... the Arms Race, flashpoints involving nuclear weapons such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nuclear weapons first exploded onto the scene of both military and world politics in 1945 when the United Sates dropped the first atomic bomb on Japanese soil obliterating the city Hiroshima, followed by another being dropped on Nagasaki to end to the stalemate that WWII had become. The Japanese government subsequently had no choice but to surrender to the might of the west. The world had now witnessed the devastating affect of nuclear weapons and their awesome and destructive power. According to Lundestad (1999) the use of nuclear weapons against the Japanese in 1945 was not solely to quickly end the war, but also to 'underscore the power of the United States and thus, get the Soviet leaders to show greater consideration for US interests in International politics.' (:149) The nuclear arms race can be argued to have ...

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