Nuclear Weapons
...weapon that gets its destructive power from the
transformation of matter in atoms into energy. They include missiles, bombs,
artillery shells, mines and torpedoes. Another name for nuclear weapons are
Atomic bombs or Hydrogen bombs. The United States was the first country to ever
use a Nuclear weapon in battle against Japan.
The major arguments for a test ban was first proposed in the 1950Õs.
Today, however, the stopping of radioactive fallout and the superpower arms race
are still in negotiation. Nations have sought to limit the testing of nuclear
weapons to protect people and the environment from nuclear radiation and to slow
the development of nuclear weapons. In 1963, Great Britain, the Soviet Union,
and the United States negotiated the first test limitation treaty, the Limited
Test Ban Treaty. The TreatyÕs signers agreed not to test nuclear weapons in
the atmosphere, in outer space, or underwater. The only testing that was
allowed was underground testing.
Attempts to control the number of nuclear weapons in the world began
about 1970. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks(SALT) was a convention held by
the United States and the Soviet Union to limit the numbers in nuclear weapons.
In 1982, the United States and the Soviet Union began the Strategic Arms
Reduction Talks(START). Unlike the SALT talks, these were aimed at the number
of nuclear weapons each country could obtain. Then there was another treaty
signed in 1987 which was called the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces(INF).
This treaty called for the dismantling of ground-launched nuclear missiles.
A major obstacle to controlling nuclear weapons has been a lack of trust
between the two principal powers; the United States and the Soviet Union. The
relationship has improved though in the late 1980Õs after President Gorbachev
introduced the principles of glasnost and perestroika to the Soviet...
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