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Wreckless Endangerment: How Nuclear Weapons Affected Us And Soviet Foreign Policy 1945-1962, Conor Morrissey

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

This paper seeks to answer the question of how the development of nuclearweapons changed the nature of warfare, diplomacy, and international relations. It frames thehistorical context in which these weapons were invented, how they were used to achieve militarygoals, and asks ethical and moralistic questions about how they changed the way global affairswere conducted. The focus of this paper begins with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and ends with the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. This seventeen-year period marks the era of the Cold War upon which nuclear weapons had the most pronounced and profound …