The significance of Chinese nuclear arms to American efforts toward the 1968 treaty of nonproliferation

honors thesisCollege of HumanitiesHistoryIn the midst of the heightened climate of fear and militarism of the Cold War, an event shocked America and the rest of the world-the Chinese successfully created and exploded a nuclear bomb based on highly enriched uranium on October 16, 1964, at their Lop Nurtest site in Inner Mongolia. The unveiling of Chinese nuclear capability following the events of October 16, 1964, worked to steer world powers toward nonproliferation during the Cold War. Years of animosity between Washington and Beijing preceded the Chinese nuclear test. This animosity involved a series of conflicts such as the Korean War, conflict over the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in the Taiwan Strait, and the signing of US treaties with nations surrounding China. American opinion, which would help define United States policy, of China grew out of anticommunist sentiment that had been nurtured in the United States throughout the 1930s to fight rising unions. This sentiment resulted in government reactions like the House Un-American Activities Committee that publicly investigated Hollywood, a Federal Loyalty -Security Program that investigated tens of thousands of people, and cries of government infiltration from people like Senator McCarthy. This reaction brought fear to the American public, creating the political force to mitigate real communist threat This paper shows how the Chinese nuclear test in creased the momentum of the United States toward a policy of nonproliferation. The paper explores domestic opinion about the perceived threat of nuclear weapons as a whole, and the Chinese nuclear explosion more specifically