By
Matthew Luciano
In the movie Crimson Tide it takes place during the cold war during the late 80's where we were in a weapons race with the Russians. In the movie we are at high tensions with the Russians and as a precaution the US government sends a submarine on a highly confidential mission and which carries a large nuclear ordinance in case of an attack. During their deployment they have an encounter with a Russian Submarine which knocks out their communication wit the rest of the world but the last transmission before it went out was to launch nuclear missiles at Russia. The two commanding officers get into a predicament with one wanting to launch the missiles while the other one wants to wait until communications are back up to make the decision. This this is why today the control of our nuclear ordinance is not held in the hands of military high ranking officers but at the hand of the US president to avoid an accidental WWIII and a nuclear war. This is a good thing in cases of loss of communication upon military warships or vessels were they cannot confirm if an order is valid or not and it prevents the unnecessary loss of life across the world.
In the video the children and narrator demonstrate how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear bomb were to take place near them. During this time period the U.S. was at an arms race with Russia who had just became a world power when they created their own nuclear bomb and this made tensions very high. This rang true especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis when we were on the brink of nuclear war, one which no country would claim victory. Though the Cold War has ended and the Soviet Union no longer exist, as long as nuclear weapons still exist the safety of this world is always at risk. We now face the same problem we faced 50 years ago but instead of the USSR our enemy is North Korea who threatens us with nuclear missile strikes on our west coast and attacks on our carriers. This proves that as long as we have weapons of mass destruction their will always be points of high tension with other countries that have them in possession. Also as long as these weapons exist especially in the hands of mentally unstable leaders and leaders with malicious intent, there will always be fear of what might happen at any second. With one push of a button our lives could be changed instantly from a world full of life to a barren world filled with anarchy.
In the video Secretary John Kelly shares his opinions on what would happen if North Korea were to attack the U.S. with nuclear war heads and how it would effect the U.S. My issue is atomic energy through the lens of military warfare and the effects it could have on our society and our world as a whole. In the video Secretary Kelly says that if North Korea were to strike first the U.S. will be in grave danger, and over time even though enemies might change the threat has never left of a nuclear war. There are 9 major countries that possess nuclear war heads or some form of nuclear weapon and in result of a nuclear war everyone would take sides and Mutually Assured Destruction will commence. Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D) was a term created during the cold war when tensions were very high with Russia in fear of a nuclear war, which simply means no country will be left to claim victory. Atomic energy can be used for good and used to push the world in a new direction with technology and energy but mostly used in our weapons or warships and submarines. Tensions between countries have not been this high since the cold war era and if proper steps and precautions aren't taken into measure we could all be living in future Hiroshima's and Nagasaki's. In total of the 9 countries an estimated amount around more than 16,000 nuclear weapons. We need to find away to minimize all of the nuclear stockpiles in the world cause not only does a nuclear bomb create massive devastation when it strikes its target but after the dust settles it leaves massive radiation that is very harmful to the environment.
