Following the United States’ successful completion of the first atomic bomb in 1945, which nation was the second to develop nuclear weapons technology?
Explanation
Answer: E - Though the two nations were technically allies during World War II, the Soviet Union had numerous spies in the United States’ nuclear weapons project, and the Soviets were able to use the information they collected to develop their own nuclear weapon in 1949. America initially began the Manhattan Project to counter Germany’s nuclear project; Germany had outpaced its opponents throughout the war in weapons and rocket technologies, and the United States was convinced that they were on the verge of creating atomic bombs. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, their efforts to achieve the weapon stopped, but the United States pressed ahead since they were so close to completion. Their first successful test of a nuclear bomb was the following July. The next month, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in an effort to expedite the end of the war with America’s remaining opponent. When the U.S.-Soviet relationship deteriorated almost immediately after the war (as both parties anticipated it would), the Soviets were already working on nuclear weapons of their own, which they achieved before the end of the decade. Subsequently, an arms race and period of proliferation ensued that defined the Cold War. The United Kingdom developed nuclear weapons of their own a few years later. Ironically, Germany never developed nuclear weapons and did not possess them until a United Nations resolution almost a half-century later sought to dissipate the threat of nuclear war by spreading the bombs of armed nations among non-nuclear states, charging Germany with the guardianship of bombs created in the United States.
