Protecting the United States through the National Missile Defense Program

The North Atlantic Treaty was written to form an alliance between the anticommunist Western European and North American nations. When it was written, in 1949, the twelve nations that would initially make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, all came to the agreement that if any one of the member countries were attacked, such attack would be taken as an offense to all of the member countries, and a counter assault would certainly take place (North Atlantic Treaty). Because NATO was a defense organization, being prepared to fight back in the event of an attack from the Soviet Union embodied one of its most important requirements. Therefore, much consideration and money went into assembling an array of potent nuclear weapons that could overwhelm the Soviets and inhibit them from triggering a nuclear war (North Atlantic Treaty Organization 4). The main purpose of this protective alliance was to contain communism and thus to prevent it from spreading around

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

Ronald Reagan expresses his views by saying, “For the first time in history, the language of ‘arms control’ was replaced by ‘arms reduction’”. President Reagan goes on to declare that the complete elimination of nuclear missiles took conventional wisdom, patience, determination, and commitment. Reagan was thankful for the treaty, and he believed that this treaty would create a working relationship between the Soviets and the United States. He wanted this relationship to take on other urgent issues such as, strategic offensive nuclear weapons, the balance of conventional forces in Europe, the destructive regional conflicts of the world, and the respect for the human and natural rights granted by God to all people. Similarly, General Secretary Gorbachev’s opinion of the treaty was equivalent to Reagan’s. He claimed, “We can be proud of planting this sapling, which may one day grow into a tree of peace.” Gorbachev felt that this treaty was the birth of a relationship between the US and Soviet Union. He thought that they had reached a breakthrough in the Cold War. The General Secretary also states, “...move together toward a nuclear-free world, which holds out for our children and grandchildren and for their children and grandchildren the promise of a fulfilling and

Since the invention of nuclear weapons, they have presented the world with a significant danger, one that was shown in reality during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, nuclear weapons have not only served in combat, but they have also played a role in keeping the world peaceful by the concept of deterrence. The usage of nuclear weapons would lead to mutual destruction and during the Cold War, nuclear weapons were necessary to maintain international security, as a means of deterrence. However, by the end of the Cold War, reliance on nuclear weapons for maintaining peace became increasingly difficult and less effective (Shultz, et. al, 2007). The development of technology has also provided increasing opportunities for states

The two superpowers in the world, the United States and Soviet Union, had begun to show their strengths immediately after war. Following the war, they got involved in events such as the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War in an attempt to prove who was stronger. After those events the two countries participated in an arms race, a contest in which they competed to see who was to build more powerful weapons. As this race turned into a more serious situation, and Americans started to realize that the United States wasn’t the only one with powerful weapons, fear united them once again. As shown in Document 3, the dominant problem throughout the years 1953-1962 was the threat of war.

The fears of the American people regarding the Cold War in the aftermath of the second World War were numerous and strong, growing in power as Americans began to fear not only the looming threat posed by the Soviet Union but also potential communist activity within the United States itself. The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully recognized and addressed a number of these fears, passing legislation which improved domestic and international defence capabilities and creating an atmosphere of relative comfort and prosperity within the nation itself. However, despite the efforts of the Eisenhower administration, a strong sense of fear pervaded much of the United States as the Cold War escalated into a greater, more critical

The various miore events of invasion and prevention of expansion had sharpen the Cold War to become what it was. The various events in question mostly involved the United States and Russia arguing over territory. Although these events influenced the outcome the Cold War, undoubtedly the formation of the Soviet sphere, the Truman Doctrine, and the attack on Afghanistan prolonged tensions during the Cold War. During the span of a few years, the demand and production of nuclear arms was increased significantly.

“The Evil Empire” — that is what, at the height of the arms race, United States President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union (Rudolph 1). Unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union was similarly upset at the United States. This anger is what fueled the arms race. During the Cold War, due to fears of nuclear attack, the US and Soviet Union designed and deployed thousands of nuclear warheads, each hoping to deter the other from nuclear launch with threat of counter attack (O’Neal 1). This massive arms buildup, however, had many negative effects on the US. To recognize the impact that the arms race continues to have on today, it is crucial to understand not only its causes, but also its immediate impacts on the US economy, society, foreign

When the National Security Council Report 68, better known, as NSC was first made known in Washington, policy makers thought that the evident build-up of Soviet nuclear arsenal would severely counteract America’s eminent nuclear edge, and would, in theory, weaken the country’s plain superiority in economic power. Truman’s advisors were particularly worried about the fact that the danger of mutual destruction would never dissuade the Soviet Union from launching pre-emptive attacks against American positions in Europe and the Pacific. If in fact the Soviets refrained from attacking American military installations in Europe and elsewhere, the only rational option that the Soviets might take would be to reposition its conventional forces in Europe

After the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers and subsequently a period of tension and hostility arose, known as the Cold War. During this time, a new possibility of complete nuclear destruction that would claim the lives of many emerged, therefore “the easing or relaxing of tensions” on both sides was needed, this period would be known as detente. Both countries had been guaranteed mutually assured destruction as they had both managed to stay ahead in the development of nuclear arsenals. By the late 1960s the Soviets had surpassed the United States in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) by 1,300 to 1,054. Although the U.S was still

The event of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Fifteen years into the cold war, the two superpowers continued the fierce competition to increase their military strength. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, whereas the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba which would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union. The fate of millions

Today, we have in place multiple systems that do the job that Ronald Reagan dreamed about- the two most important being the Patriot Missile Defense system, and the Defense Support Program. The Patriot Missile defense system is a short-range, mobile missile defense system that has been used in the military for quite some time now. It is carried around on the back of a military vehicle, and can detect missiles from 50 miles out (that seems like a very long distance, but most missiles travel at around 1 mile per second), and shoot them down before they get near wherever the vehicle is stationed and trying to protect. Such missile defense systems have been leased to allies, and even used in recent wars in the Middle

Next, America uses missile defence systems to protect us from nuclear attacks. These systems include orbital satellites, naval ships, and platform systems. Platform systems or THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) is a defence system that keeps ICBM

During the 1950s the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union saw both nations to developing massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Technological advancements increased the destructive technology and range of these weapons, and each new breakthrough was met with anxiety from the other side, as each nation sought to attain and hold a strategic advantage over the other. It was a costly and dangerous game. Still, during this time, Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower had managed to take definite and deliberate, though tentative and politically risky, steps towards relaxing tensions and slowing the arms race. These steps culminated in Khrushchev’s visit to the US in 1959, an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union,

In 1945, a great technological innovation was dropped over Japan, the atomic bomb. Ever since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world has faced the threat of nuclear attack. In reaction to this, world governments have been forced to find a defense against nuclear attack. One solution to the danger of nuclear attack is the use of nuclear deterrence. Nuclear deterrence is the possession and launching of nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of defense and retaliation against a nuclear attack from another country. Nuclear deterrence is the best answer to the danger of nuclear war, resulting in world security and the prevention of nuclear war. However, some people believe