the arms race meant that once the united states built hydrogen bombs, the soviet union built them too. world peace had been assured. no other country wanted to build them. a new world war was about to start.
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get the arms race meant that once the united states built hydrogen bombs, the soviet union built them too. world peace had been assured. no other country wanted to build them. a new world war was about to start. from EN Bilgi.
Atomic fears and the arms race (article)
Read about the impact of nuclear proliferation in the 1950s, including fears of atomic bombs and increasing militarization.
Overview
The US government's decision to develop a hydrogen bomb, first tested in 1952, committed the United States to an ever-escalating arms race with the Soviet Union. The arms race led many Americans to fear that nuclear war could happen at any time, and the US government urged citizens to prepare to survive an atomic bomb.
In 1950, the US National Security Council released NSC-68, a secret policy paper that called for quadrupling defense spending in order to meet the perceived Soviet threat. NSC-68 would define US defense strategy throughout the Cold War.
President Eisenhower attempted to cut defense spending by investing in a system of "massive retaliation," hoping that the prospect of "mutually-assured destruction" from a large nuclear arsenal would deter potential aggressors.
The Doomsday Clock and the H-bomb
Shortly after the US dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, the scientists who had developed the bomb formed the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization dedicated to alerting the world to the dangers of nuclear weaponry. Early contributors included J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project, and Albert Einstein, who dedicated the final years of his life to promoting nuclear disarmament. In 1947, they printed their first magazine, placing on its cover what would become an iconic symbol of the nuclear age: the Doomsday Clock. The clock purported to show how close humanity was to nuclear annihilation, or "midnight." When the clock first appeared, the scientists predicted that humankind was a mere seven minutes to midnight.
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Image of the cover of the June 1947 "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," showing an abstract rendering of a clock face, with the minute hand at 11:53pm.
Cover of the first issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with its rendering of the 'Doomsday Clock' at seven minutes to midnight. Image credit: Wikimedia CommonsBut by 1953, the scientists had revised their estimate to just two minutes to midnight. Their reason for this panicked prognosis was the United States' decision to develop and test a hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, a nuclear weapon one thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that had leveled Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Although scientists and some government officials argued against it, US officials ultimately reasoned that it would be imprudent for them not to develop any weapon that the Soviet Union might possess.
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The development of the H-bomb committed the United States to an arms race with the Soviet Union. Despite the specter of nuclear holocaust, both the United States and the Soviet Union vied to build ever more powerful nuclear weapons.
NSC-68
The development of the H-bomb was just one part of the US project to increase its military might in this period. In 1950, the newly-created National Security Council issued a report on the current state of world affairs and the steps the United States should take to confront the perceived crisis.
Their report, "United States Objectives and Programs for National Security," or NSC-68, cast the tension between the United States and Soviet Union as an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. "The issues that face us are momentous, involving the fulfillment or destruction not only of this Republic but of civilization itself," the report began. It went on to assert that the ultimate goal of the Soviet Union was "the complete subversion or forcible destruction of the machinery of government and structure of society in the countries of the non-Soviet world and their replacement by an apparatus and structure subservient to and controlled from the Kremlin."
[Read an excerpt from NSC-68]
The report concluded by recommending that the United States vastly increase its investment in national security, quadrupling its annual defense spending to $50 billion per year. Although this proposal seemed both expensive and impractical, the US entry into the Korean War just two months later put NSC-68's plans in motion.
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NSC-68 became the cornerstone of US national security policy during the Cold War, but it was a flawed document in many ways. For one thing, it assumed two "worst-case" scenarios: that the Soviet Union had both the capacity and the desire to take over the world—neither of which was necessarily true.
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Atomic fears
With both the United States and Soviet Union stockpiling nuclear weapons, fears of nuclear warfare pervaded American society and culture in the 1950s. Schools began issuing dog tags to students so that their families could identify their bodies in the event of an attack. The US government provided instructions for building and equipping bomb shelters in basements or backyards, and some cities constructed municipal shelters. Nuclear bomb drills became a routine part of disaster preparedness.
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The civil defense film Duck and Cover, first screened in 1952, sought to help schoolchildren protect themselves from injury during a nuclear attack by instructing them to find shelter and cover themselves to prevent burns. Though "ducking and covering" hardly would have helped to prevent serious injury in a real atomic bombing, these rehearsals for disaster gave American citizens an illusion of control in the face of atomic warfare.
Cold War at its Height Flashcards
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Vietnam was united, while Korea remained divided.
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In which way did the Vietnam War and the Korean War end differently?
The war in Korea ended with little bloodshed, in contrast with Vietnam.
Vietnam was united, while Korea remained divided.
Korea became Communist, while Vietnam became non-Communist.
Vietnam remained divided, while Korea was united.
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Cuba
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The closest the world came to war during the Cold War was when the Soviet Union placed missiles on the Caribbean island of __________.
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1/12 Created by htam88
Terms in this set (12)
Vietnam was united, while Korea remained divided.
In which way did the Vietnam War and the Korean War end differently?
The war in Korea ended with little bloodshed, in contrast with Vietnam.
Vietnam was united, while Korea remained divided.
Korea became Communist, while Vietnam became non-Communist.
Vietnam remained divided, while Korea was united.
Cuba
The closest the world came to war during the Cold War was when the Soviet Union placed missiles on the Caribbean island of __________.
It dropped by approximately $30,000 million.
The line graph shows US defense spending from 1946 to 1968. (sorry, no graph).
What happened to US defense spending from 1946 to 1948?
It dropped by approximately $40,000 million.
It dropped by approximately $30,000 million.
It stayed about the same.
It went up by about $30,000 million.
domino theory
What was the name of the theory that said that if one country in a region fell to Communism, others would surely follow?
domino theory arms race brinkmanship containment theory
the Soviet Union built them too.
The arms race meant that once the United States built hydrogen bombs,
the Soviet Union built them too.
world peace had been assured.
no other country wanted to build them.
a new world war was about to start.
divided country.
The map shows Korea after World War II.
The map makes it clear that after World War II, Korea was a
part of China. divided country. part of Japan. unified country.
loss of millions of lives, greater US concern about the spread of Communism, tension between North Korea and the United States
Which of the following were results of the Korean War? Select all that apply.
loss of millions of lives
easing of tensions in region
greater US concern about the spread of Communism
end of communism in Korea
unification of Korean peninsula
tension between North Korea and the United States
Both Vietnam and Korea were divided into a Communist North and a non-Communist South.
In what way did the political situation in Vietnam resemble that of Korea in the 1950s?
Both Vietnam and Korea were allied with the United States but then shifted allegiance to the Soviet Union.
Both Vietnam and Korea were unified, Communist countries who then voted to become democracies.
Both Vietnam and Korea were divided and suffered when the South invaded the North.
Both Vietnam and Korea were divided into a Communist North and a non-Communist South.
unify the South and North under a Communist government.
The Vietcong were rebels in South Vietnam who wanted to
rid both North and South Vietnam of Communist influence.
spread the Catholic religion throughout Vietnam.
overthrow the Communists who controlled the country.
unify the South and North under a Communist government.
Communist North attacked the non-Communist South.
The Korean War began in 1950 when the
Soviet Union attacked South Korea.
United Nations invaded North Korea.
Communist North attacked the non-Communist South.
people of Korea rose up against the Japanese.
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Arms Race
An arms race, such as the U.S.-Soviet Cold War nuclear arms race, occurs when countries increase their military forces to gain superiority over one another.
Arms Race
Author: History.com Editors Publish date: Dec 2, 2019
An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is perhaps the largest and most expensive arms race in history; however, others have occurred, often with dire consequences. Whether an arms race increases or decreases the risk of war remains debatable: some analysts agree with Sir Edward Grey, Britain's foreign secretary at the start of World War I, who stated "The moral is obvious; it is that great armaments lead inevitably to war."
Dreadnought Arms Race
With the Industrial Revolution came new weaponry, including vastly improved warships. In the late nineteenth century, France and Russia built powerful armies and challenged the spread of British colonialism. In response, Britain shored up its Royal Navy to control the seas.
Britain managed to work out its arms race with France and Russia with two separate treaties. But Germany had also drastically increased its military budget and might and built a large navy to contest Britain’s naval dominance in hopes of becoming a world power.
In turn, Britain further expanded the Royal Navy and built more advanced and powerful battlecruisers, including the 1906 HMS Dreadnought, a technically advanced type of warship that set the standard for naval architecture.
Not to be outdone, Germany produced its own fleet of dreadnought class warships, and the standoff continued with both sides fearing a naval attack from the other and building bigger and better ships.
Germany couldn’t keep up, however, and Britain won the so-called Anglo-German Arms Race. The conflict didn’t cause World War I, but it did help to increase distrust and tensions between Germany, Britain and other European powers.
Arms Control Efforts Fail
After World War I, many countries showed an interest in arms control. President Woodrow Wilson led the way by making it a key point in his famous 1918 Fourteen Points speech, wherein he laid out his vision for postwar peace.
At the Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922), the United States, Britain and Japan signed a treaty to restrict arms, but in the mid-1930s Japan chose not to renew the agreement. Moreover, Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles and began to rearm.
This started a new arms race in Europe between Germany, France and Britain — and in the Pacific between Japan and the United States — which continued into World War II.
Nuclear Arms Race
Though the United States and the Soviet Union were tentative allies during World War II, their alliance soured after Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.
The United States cast a wary eye over the Soviet Union’s quest for world dominance as they expanded their power and influence over Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union resented the United States’ geopolitical interference and America’s own arms buildup.
Further fueling the flame of distrust, the United States didn’t tell the Soviet Union they planned to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, although they had told them they had created the bomb.
To help discourage Soviet communist expansion, the United States built more atomic weaponry. But in 1949, the Soviets tested their own atomic bomb, and the Cold War nuclear arms race was on.
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The United States responded in 1952 by testing the highly destructive hydrogen “superbomb,” and the Soviet Union followed suit in 1953. Four years later, both countries tested their first intercontinental ballistic missiles and the arms race rose to a terrifying new level.
Cold War Arms Race Heads to Space
The Soviet’s launch of the first Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957, stunned and concerned the United States and the rest of the world, as it took the Cold War arms race soon became the Space Race.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower tried to tone down the rhetoric over the success of the launch, while he streamed federal funds into the United States’ space program to prevent being left behind.
After a series of mishaps and failures, the United States successfully launched its first satellite into space on January 31, 1958, and the Space Race continued as both countries researched new technology to create more powerful weapons.
Missile Gap
Throughout the 1950s, the United States became convinced that the Soviet Union had better missile capability that, if launched, could not be defended against. This theory, known as the Missile Gap, was eventually disproved by the CIA but not before causing grave concern to U.S. officials.
Many politicians used the Missile Gap as a talking point in the 1960 presidential election. Yet, in fact, U.S. missile power was superior to that of the Soviet Union at the time. Over the next three decades, however, both countries grew their arsenals to well over 10,000 warheads.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cold War arms race came to a tipping point in 1962 after the John F. Kennedy administration’s failed attempt to overthrow Cuba’s premier Fidel Castro, and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev implemented a secret agreement to place Soviet warheads in Cuba to deter future coup attempts.
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