World War 2
Strategic Bombardment
The advent of aerial warfare introduced an ability that mankind had never possessed before: the ability to attack the heart of the enemy without the painful necessity of advancing through battlefields. Thanks to the aircraft, the combat zone had greatly expanded and provided greater forward momentum in the battlefield. Due to the mutual understanding of the concept, the belligerents of the war were now aimed at striking the air bases, bases and facilities. This paved a path for the German Luftwaffe to peruse a strategic bombardment.
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Proto-Mutually Assured Destruction
At the beginning of World War 2, the belligerents involved exercised restraint of strategic bombardment. The reason for this, was that no government had any desire to suffer the social and economic consequences of systematic form the systemic pounding to their cities. Using only strategic bombardment via long-range bombers, the threshold of tolerance a society would have for a systematic pounding was not reached. The long-range bomber only served as an instrument of attrition.
The Development of the Atom Bomb
What differentiates the atom bomb from every other weapon ever created, is that that atom bomb was able to use the process of nuclear fission to cause destruction. During the time of the Manhattan project, the fear of the Germans unilaterally possessing of an atomic weapon was present. Thankfully, this did not become a reality. The atomic bomb was not just another weapon. It had the power the destroy entire cities.
When the bomb was initially developed, it only served as an assurance policy against a successful German project. The Nazis had a desire to cleanse the human race and desired the elimination of non-Aryans, especially the Jews. Had the Germans developed a nuclear weapon, the longevity of the war most likely would have been extended since they would have had a nuclear security. However, a full scale nuclear war would not have been possible due to the limited amount of nuclear weapons in existence at the time. With the Manhattan project, the most destructive creation of warfare know to man came into existence. The project also marked the beginning of an era of nuclear technology and scientific discovery.
The Influence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Nearing the end of the war, the allies were seeking a surrender from the Japanese. Key military analysts that the most effective way to do this was to provide convincing evidence to shock the Japanese Empire that we possessed the ability to destroy them. The understanding of the destructive potential of a nuclear weapon was only scratches the surface of what the bomb was really capable of. The atomic bomb was also a psychological weapon. The ability to induce such a demanding shock, required a degree of surprise. At this time of the war, the advent of nuclear strategy came into existence. Seeing that it only took two nuclear weapons to end a world war, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not only a shock to the Japanese, but a shock to the entire world.