Relations Between The United States And The Soviet Union

The tension between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War allowed for both nations to exhibit questionable actions around the globe. The Iran-Contra Affair was one event that occurred under Reagan’s Administration that exemplified the trans-national impacts the Cold War was having around the world. The Affair is a combination of the United States’ actions within the countries of Nicaragua and Iran. However, the United States’ involvements were both ethically questionable as well as the motives of the Cold War. Although the actions in Nicaragua and Iran were separate actions, they showed how the government was involved in questionable activity around the globe while in the full-swing of the Cold War. The Iran Contra

When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.

The dropping of the atomic bomb was the first of many nuclear projects. The first project was called the Manhattan project. Three bombs were created, one was a test, and the two others were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities in Japan. These bombs created mass destruction for the two cities; buildings were obliterated, fires erupted, and radiation spread for miles. After foreign countries saw what the United States was capable of, countries all around the world started to develop their own nuclear weapons, creating a surplus of weapons of mass destruction. “Today, eight countries in the world have nuclear arsenals (weapon supplies). The United States and Russia (formerly part of the Soviet Union) have most of the world’s nuclear weapons. Other countries with nuclear arms include China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom” (Kroenig). Following World War Two, the Soviet Union and the United States were leaders of nuclear weapons. This period was called the Cold War. Forty-five years of potential nuclear destruction loomed over the Soviets and Americans. It wasn’t until after the Cold War that diplomats created the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, or NPT for short, recognizes the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom as nuclear weapon states. Nearly every country in the world is a member of the treaty, even if they do not possess nuclear weapons, by law they state that they are a nonnuclear

From the years of 1941 to 1949, there was an increase in suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a Communist country ruled by a dictator while America was a capitalist democracy that valued freedom. Their completely different beliefs and aims caused friction to form between them, which contributed to the creation of the Cold War.

Although the Soviet Union and the United States fought together during World War II against the Axis Powers, the relationship between the two grew bitter going into the 1950’s Cold War. The Cold War left a dominant impact on the U.S. and American living throughout the 20th century. The fall out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created various issues that United States dealt with (Suddath). The United States was a capitalistic country, while the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, was lead by a strong communist influence. The expansion of Soviets into Eastern Europe fueled most of the fear the U.S. had of Russia, that they would attempt to influence many more countries.

The Nuclear Arms race was part of the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R taking place between 1949 and 1991. The race officially started on August 29, 1949 when the Soviets successfully tested their first atomic bomb which scared the U.S. Previously only the U.S. had access to the technology capable of creating an atomic bomb which was conceived during the Second World War as part of the Manhattan Project. Now with U.S.S.R. gaining nuclear technology, the monopoly the U.S had on it was gone.

The Cold War was the name given to the time period from 1945 to 1991. After World War II, tensions began between the United States and the Soviet Union. Fighting between the United States and Soviet Union did not happen directly against each other. Instead they fought with arms races, space races, and spying. Both superpowers set aside their differences to defeat Adolf Hitler, even before the war the United States distrusted the Soviet Union. The United States disliked the way the Soviet Union ran government. They believed that the Soviet Union wanted to overthrow the non-communist governments.

This is why many historians agree that this was the beginning of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Each side of the “Iron Curtain” had opposing views on the other side, and there was no mutual reason for peace anymore after the war ended. After a number of smaller conflicts began to accumulate, each side felt that they needed to prepare for a nuclear war, and each side began churning out more and more destructive nuclear weapons (Race for the Superbomb). Later, the build up of these weapons would lead to the Cold War, but at that time, the arms race between the two rival countries was just

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

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union each constructed a supply of nuclear weapons. Soviet policy rested on the principle that a nuclear war could be fought and won. The United States embraced nuclear deterrence, the reliable threat of reprisal to prevent enemy attack. To make its threat substantial, the United States during the 1950s established and positioned several types of delivery structures for attacking the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. Each one of these systems came to be known as the Strategic Triad. One part of the triad was a long range manned bomber that would deliver the nuclear warhead. The second would be land based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s). The third part of this triad was nuclear

After the Second World War, United States and the Soviet Union entered into a Cold War that lasted more the 40 years because both sides had Atomic Weapons that were aimed at each other with each side fearing and dreading what a Hot War would cause if Atomic Weapons were used.

This train of thought and action (the continued stockpiling of bombs by the USSR and also the United States) created Soviet atomic capabilities which then in turn had obvious military implications for the security of the United States.

One of the primary contributing factors in the evolution of fear and anxiety that ledd to and sustained the Cold War was the development of military technology. The dropping of the initial atomic bombs in japan, a closely guarded secret at the time, led to fear among the Russian and American citizens. The Russians anxiety was more severe than the Americans as they feared that Russia was the next ideological enemy of the United States and could be the next one to be bombed. The Americans fear was rooted in the fact that such destructive technology even existed; it was shocking that this power could be possessed and it was very probable that it could be used by the other nations against them. Although, the bombs true power was in its psychological value not its explosive force. This fear led to tension between the countries, the sense that no one knew who would attack first and if one country attacked it would lead to nuclear winter.(Caldwell 21) The development of the nuclear bomb was a dangerous item of fear for the U.S. and almost worked as a tool of brinksmanship. The American citizens believed that they had at least a 20 year advantage over the Soviets until, in 1949, the Soviets dropped their first bomb. The shock that the Russians were so close behind the Americans led to the United States’ development of the hydrogen bomb.(Bialer 43) After the initial development of nuclear bombs, the U.S. felt the need to strive towards ever greater destructive power. The ensuing

One of the many reasons for the Cold War was the increase in development of different sorts of weapons. The first of which being nuclear weapons, which in effect started the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. David Holloway introduces this topic by first bring up the large amount of controversy surrounding the nuclear weapons being developed even during the Cold War itself. With the destruction that had been seen at the end of WWII that had come from these weapons this was bound to happen. Although neither side stopped developing these types of weapons, and out of this came the hydrogen bomb.

Because of threats from each nation and chances of spies, the militaries had to build up defenses. Both sides sent spies to see what the other’s progress was. The spies also tried to steal plans and blueprints to have in their program. The nuclear arms race also advanced technology of each nation. The United States and the Soviet Union gained technology to provide nuclear energy. They also gained technology to put nuclear generators in submarines that would make it possible for a submarine to stay at sea for months. Of course, they also gained atomic weaponry that can annihilate a whole city. (Fuller,