Nuclear War Dbq Analysis

During his presidency, John F. Kennedy received reports from several sources on the effects of nuclear war with Russia. These statistics were collected by the National Security Council 's Net Evaluation Subcommittee, which was a small, covert organization that were tasked with preparing annual reports on the net damage of nuclear conflicts between the Soviet Union and Russia. All of these statistics were estimations of could have happened if a nuclear war between the United States and Russia started (Introduction Document). Even though these reports are outdated now they can help us with future conflicts between nations that have nuclear weapons. These reports were President 's Kennedy 's first account of the scale of damage a nuclear war with …show more content…
Three of these scenarios were under surprise attack of Soviet bomber missiles while the in the fourth scenario they were on full alert (Document 3). This document showed that most of the estimated fatalities were around 85 million while the fourth scenario had around 46 million fatalities (Document 3). Even though the gap is considerable between the two it is still many lives to be lost. One of the major reasons for the study to demonstrate the need for better security and defense against Soviet attacks (Document 3).This would show the true dangers of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and America, and how much lives would be affected. This helps justify President Kennedy statement because it shows how a nuclear war has a complete lack of disregard for human …show more content…
It also showed what would be some of the United States counterattacks against Soviet attack. Another scenario was the U.S. knows the attack was arriving 48 hours in advance (Document 5A). Even though the U.S. would have time to plan defensive measures for the attacks, 60 million Americans would have died within the year (Document 5A). This is different from the scenarios in documents 3 and 1 because most of the deaths were caused by radiation that was left over from the attack rather than from the explosion itself. Half the deaths would be caused by radioactive exposure while only 1/3 would be caused by Soviet missiles (Document 5A). This document also states that the retaliation of the United States after this attack would probably yield a greater amount of Soviet death with an estimated amount of 96 million fatalities, half due to nuclear radiation. Also that the Soviet Union would receive grater industrial damage (Document 5A). The U.S. would also send jets that would be used to hit strategic locations in the Soviet Union (Document 5B). These planes would aim for Soviet nuclear plants and locations of nuclear weapons. This would cause more radiation to seep out and create a larger range of radioactivity and kill many more Soviet citizens (Document 5B). Both of these documents relate to the quote of President Kennedy because they both show that