shelters, such as this mock-up, stocked with water and food, in hopes of surviving a blast and its fallout.
Once the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb, a deadly arms race ensued. Both the United States and the Soviet Union started building bigger and bigger bombs. The United States tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1952. It was much more powerful and destructive than the bombs that had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The Soviet Union responded by testing its own hydrogen bomb in 1953. Americans countered by developing long-range missiles. Their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) could carry nuclear weapons more than 3,000 miles. The United States maintained a lead through most of the arms race. The Americans were fearful of the Soviets’ aggressive attempts to outdo their own aggressive attempts to arm themselves. Once both countries possessed the hydrogen bomb, the possibility of an all-out war between the two seemed to threaten the end of human civilization.

In 1950, Congress enacted the Federal Civil Defense Act, which called for the creation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA). The FCDA began a number of programs to help state and local governments, as well as families, prepare for a nuclear attack. Towns established community bomb shelters and stocked them with supplies. Some homeowners built and stocked their own personal shelters as well. Schoolchildren throughout the 1950s practiced the “duck and cover” drill, which you learned about at the beginning of this lesson. The FCDA also published materials to help people build their own bomb shelters. In part, the aim was to calm the public’s fears about a nuclear attack.

Based on what you have read and what you know, did the FCDA believe that bomb shelters and duck- and-cover drills would protect citizens from a nuclear attack? If not, why else would the FCDA promote these safety procedures?

Answer 1

If both the US and the USSR had used their nuclear weapons, the worst-case scenario would have been a full-scale nuclear war that would have had devastating consequences for both countries and the rest of the world. The destructive power of nuclear weapons is beyond compare, capable of causing mass casualties, extensive damages, and long-lasting environmental and health effects. The use of nuclear weapons by both countries would have led to the complete annihilation of major cities, infrastructure, and populations. The resulting radiation and fallout would have contaminated vast areas, making them uninhabitable for generations to come. The consequences would have also extended beyond the immediate war zone, as the global climate would have been dramatically impacted by the release of large amounts of smoke, dust, and particulate matter into the atmosphere, leading to a nuclear winter that could disrupt agricultural production and cause widespread famine. Overall, a nuclear war between the US and the USSR would have meant the end of human civilization as we know it, with catastrophic loss of life and irreparable damage to the planet.