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History Fair Categories Topic: Doomsday Clock (Fears (Source 2: HUTCHINS…
History Fair Categories Topic: Doomsday Clock
Causes
Source 1:
HUTCHINS WARNS U.S. 'BLUNDERING' INTO A NEW WAR
"'Mr. Truman's Navy day speech and his interview at Reel foot lake on the secret of the atomic bomb can only be taken as an attempt to intimidate Russia. It Russia attempted to intimidate us we would react as Russia is reacting.'"
Intimidation was a catalyst of armament. D.D.C was created to warn against the tensions building from the armament + intimidation by both parties.
Source 2:
RUSSIAN SAYS U.S. PLANS ATOMIC WAR
"In the United States, Mr. Rubenstein asserted, astronomical sums are devote to the development of rocket weapons charged with atomic bombs and to massing a large supply of atomic bombs. But, he declared, 'there is no time or money or scientific personnel' available for a 'serious effort' to employ atomic power for peace."
Russians view on U.S Armament as hostile. Reasoning of not enough time/money/science to make peaceful atom power
Short Term Impacts
Source 1:
DANGER OF ATOMIC WARFARE
"'arms race on atomic energy has already begun.'"
fear + B.A.S warning sparked arms race
Fears
Source 1:
FAR FROM A HAPPY PARADE
Depicts h-bomb leading globe off a cliff. Shows fear that nuclear warfare will lead to the end of the world.
Source 2:
HUTCHINS WARS U.S. 'BLUNDERING' INTO A NEW WAR
"... Hutchins said, that an atomic war is world suicide, that no one can win."
Diction of suicide shows the world is leading itself to destruction if an atomic war occurs. Fear of the bomb
"'No scientist of repute doubts the fact, that every country with an industrial capacity will have the atom bomb in five years, including Spain and the Argentine, to say nothing of France, England, and Russia."
Fear of atomic power increases due to the spread of the technology.
"'I have no doubt that their insistence that we have a secret about the atomic bomb is forcing other nations to develop deadlier gases and more effective means of biological warfare. They do not understand that it is no longer possible to win a war. They will not understand that the alternatives before us now are peace or suicide. '"
Fear against atomic warfare and the domino effect of more deadly means of war. Leads to a strong fear against all war due to results only being life or death
Source 3:
NUCLEAR WAR FEAR A REALITY, EXPERTS WARN
"...the widespread use of nuclear weapons on both sides, thus sending the United States along the road to World War III".
Fear of much larger global war.
WWIII
is mentioned as a mental image for the public
"The scientists charged that the government has refused to rule out using atomic weapons but keeps the door open by saying only that it has no plans to use them. 'The refusal to bar nuclear weapons sends goose pimples down my back'"
Warns against government, shows general fear against government using nuclear weapons
Source 4:
RUSSIAN SAYS U.S. PLANS ATOMIC WAR
"The United States is arming for an atomic war without any desire to convert atomic energy to peaceful uses."
Russian fear of U.S during cold war. U.S intentions for atomic energy are 'backwards' as they don't focus on peace according to the russians
Source 5:
ATOMIC FEARS AND THE ARMS RACE
"The arms race led many Americans to fear that nuclear war could happen at any time, and the US government urged citizens to prepare to survive an atomic bomb."
fear of nuclear war, Duck and cover set into place
"The civil defense film
Duck and Cover
, first screened in 1952, sought to help schoolchildren protect themselves from injury during a nuclear attack by instructing them to find shelter and cover themselves to prevent burns. Though 'ducking and covering' hardly would have helped to prevent serious injury in a real atomic bombing, these rehearsals for disaster at least gave American citizens an illusion of control in face of atomic warfare."
Fear of atomic bomb caused the government to make schools learn duck and cover to give public a false sense of relief from the danger
"Unfortunately, massive retaliation was a sledgehammer, not a scalpel. Because it dealt in worst-case scenarios, it presented no intermediate measures between all-out nuclear warfare and no response whatsoever. For example, when an uprising against Soviet control broke out in Hungary in 1956, the United States feared to support it for fear of antagonizing the Soviet Union and triggering a nuclear war."
Fear against starting nuclear war due to tensions with Soviets
Long Term Impacts
Source 1:
ATOMIC FEARS AND THE ARMS RACE
"In 1950, the US National Security Council released NSC-68, a secret policy paper that called for quadrupling defense spending in order to meet the perceived Soviet threat. NSC-68 would define US defense strategy throughout the Cold War."
increased defense spending lead to massive armament including tons of nuclear devices. Other missile sites placed that are still in effect such as the Nike missile silos
Important Events/Warnings
Source 1:
DANGER OF ATOMIC WARFARE
1. Atomic bombs can now be made cheaply and in large number. They will become more destructive. 2.There is no military defense against the atomic bomb and none can be expected. 3. Other nations can rediscover American secret processes by themselves. 4. Preparedness against atomic warfare is futile and if attempted will ruin the structure of our social order. 5. If war breaks out atomic bombs will be used and they will surely destroy our civilization. 6. There is no solution to this problem except the international control of atomic energy and ultimately the elimination of war.
Exact statement of the emergency committee of atomic scientists. warns against nuclear war
"'Unless adequate control is established[,] there is no possible way of preventing an atomic war.'"
Biggest Warning from B.A.S
Source 2:
NUCLEAR WAR FEAR A REALITY, EXPERTS WARN
"A group of Chicago area scientists warned yesterday that American involvement in the Viet Nam war may be drifting dangerously towards the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the enemy."
Reasoning against nukes, Vietnam war sparked potential use of atom energy
Motivations
Source 1:
NUCLEAR WAR FEAR A REALITY, EXPERTS WARN
"'Despite the administration's faint denials [that it will not use nuclear weapons in Viet Nam], there seems to be a real danger that we might make the fateful blunder of escalating to nuclear war against the Vietnamese.'"
Vietnam tension risen leading to nuclear weaponry have a higher probability of being used. B.A.S view Vietnam as a catalyst for nuclear war.
"'As the war goes more poorly for us the temptation will increase to use nuclear weapons. This is only natural. It would be a cheap way out because instead of sending 200,000 more men there we could just bomb the enemy.'"
The Vietnam war had rising tension apparent reasoning for atomic warfare is costs as the war goes increasingly against expectations
Source 2: *WHAT IS THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
"It's important to remember, however, that the clock isn't aiming for total accuracy. Instead, it's a symbol of global threats, and a way to 'inform the public about threats to the survival and development of humanity' – so no need to take it literally."
Main motivation for creation of doomsday clock
Source 3:
ATOMIC FEARS AND THE ARMS RACE
"President Eisenhower attempted to cut defense spending by investing in a system of '
massive retaliation
,' hoping that the prospect of 'mutually-assured destruction' from a large nuclear arsenal would deter potential aggressors"
Motivations of the government's armament. Create fear of destruction by enemies as a form of defense
Background Information
Source 1:
RUSSIAN SAYS U.S. PLANS ATOMIC WAR
"United States is charged with hiding the results of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Bikini in a 'net of misinformation'"
Nagasaki and Hiroshima were both nuclear bomb attacks by the U.S. Bikini was a series of thermonuclear tests by the U.S
Source 2:
WHAT IS THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
"The clock was originally conceived by a group of atomic scientists who had been involved with the Manhattan Project, the scheme responsible for the first nuclear weapons. The scientists regularly produced a bulletin detailing progress and updates in nuclear weaponry and the clock was first designed as an illustration for the cover of the first edition."
Manhattan project was responsible for the creation of the H-bomb and other thermonuclear weaponry set by the U.S Government. The bulletin kept updates on the overall danger to public set by nuclear devices
Source 3:
ATOMIC FEARS AND THE ARMS RACE
"But by 1953, the scientists had revised their estimate to just two minutes to midnight. Their reason for this panicked prognosis was the United States' decision to develop and test a hydrogen bomb, or
H-bomb
, a nuclear weapon one thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that had leveled Hiroshima at the end of World War II."
Reasoning for the two minutes before midnight, the closest the doomsday clock has ever been to midnight. H-bomb description as well as reference to WWII atomic bomb
