What is Nuclear war?
{{War}} [[File:Atomic_cloud_over_Nagasaki_from_Koyagi-jima.jpeg|thumb|275px|The [[nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]] mushroom cloud over [[Nagasaki]] on August 9, 1945]] A '''nuclear war''' is a [[war]] in which [[countries]] fight with [[nuclear weapon]]s. Because nuclear weapons are extremely powerful and could cause destruction throughout the world, the possibility of nuclear war has had a great effect on international [[politics]]. So far, [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|two nuclear weapons]] have been used during [[war]]fare. They were used in the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] and resulted in the deaths of approximately 120,000 people. Thousands of much more powerful bombs were made in later years. They have not yet been used in war. <ref>{{Cite book| last = Hakim| first = Joy| title = A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz| publisher=Oxford University Press| year = 1995| location = New York| isbn = 0-19-509514-6 }}</ref> == History == Nuclear [[bomb]]s were invented by the United States with Canadian and British help during [[World War II]] to help make that war stop. The destruction of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]] and the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] invasion of [[Manchuria]] caused [[Japan]] to surrender. They are still the only nuclear weapons that have ever been used in fighting a war. At that time only the United States had the [[technology]] needed to make these bombs, but within a few years the [[Soviet Union]] had developed it too. In the new [[Cold War]], the United States and the Soviet Union were enemies and each had many nuclear weapons, but they did not dare to use them against each other, either directly or by attacking the other country's [[ally|allies]]. Since either country could be completely destroyed by the other's weapons, nuclear war could no longer be limited to the use of only one or two bombs; if they were used anywhere by one side, the other would attack with its own nuclear weapons, and the fighting would almost certainly become greater. This situa