From the end of World War II until 1989, a silent war raged between the great countries
of the United States and the Soviet Union. When the United States dropped the first atomic
bombs on Japan, it not only ended the second World War but began the Cold War (Gaddis 23).
In 1946, the Russians in the United Nations proposed a ban of all atomic weapons, the
destruction of all stockpiles, and the reduction of all armed forces to one-third. Harry Truman
and his administration flatly rejected this, saying that it was simply insincere propaganda
(Gaddis 94). Congress even went so far as to assu…
