Patrick Conraads researches the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons by the United States during the Cold War
Patrick Conraads
By Ellie Webb-Bowen, CLA Student Writer - February 26, 2025
Patrick Conraads, a Ph.D. student from Sheridan, Wyoming, is in the History and Philosophy of Science program at the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), studying tactical nuclear weapons development between 1945 and 1955.
Cold War politics wasn’t always at the top of Conraads’ mind. As an undergraduate student at the University of Wyoming (UW), he was particularly interested in American cultural history, specifically the 1920s and 1930s Harlem Renaissance in Manhattan, New York. After completing his bachelor's degree, Conraads was encouraged to pursue a master's degree by the history department at UW. When Patrick arrived at graduate school, his interest shifted toward political history.
"It was interesting to look at how the Harlem Renaissance shaped American life,” said Conraads. “But during my master’s program at UW was when I dove into how the Cold War shaped international foreign relations and the way American politics work today.”
It was a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and subsequent worsening conditions in 2018 that partially informed Conraads intention to enroll in CLA’s History and Philosophy of Science Ph.D. program. His interest in the Cold War never waned, but future career plans changed. Originally intending to go into archival work, Conraads mobility issues declined. He decided to pursue a career in education and teaching after earning his Ph.D.
Conraads’ interest in Cold War history led him down a winding path that has culminated in military history. He was always fascinated by the hold that nuclear technology and atomic bombs had on American culture in the Cold War, but once he read books by nuclear historians like OSU’s Dr. Jacob Hamblin, he knew that he wanted to study atomic weapons. He describes that he was “amazed to learn how little was known early on in the Cold War about radioactive fallout and the ways it could harm humans,” and subsequently wanted to learn more about America’s nuclear weapons tests in Nevada. Between the expertise of Dr. Hamblin and the vast nuclear archives at OSU, he says that Oregon State seemed like the most logical place to explore these topics.
"I wanted to look at what military leaders knew about atomic bombs in the early days of the Cold War and what they could have reasonably known based on existing information at the time,” explained Conraads. “SCARC [Special Collections Archive and Research Center] has a lot of great material,” he continued, “and now that I am done with coursework for my degree, I am excited to dive into it.”
Conraads plans to write his dissertation about how the U.S. Department of Defense (D.O.D.) sought to psychologically prepare soldiers to share the battlefield with tactical nuclear weapons.
"The Truman and Eisenhower administrations had a dark theory of mutually assured destruction," Conraads detailed. "Part of what I want to do is reconstruct what tactical nuclear warfare would have looked like, because if some of the more vocal leaders in the D.O.D. had gotten their wishes, they would have been dropping nuclear weapons up to half the size used on Hiroshima, which would have shaped the world we live in today in a completely different manner."
During this time, military testing programs of tactical nuclear weapons failed to consider the health risks associated with radioactive fallout, including placing soldiers in trenches 10 kilometers or less from detonation sites and having them conduct simulated warfare drills nearby where the bomb was detonated .
"There's this tremendous irony,” Conraads explained, “that In the effort to protect Americans by building the bombs, all the government actually did was cause more harm to its own citizens than it ever did to the Soviet Union.”
The focus of his degree and the research done on nuclear weapons development and testing has paid early dividends for Conraads, as he was hired as an intern with the Air Force Research Lab to help construct a history of the Air Force’s involvement with nuclear weapons development and testing. He is excited for this opportunity, describing it as “an opportunity to serve in some small way while also exploring some zany concepts like a nuclear-powered airplane.”