"Hot N Cold"

And you always think
Always speak
Cryptically....
'Cause you're hot and you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in and you're out
You're up and you're down.

I couldn't really resist connecting the Cold War with Katy Perry, though that in itself is probably degrading on many levels.

The ideas that have most commonly been bandied about by blog entries in our community (like here and here and here) involve degrees of guilt and attempts to gauge "the enemy." I imagine it must have been extremely disconcerting for the Americans in the post-WWII era to realize that the USSR was also developing nuclear weapons (as well as the aircraft needed to carry them). What had been our weapon suddenly was up for grabs, becoming only one facet of competition between the USA and USSR during Cold War, one "race" of many. My personal understanding of the Cold War and the non-usage of nuclear weapons in the conflict boils down to a lot of what Danielle talked about. Similarly, I disagree completely with the statement that, "Having lots and lots of nukes sitting around means that probabilistically, there is a strong likelihood they will be used eventually." I think that one thing which prevented and continues to prevent nuclear warfare is the conscience. Earlier in class we discussed the Nuremberg trials as a way to burn a sense of shame and an urgent need to not forget the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Hiroshima/Nagasaki act as their own. While the number of people killed in the two atomic blasts did not exceed the number of people killed in prior firebombings of Japan, the lasting effects both psychologically and physically are burned into our memories. Thus, neither we nor the USSR felt particularly trigger happy. (I also concede that paranoia about each other's weaponry might have delayed/prevented any dropping of atomic bombs as well as fueled the countries' desires to have the most powerful, most lethal weapons, certainly greater than their opponents.)

To wrap up, I offer you this video courtesy of YouTube. One thing my mom remembers from her youth were this duck and cover drills. (The video gets more interesting around 2:00)