Nuclear Weapons I
If you want to obliterate one specific target or have a lot of fallout, you would opt for what kind of detonation?
surface
What country was the only one to detonate a nuclear device in space?
The United States
What two developments led to the Soviet Union becoming a global power after WWII?
Nuclear weapons and fighter jets
What type of grain did Khrushchev really love and made a special detour to check out a farm here in America?
CORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once East German President Egon Krenz announce he was lifting travel restrictions to West Germany, what did Berliners do?
Began dismantling the Berlin Wall
Explain how the hydrogen (fusion) bomb works.
Stage 1: Achieve fission, which heats up deuterium
Stage 2: Heated deuterium fuse with tritium, creating helium, which creates energy. Chain reaction occurs until critical mass is reached. Then BOOM
The Castle Bravo test (1954) fallout caused the US to evacuate three nearby islands and created new tension with Japan. Why did it create tension?
A Japanese fishing vessel was in the fallout area with a hold full of fish. Caused a panic of contaminated fish.
How did comrade Stalin maintain his singular control over the Soviet Union?
Any considered a political adversary was arrested and executed, or assassinated
In the Soviet Union, what commodity was the only thing that did not suffer from shortages?
Alcohol
Kept the people complacent and made the gov $$$$
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, US President George H.W. Bush prioritized
1: Securing/protecting Soviet nukes
2: creating political and economic stability
3: ???
Preventing ethnic violence
How does the Arms Race begin?
The USSR detonates its first fission bomb, prompts the US to develop the hydrogen bomb
What nuclear device was designed to be a 100 MT 3 stage fusion bomb, but was reduced by half, just so the Tu-95N bomber plane could survive as it tried to escape the blast?
Tsar Bomba (1961)
What was the biggest weakness of the USSR's planned economy?
Workers and managers had no incentives to work or innovate
What period during the Cold War where the world came closest to nuclear war?
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
What were the 3 reasons why the August Coup failed?
1) Military & KGB refusal to carry out orders/defecting
2) Not arresting Russian President Yeltsin
3) People did not want to go back to the old ways/wanted to stay free
What does an Electric Magnetic Pulse (EMP) do and what kind of detonation would you need to achieve it?
An EMP fries all unprotected electronics, rendering them unusable. To achieve an EMP you must detonate at high altitude or in space
DAILY DOUBLE: Explain how a Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) operates.
Within the ballistic missile's payload are multiple nuclear warheads, each will go to different targets as it reenters Earth's atmosphere. Multiple smaller nukes in one missile instead of one larger nuke.
What did the Gosplan do in the USSR?
It set quotas for factories and that was all they cared about
The NKVD encouraged it citizens to do what?
Report other people of crimes against the state or Party (even family)
What prompted the Kremlin to lower the Hammer & Sickle flag and replace with the prerevolutionary Russian flag?
Gorbachev announces his resignation as premier of the USSR
If you wanted to kill more people over a larger area, what kind of burst would you detonate your nuclear weapon?
Air burst
Why would constructing a defense system destroy deterrence?
A country could launch a first strike without suffering the consequences of a retaliatory strike.
Why did Sino-Soviet relations decline while Khrushchev was in power?
Khru started to de-Stalinize the USSR, and it threatened the PRC's authoritarian legitimacy
What was the unintended consequence of glasnost?
By the gov reveal Party/gov crimes or people openly talking about it, people began to undermine the central authority
The plotters of the August Coup began planning when Gorbachev agreed to do what?
(hint: The coup began two days before Gorb was to sign this agreement)
Decentralize the Soviet Union
(Which would make the elites weaker than they already were, wanted to maintain status quo)