Film and American History Test 2: Bombing/Missile crisis Flashcards
(27 cards)
Role of Einstein in creating bomb
wrote letter to FDR to encourage bomb research
Why did Leo Szilard want the Allies(US and Britain) to build the atomic bomb?
serve as deterrent to Nazi Germany atomic bomb
Manhattan Project
secret US program to build an atomic bomb aided by the British and Canadians
General Leslie Groves
overall leader of Manhattan Project
J. Robert Oppenheimer
scientific leader of Manhattan project
*pre-WWII associations with communists
Klaus Fuchs
- exile from Germany who worked on Manhattan Project for British
- Soviet Spy who gave important secrets to USSr–>allowed Soviets to develop bomb by 1949
US invasions influence
- (Saipan, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa) influenced US to use bomb
- high casualty rates and most Japanese fought to death
- no longer wanted a bloody invasion of mainland Japan
Tokyo firebombing influence on bomb
targeting areas with large numbers of civilians, thus there was no moral/ethnical different between two
Curtis LeMay statement
“I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal”
General Anami
- tried to keep Japan from surrendering
- head of Japanese army and was completely opposed to unconditional surrender
“i am become death-shatterer of worlds”
J. Robert Oppenheimer said this after he saw the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico
President Truman role in use of bomb
ordered it to be used
Which nation did Secretary Byrnes hope to make more cooperative by using bomb?
USSR/Soviet Union
Why did War Secretary Stimson want to prevent the use of the bomb on Kyoto?
Kyota was the religious and cultural center of Japan and believed its destruction would permanantely damage relations
USS Indianapolis
- delivered bomb to Titian
- sunk by Japanese submarine and many of the initial survivors were killed by sharks
Enola Gray
Commander= Colonel Paul Tibbets
-plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan
Besides the use of the two bombs, what else encouraged Japan to finally surrender?
Soviet Union invasion of Manchuria, which was controlled by Japan
What important institution was retained by the Japanese despite their unconditional surrender?
Emperor/Imperial Palace w/ symbolic power
Effect of Hiroshima bombing
20 American POWs killed
Bay of Pigs invasion
April 1961
-failed CIA sponsored invasion of Cuba by anti Castro Cubans
Operation Mongoose
CIA covert program to destabilize Cuba and assassinate Castro
Appeaser
- to be accused of being weak; politically damaging for any American politician
- policy of granting concessions to potential enemies in order to maintain peace
Why can is be said the Bay of Pigs invasion and Operation Mongoose supported Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko’s statement that the Soviet weapons in Cuba were of a defensive weapon?
attacks by US encouraged USSR to protect Cuba with nukes
Curtis Lemay;s solution to Cuban Missile Crisis
airstrike followed by invasion of Cuba with removal of Fidel Castro from power
- Cuban reaction would be nothing
- Castro reminded in power
- US appeased USSR by removing absolute missiles from Turkey
