nuclear bomb history :: essays research papers

The fall in States stored nuclear weapons in 27 countries and territories around the globe during the Cold War, correspond to "Where They Were," the cover story in the November/December issue of the Bulletin of the atomic Scientists. The article, by three noted nuclear weapons psychoanalysts, is establish upon a freshly declassified Pentagon history released under a Freedom of Information hazard request originally filed in 1985. During the Cold War, 18 sovereign nations and cabaret former or current Ameri burn down territories or possessions hosted U.S. nuclear weapons. Today, the join States is the only nuclear power that deploys nuclear weapons afield. U.S. bombs remain stationed in Belgium, Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. "We can now fill in many gaps in the history of the fortification race and the Cold War," says Robert S. Norris, a Natural Resources Defense Council senior analyst and a joint author of the article. "Unt il now, there has never been official information on where, when, and what kinds of nuclear weapons were deployed overseas, and finally we have authoritative information ab proscribed their battlefront in such surprising places as Japan, Greenland, Iceland and Taiwan." The authors also found that during the outpouring years in the early 1970s, the United States had more than 7,000 nuclear weapons in NATO countries in Europe, and more than 2,000 on land in the Pacific. A cast of naval vessels, including aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, frigates and attack submarines, routinely carried another 3,000 nuclear weapons. Altogether, the United States deployed 38 types of nuclear weapon systems abroad. Germany was home for 21 U.S. weapon systems, which were first installed in 1955. Guam hosted 20 types and the Japanese island of Okinawa, while under U.S. occupation, hosted 19. William M. Arkin, a co-author of the article, points out that while historians knew that nuclear wea pons were stored in some countries, they were unaware about others and knew nothing of the details. The Pentagon document, he says, fundamentally revises post-war nuclear history. "There isnt a nuclear analyst alive who didnt believe that the first U.S. nuclear weapons deployed overseas were sent to Britain," he says. "Now we know they actually went to Morocco first." Arkin also is the co-author of "Nuclear Battlefields" (1985), the first book to document the worldwide nuclear infrastructure. "Where they Were" is based upon the formerly top secret study, "History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons July 1945 finished September 1977," which was prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1978.