Cold War

• 6th August 1945, USA exploded an atomic bomb over Hiroshima in Japan

  On 9th August 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki

  Over 120,000 Japanese citizens were killed by the two bombs
• Impact of atomic bombs on US-Soviet relations:

  • Made western countries feel more secure about placing themselves under american protection
  • America thought having atom bombs would make it easier to persuade Stalin to allow other countries to have more freedom - (this wasn't the case)
  • Soviet scientists built their own successful atomic bomb 4 years later
  • Increased cold war tension --> entered an arms race as neither sides wanted to initiate a war with these weapons
• Soviets freed many countries from nazi rule, and Stalin was reluctant to give up control of these countries because they were useful buffer zones between Soviets and Germany. Stalin turned them into satellite states with communists governments and little independence from Soviet union.

  • truman saw this as evidence that USSR wanted to spread communism worldwide