Cold War Arms Race

The cold war started in 1945 and ended in 1989. It was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. This war took place right after WWII and it is called the cold war because there were no real battles such as with tanks and bombs.

The Cold War started between the time span of 1945 to 1949 (1). There was no exact date of in starting because the war was fought with no battle causticities. The war was a conflict over how Germany and other parts of Europe should be run after World War two. The tension was between the western BLOC nations and the Eastern BOC nations (1). The United States was the leader of the Western BLOC nations along with the NATO nations and

By 1962, the Soviet Union was considerably behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union had limited range missiles that were only capable of being launched against Europe, but the United States possessed missiles that were capable of striking anywhere within the entire Soviet Union. As it is often said, when it comes to national security, leaders sometimes make irrational decisions. In an effort to restore the balance of power Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev devised the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba (14 days in October). This deployment of weapons in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a credible deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the

President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.

Both, the United States and the Soviet Union, developed a capability to launch a devastating attacks through submarines even after sustaining a full attack from their opponents. This policy became known as Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) both the United States and the Soviet Union knew that an attack upon the other would be catastrophic to themselves in theory restraining themselves from attacking the other. The risks brought by the use of these weapons was so horrible that they refrained from using their nuclear weapons. Both sides did not know capacity of the enemy's arsenal being an arms race in wish the country with the biggest gun or largest arsenal is the victor not knowing the exact capabilities of your adversary led to a massive production

The Cold War was the ideological conflict between the two superpowers of the world, the democratic United States of America and the communist Soviet Union. For over fifty years the two superpowers fought each other indirectly for power and control of the world. The Cold War started after the end of the Second World War in 1945 when the eyes of both superpowers were no longer looking at Nazi Germany, but instead at each other and the fate of the rest of the world. The Cold War began after the Second World War had ended, although tensions between the two new superpowers, United States and Soviet Union, had been lasting since 1917 with the start of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. With the start of the Second World War, tensions were put

In 1954 the Soviet Union made the first ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile). The other development was the atomic bomb. On 6 August 1945 one exploded over Hiroshima. On 9 august another exploded over Nagasaki. Each killed tens of thousands of people. The Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb in 1949.

Nuclear deterrence was a key component of American security during the Cold War. The nuclear stockpiles accumulated by the United States and Soviet Union throughout this time period produced a situation of mutual deterrence. The catastrophic risks of a nuclear strike kept the countries from all-out war. In the aftermath of the Cold War, both the U.S. and Soviet Union took steps to reduce their nuclear arsenal, first in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty (INF) then with START I (Pifer, Bush, et al, p. 8, 2010). New START, like its predecessors continues the bipartisan process of reducing U.S. and Russian strategic arms. In doing so, the Treaty presents several key benefits to U.S. national security.

The development of nuclear weapons helped to end World War II, but in turn created their own war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The development of modified military missiles such as the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM, by Americans and the Soviets, had an impact on the struggle of power of the Cold War. The importance of military involvement in the creation of modified missiles and engines were critical events of the Cold War. Additionally, the steps taken to get to space were a byproduct of this Arms Race and the Cold War. Because the United States and the Soviet Union feared what the other country would or could do with weapons of mass destruction and the thought of the opposing country being able to control

The German V-2 rocket marks the beginning of the ICBM. One benefit that was taken advantage of was that it could reach almost any target; at the time, there was no defense against the missile once it was launched. The cruise missile was heavily favored and funded for years World War II. This fact is one of many that slowed the advancement of the ICBM system. The lack of funding slowed the testing and development of the ICBM. The Atlas Missile Program began in 1951, due to the unreliability of the cruise

Due to the fear of being attacked by multiple atomic bombs, Stalin backed down. In defense, he started the development and research of the atomic bomb. Later on this would catch the attention of the U.S.

The Soviet ICBM warning system came later than our own and was different in a way they thought would prevent false alarms. We had DTS satellites that scanned the whole planet's surface for launches. The Soviet system focused on just the mainland US's launch sites. Their satellite scanned the edge of earth’s atmosphere, where a missile would easily show up against the vast, empty blackness of space. This would reduce natural phenomena being mistaken for launches. Pretty fresh thinking—and to keep the planet safe as possible. Except their system was buggier than ours.

These missiles were a critical product of the Cold War itself. Following the introduction of the IBM’s, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles coined the policy known as “Massive retaliation” , dictating that any major Soviet attack would be met with a massive nuclear response. Inspired by fear and skeptical assumptions of what the Soviet Union could do, this policy in turn acted as an empty unneeded form of retaliation, attempting to discourage any possible Soviet Union capitalization. But, after all these threats, Dulles acts upon this assumption declaring that “the United States will protect its allies through the “deterrent of massive retaliatory power.” The policy announcement was further evidence of the Eisenhower administration’s decision to rely heavily on the nation’s nuclear arsenal as the primary means of defense against communist aggression,” (“Dulles Announces Policy of “massive Retaliation”). Later, in the 1960’s, the strategic doctrine known as “Mutually Assured Destruction” was developed as a scapegoat in case Russia ever gained superiority over the United States. Declaring that “if Russia attacked the west, the west would make sure that they would suitably retaliate,” (Trueman).This doctrine was declared under the knowledge that “the nuclear firepower of both the US and USSR was capable of utterly

Until the 1950s, the discussion of strategic nuclear policy was embryonic at best, and many strategic developments went largely unrecognized. The post second world war era started with a US monopoly on nuclear weapons, however the Soviets soon broke this and both sides developed hydrogen bombs in the early 1950s. In the early 1950s, the US followed the policy of massive retaliation. However, by the late 1950s, with the advent of the modern missile based on V-2 technology from the end of WWII and further dramatized by the Soviet launching of sputnik in 1957, the US was forced to reconsider its nuclear doctrine. One school of thought believed that a delicate balance had to be struck with the Soviets. The US soon formulated the policy of

     The new missile defense program started in 1993 after the Department of Defense decided to conduct a review that would "select the strategy, force structure, and modernization programs for America's defense in the post-Cold War era." When the U. S. S. R. broke apart, it was decided that there was not much of a threat from China or the former Soviet Union. However, it was uncertain how easy it would be for a third world country to come into possession of long range missiles. In response to their uncertainty, the Defense Department built the National Missile Defense in order to develop and keep the ability to launch a missile defense if a threat emerged (National missile defense, 2000).