Why were nuclear weapons important in the cold war and world war 2?

Answer 1

Nuclear weapons were clearly important during WW2 simply due to the fact that several nations were in the developmental stages of producing such a weapon but no one had actually been successful until the Manhattan Project prevailed in the United States. Having a weapon of such destruction meant that a nation could do the damage that thousands of lives, millions of dollars, and years of warfare could not do in traditional, conventional war. The bottom line is that whoever possessed the bomb was going to control world affairs because no nation wanted to become a victim of such instant death and destruction. Nuclear weapons became even more important in the Cold War because the two standing powers (America & The Soviet Union) had quite different viewpoints on how world affairs should be treated. Germany was split into two after the war whereby the Americans and its allies controlled West Germany and the Soviets controlled East Germany. Since America was greatly outnumbered by Soviet forces and couldn't keep its entire Army in Europe, they deployed nuclear weapons in Europe to deter Soviet forces from invading West Germany and advancing its empire and will upon weaker European nations. The whole idea behind having nuclear weapons is to exact fear into the enemy. The fear to attack is the desired outcome of possessing nuclear weapons and those who have them are taken seriously and have considerable increased presence at a negotiating table.