Atomic Test Consequences

Between 1945 and 2011 the United States has conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, seeking to demonstrate the capabilities of their bombs and to learn about the effects of radiation. Some of the consequences of these tests were those sought by the government, namely, a more thorough scientific understanding of radiation and nuclear fallout. There were also unintended negative consequences, which revolved around the accidental victims of nuclear fallout in the Marshal Islands and the southwestern United States.

Bikini Atoll

• Bikini Atoll is one of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, where the United States tested its first nuclear weapons since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All of the island's inhabitants were forced to relocate to Rongerik Atoll, an island only one-sixth the size of Bikini that soon proved itself incapable of sustaining and feeding the new population. Bikini Atoll was the site for Operation Crossroads in 1946, and the more publicized and important hydrogen bomb detonation in 1954. The hydrogen bomb, code named Bravo, irradiated Bikini as well as the rest of the Marshall Islands. Hundreds of native inhabitants developed symptoms hours after the blast and died during the following weeks. Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have been learning to deal with radiation poisoning for generations since. The Japanese fishing boat, the Lucky Dragon, was also caught in the fallout of the hydrogen bomb. One fisherman died shortly after, while the others struggled with radiation-related illnesses for the rest of their lives.

Nevada Security Site

• The Nevada Test Site was approved by Harry Truman in December 1950, so that the United States could cut down on expenses by having a proving ground on its own soil. The site was located in the Mojave Desert, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. From its creation until testing was halted in 1992, 928 atomic bombs were detonated there. Many of the early tests were conducted above ground, and the radioactive fallout was often blown towards communities in the southwestern states, sometimes as far away as Utah. While the government insisted that the fallout had no negative effects on the humans or animals that it came into contact with, residents downwind of the test began showing disconcertingly high rates of cancer, leukemia and thyroid-related illnesses.

Distrusting the Government

• The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations declared in 1980 that "all evidence suggesting that radiation was having harmful effects, be it on the sheep or the people, was not only disregarded but actually suppressed." The fact that government spokesmen and "cold warrior" journalists willfully misled the American public about the nature of nuclear fallout and the direct harm that the tests were inflicting on American citizens struck an early blow to the American government's reputation, injecting a sense of distrust in the American public's attitudes towards their government that would reach its peak in the late 1960s with the fever pitch of opposition to the Vietnam War. The government made it clear to its citizens that it was not only willing to lie to Americans but that it was more than willing to sacrifice civilians in the name of military development and international power politics.

Keeping the Cold War Cold

• Despite the negative consequences of American tests in the Pacific and Nevada, the fact that atomic testing helped keep the image of nuclear catastrophe fresh in the American public's mind can be viewed retrospectively as essential in helping prevent the Cold War from escalating into a nuclear exchange. Despite public service announcements attempting to console uneasy citizens by encouraging them to build fallout shelters or to duck and cover, the video footage of the Bikini Atoll test and those conducted in Nevada served continually as reminders of the magnitude and power of a real atomic explosion. Though many American citizens, especially at the height of the Cold War, strongly advocated for a preemptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, the realities of the atomic tests and the hazards of nuclear fallout lent a sense of urgency to the increasingly pervasive notion of mutually assured destruction.