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Crisis Study Guide

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28 views12 pages

Crisis Study Guide

Uploaded by

anxiety
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LGSIMUN VI

Truman’s Cabinet-Open Agenda

Committee Introduction

The Crisis Cabinet (herein “Committee”) is a specialized committee not falling within the
General structure of the United Nations (herein “UN”) but rather incorporating the same
Functions and powers of the UN in an emergency setting to deal with ad-hoc situations. The
committee has an undisclosed agenda which means that the topic/crisis will be disclosed on the
day of the 1st committee session. The crisis will be hypothetical in nature which would mean that
there is no specific topic that the delegates need to prepare for rather they must rely on their
intellect and problem-solving skills to tackle the situations as they arise. The committee focuses
on the sheer speed of the delegates in terms of problem identification, problem-solving, and
drafting. It is therefore recommended that the delegates of the committee remain as focused as
they can and not divert themselves from the agenda as it could result in the failure of the
committee.

Mandate of committee

This committee will be following the mandate of a dual delegate crisis committee, the mandate
of the committee and its powers will be informed to the delegates on the first day of LGSIMUN
and will be presented to them on the spot alongside the crises.

Key instructions for the Committee

1. The committee will operate as a dual delegate committee:


a. In dual delegate committees, two delegates from the same delegation will be
placed within this committee to represent the same country.
b. The dual delegates can alternate themselves as speakers whenever they are chosen
to speak, for example: during the General Speakers List (herein “GSL”) if the
time parameters are 2 minutes, delegate A can speak for 1 minute, and then
delegate B can speak for 1 minute or in any combination they see fit. Even that
one delegate can speak for the entirety of the duration.

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2. The committee may incorporate Rolling Un-moderated Caucuses during which time the
committee will be split into 2 rooms. In Room A the debate will continue as is while in
Room B a continuous un-moderated caucus will be in effect at the same time. The
Delegates can elect whom to send in the rolling un-mod room and who to keep in the
Debate room. However, the delegates must be in complete synchronization with each
other and must be aware as to the happenings of each room to debate effectively.
3. There will be no private directives as the crisis will be driven forward by the dais and no
working papers or position papers are expected from the delegates either.
4. Delegates will be expected to deal with multiple crises and sub-crises. They must resolve
the situations by means of a public directive. A public directive will follow the same
structure as a draft resolution.
5. Delegates must bear in mind that the crisis committee will be operating in real-time and
that delegates must resolve those crises within the stipulated time otherwise risk
consequences which can take the shape and form of multiple crises developing at the
same time.
6. The delegates are instructed to know that the committee will face numerous loss of lives
and decimation of countries. If the death toll crosses 25 million or more than 7 countries
are in a state of anarchy, chaos, or destruction the committee will be deemed to have
failed and no awards will be given out. The outcome of the committee is completely
contingent upon the actions of the delegates therefore speed will be of the essence.

Who was Truman?

President Truman was elected as the Vice-President of the United States of America in the 1944
Presidential elections. After the death of President Franklin. D. Roosevelt 1945, who was at the
helm of the United States Government during World War II, Truman took charge on April 12 th,
1945. President Truman was informed of the Manhattan Project only upon taking charge as
President and was evidently responsible for further ending the war on Sept 2 nd, 1945. Truman is

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most infamously known for having made the historical decision to launch the first two atomic
bombs- Little Boy and Fat Man- on Japan.

History of the United States Involvement In WWII:

1. Major stakeholders

In the early 20th century japan was transitioning from an agricultural country to an industrialized
nation inspiring to become a recognized world power like the USA and Britain. Natural and
industrial resources were imperative in achieving this goal something which Japan lacked which
prompted them to expand their territories by first invading the Chinese mainland state of
Manchurian for their iron, and oil-rich fields.

After World War 1 USA adopted a policy of non-interventionism but lifted the policy due
to the several wars breaking out between Nazi Germany and Britain and the Japanese atrocities
that were being committed in mainland China. This marked the beginning of the degradation of
the relations between the US and Japan. This was where the relations between the USA and
Japan started to degrade.

As Japan reached the mid-1930s carrying out its campaign it started to run short on oil,
steel, and other resources that were integral to its war efforts. For the purpose of getting their
hands on more resources, they implemented a strategy they called the Northern and Southern
strategy. The northern strategy involved taking over the iron, coal, and oil-rich fields of China,
Mongolia, and Serbia which when implemented proved to be unsuccessful when the Soviet
Mongolian army defeated the imperial Japanese army at the battle of the Kalkhin Gol. When the
northern strategy became a failure, they focused on their southern strategy which, unlike the
northern strategy, was a success that involved cutting off routes from mainland China’s oil fields
by signing a treaty with the French Indo-China government and taking over the islands in the
South China Sea.

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The success of the campaign was seen as an act of aggression by the Japanese and a conflict with
US interests in the Pacific. This campaign coupled with Japan’s newly established alliance with
Nazi Germany and Italy resulted in the USA imposing embargos on coal, steel, and iron all of
which were essential to japan war industries and which were largely imported from the US.

This is where the tensions between these two countries started to drastically escalate. Japan tried
negotiating with the US who agreed to lift their embargos only if Japan pulled out from France
and China. For Japan, giving up their gains was akin to complete defeat, and instead further
drove their campaign into Southeast Asia invading British Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies,
both of whom were strong allies with the US. With this attack on the USA’s allies were
convinced that the USA would use military force against them which caused Japan to develop
the strategy of attacking the USA first specifically in Hawaii on Pearl Harbor hoping that this
would stall the USA’s response to a Japanese attack giving the imperial Japanese army enough
time completely take over British Malaysia, the Dutch east indies, and the new guinea island
without US intervention and to dig in defensively and consolidate their newly founded gains to
prepare for a War with the US which they hoped to be short term as they believed that the USA
wouldn’t have the stomach to go to war with a dug-in country that was more than a thousand
miles across the pacific.

With this strategy, Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th,1941. The
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was executed through aerial bombing, shallow water torpedoes,
and kamikaze attacks. This ambush was very devastating for the US as it not only resulted in
some of the USA’s most valuable navy assets like the USS Missouri, and the USS Arizona, and
over 100 aircraft being demolished but also resulted in a high casualty count of over 2300 US
Navy personnel. This attack sews the seeds for the inevitable nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

a) The Allies war efforts against Japan in WW2:

After the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japan experienced a series of successes by capturing and
expanding its territories to Guam, Wake Island, and Hong Kong. This was followed by the
conquest by the imperial Japanese army in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya,

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Singapore, and Burma. They even invaded Thailand and coerced their leaders into declaring war
against the US and Great Britain. In mid-1942 The Australian and New Zealand forces reached
New Guinea island while British forces in British India halted the Japanese campaign. The
turning point in the war came in June 1942 in the battle of Midway where Japanese navy fleets
suffered heavy losses and were turned back.

The Americans attacked the Japanese in the Solomon Islands the land which they were able to
regain. This was then followed by a series of Japanese defeats where the Allies methodically
took the islands from Japanese control one by one. American forces gradually gained naval and
air supremacy in the Pacific, moving from island to island. The Japanese continued to defend
their positions in China until 1945.

In 1944, American forces started retaking the Philippines, and the strategic bombing campaign
against Japan began. British forces recaptured Burma, and American forces faced heavy losses in
the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, ultimately conquering the latter.

These events set the stage for the end of World War II and the eventual use of atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

b) Manhattan project

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret program to make the first atomic bombs during World
War II, its results had profound impacts on history. Many well-known and profound scientists
took part in this project. The outcome of this entire project led to atomic bombs being dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, located within Japan. Which brought World War II to an end and
probably killed more than 100,000 people. Early in 1939, the world’s scientific community
discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears
soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb
capable of unspeakable destruction. Well-known scientist Albert Einstein alongside Enrico
Fermi had gained knowledge about the endangerment of this atomic technology that was now
prevalent in the hands of the Axis powers mainly consisting of the German Nazis alongside the

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Kingdom of Italy and The Empire of Japan. During that time Albert and Enrico were present in
the US after escaping from the Nazis and fleeing from Italy, thus as soon as possible considering
informing President Roosevelt about this, Enrico traveled to Washington. Einstein penned a
letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program later that
year.

At the beginning of all this Roosevelt did not find it as important but later agreed to gradually
proceed with that idea. Then towards the end of 1941, the Americans had begun the research and
development for an atomic bomb; that process was then given the name of The Manhattan
Project.

At first, the research was based at only a few universities Columbia University, the University of
Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley. A breakthrough occurred in December
1942 when Fermi led a group of physicists to produce the first controlled nuclear chain reaction
under the grandstands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Gradually this fund was
provided and designated facilities were created within the states of Tennessee, and Washington
but the main one was located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. During this entire project, a sum of 2
million dollars had been spent on the development and research of atomic bombs and this also
led to a huge sum of people being employed in this sector around 120,000. This all had been
done whilst making sure that the Germans and Japanese gained no knowledge about the project.
There was no margin for public awareness of any sort, knowledge regarding it was kept amongst
officials and a certain set of scientists to the point where at that time Vice-President Truman only
gained knowledge about it after he became president. Even though being extremely cautious of
press and extra involvement the infiltration of a soviet spy was brought to the knowledge of the
Americans.

c) Los Alamos and its proceedings:

Following, the management of construction tasks related to the project was assigned by the War
Department to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Manhattan District on the 18 th of June, in 1942.
In July 1941, the first experimental reactor was set up at Columbia University. Later that year,

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work was transferred to the University of Chicago under the supervision of Arthur Holly
Compton.

On the 2nd of December 1942, the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place in
Chicago Pile No. 1, which was overlooked by Fermi. This proved that the release of atomic
energy could be used in power production and manufacturing plutonium. In February 1943, a site
rich in uranium near Clinch River was selected. 5000 workers were employed and an area of 70
miles was covered. However, due to its close proximity to civilians and few energy resources,
the site was changed to a plot measuring 580 square miles in South Central Washington. This
was suitable due to its relative isolation and closeness to two large dams for the supply of
cooling water.

During the final stages of the project, Robert J. Oppenheimer, scientific director of the
Manhattan Project, out of selected states chose Los Alamos, New Mexico as the new location on
account of it being even more remote. In the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer directed his
team to produce metallic components of a deliverable weapon. It was essential the bomb was
small so that it could be released from a plane, and simple so that it could detonate at the correct
interval above the target.

These were urgent priorities before the making of fissionable material, for which 5000
individuals including workers and their families resided at Los Alamos.

d) Trinity Test

By the summer of 1945, enough fissionable material had been produced for a nuclear explosion,
and bomb development was advanced to a stage where an actual field test could be carried out.
Two possible designs had been put forth by the team at Los Alamos.

a) The first would be powered by uranium-235. It would make use of a ‘gun assembly’ where
huge explosives would shoot out two subcritical slugs of fissionable matter together into a tube.
Such violent collisions of these slugs would result in a massive reaction. Its drawback was that

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sufficient quantities of uranium-235 would be unavailable till the 1st of August 1945. Another
was that the gun assembly model would not be compatible with plutonium as a source of fuel.

b) The other design made use of concentric layers of highly explosive material that would
implode under great pressure conditions into a denser mass. It was assumed that this ‘implosion’
design would be the most effective way to weaponize the large amounts of plutonium produced
by then.
A site coined as ‘Trinity’ was selected by Oppenheimer (this location was the Alamogordo
Bombing range). A plutonium implosion device called the ‘Gadget’ was lifted onto a tall steel
tower that was labeled as ‘Zero’. The base of the tower was labeled as ‘Ground Zero’. Scientists
and military officials were present at distances of 10,000 to 17,000 yards from here with eyes
shielded from the intensely bright blast from the explosion.

President Truman who was currently sitting amongst a conference of the big three had then been
notified about the successful test. Truman then contemptuously announced to the soviet leader
that the USA had now acquired a new mass destructive weapon. Upon these bases, Japan was
then informed by the big three about the possible risks and dangers where they then presented the
option of ultimately surrendering, this as a response was straight denial leaving no option but to
initiate the attack upon them. The members of the Manhattan Project had first suggested a test
run. During this whole time, Multiple B-29 bombers had been situated at an air base, holding
weapons. At Tinian an Island 2400 km from Japan.

i) Communist influence
ii) Influence of scientists (worries of individuals involved):

Truman then appointed the blue ribbon ‘Interim Committee’. Its purpose was to advise him on
how to deal with the atomic bomb. The committee was headed by Stimson and James Byrnes.
Members included respected statesmen and scientists closely involved in the proceedings of the
war. 5 meetings were held between the 9th of May and the 1st of June, during which
recommendations were made to use bombs against Japan without prior warning.

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Amongst those aware of the Manhattan Project, the majority believed that it should be used.
However, a small group of scientists at the Project’s facilities at the University of Chicago
disapproved of this. This party was headed by Leo Szilard alongside two of his esteemed
colleagues. They wished to speak to Truman but were diverted to Byrnes. Their argument was
essentially that the USA should not launch the atomic bombs, rather it should share secrets of
atomic development with the rest of the world, on the conclusion of WWII. Byrnes labeled them
as unworldly individuals who were ignorant in terms of diplomatic and political matters. He did
not take their suggestions into account and chose to conceal them from President Truman too.

In July 1945, project administrators polled 150 out of the 300 scientists working at the Chicago
site. The results were as follows;

· 19 rejected military use of the bomb

· 39 supported an experimental demonstration in the presence of a Japanese representative

· 23 supported using it in a militarily effective manner

· 69 chose ‘military demonstration in Japan’ with the opportunity of surrender ‘before full
use of weapons’

In the following years, several important personalities claimed to have disagreed with releasing
the bombs, however, no evidence of this was found. A few of these individuals include;

· General Dwight D. Eisenhower

· General Douglas MacArthur

· Admiral William Leahy

· Assistant Secretary of State, John J. McCloy

Conclusively, a vast majority of scientists, civilian leaders, and military officials involved in the
development of the bomb believed that dropping the bomb was an unavoidable consequence of
the Manhattan Project.

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Personalities

Major personalities in Truman’s cabinet and their descriptions (and their desired set of
actions) that need to be further researched in the context of ww2 and the US’s war with
Japan:

Key military figures: Manhattan Project Scientist and figure:


Dwight D. Eisenhower 1. Robert.J. Oppenheimer
Douglas Macarther 2. Leo Szilard
George C. Marshall 3. Hans Bethe
Omar Bradley 4. Ernest Lawrence
Mark W. Clark 5. Klaus Fuchs 5. Richard Feynmen
George S. Patton Jr. 6. Gllenn Seaborg
Ernest king 7. Albert Einstien
Chester W. Nimitz 8. Leslie RJ Groves
Carl Spaatz
Ira C. Eaker
Henry Arnold
William Hasley Jr
Frank Jack Fletcher
Raymond. A. Sprunance
Mark. W Carl

President’s cabinet:
Vice President
War Minister
Economic Minister
Secretary of State
Secretary Of Defense

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Secrertary of Commerce
Secretary of Labour
Secretary of Interior
The Attorney General
Chief of Staff Whitehouse
Director CIA
Director FBI

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