Arms and Space Race

Nuclear Technology

• Allied scientists conduct research, code named the Manhattan Project, and successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in July 1945.

• August 6 1945—Hiroshima is bombed.

  • Flattened 4 square miles and killed 70,000 instantly.

  • Many more would die from radiation sickness.

• August 8 1945—Nagasaki is bombed.

  • 40,000 killed in explosion.

• Reasoning behind the bombings:

  • Save American lives and quick end to the war

US Program Post WWII

• Destruction in Japan had been worse than expected, especially radiation sickness afterwards.

  • Death toll: Hiroshima-135,000 Nagasaki-50,000.

  • Radiation’s effects and devastation in the aftermath were ignored and censored.

• “An evaluation of the atom bomb as a military
  weapon”.

  • Report, written by generals, to the Joint Chiefs.

  • Dangerous nature of the weapon.

  • Reluctance to use it in the future.

  • However, with the Soviet Union producing their own weapon the program could not be abandoned.

• Effects were covered up by government.

The Arms Race

• 1949—The Soviet Union develops nuclear weapons.

• 1953—both sides develop hydrogen bombs that were more destructive than atomic bombs.

• Nuclear weapons could destroy both sides, but each side wanted to be able to deter the other from launching its nuclear weapons.

• A race to match each other’s new weapons.

The Arms Race: Mutually Assured Destruction
(MAD)

• Each side knew that the other side would itself be destroyed if it launched nuclear weapons.

• This ended up discouraging nuclear war.

• People lived in constant fear of a nuclear attack.

  • Bomb shelters.

The Cold War Takes to the Skies

• The Space Race was initially dominated by the Soviets.

• On October 4, 1957, they launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite.

  • Sputnik traveled around earth at 18,000 miles an hour, circling the globe every 96 minutes.

• 1969—The US Apollo program landed the first man on the moon.

• Both superpowers explored the military uses of space and set up spy satellites

U-2 Planes Spy on Soviets

• In the late 1950s, the CIA began secret high- altitude spy missions over Soviet territory.

• The U-2’s infra-red cameras took detailed pictures of Soviet troop movements & missile sites.

U-2 Spy Plane Shot Down Over USSR

• On May 1, 1960, Gary Power’s U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory.

• Powers parachuted into Soviet territory, was captured and sentenced to 10-years in prison.

• Because of this incident, the 1960s opened with tension between the two superpowers as great as ever.

• Powers was released in 1962 in exchange for convicted Soviet spy Rudolph Abel.

Nuclear Weapons Spread

• 1962—Cuban Missile Crisis brings US and USSR to brink of nuclear war.

  • Helps usher in a period of Détente: diplomatic means rather than military (relaxed tension).

  • Ended 1979.

• Late 1960’s—Britain, France, and China had
  developed nuclear weapons.

• 1968—nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreeing not to develop nuclear weapons or to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Limited Nuclear Testing

• 1969—US and USSR began Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).

  • Goal: limit # of nuclear weapons on each side.

  • Agreements signed in 1972 and 1979 setting limits.

• Anti-Ballistic Missiles limited by SALT.

  • Thought that protection might encourage the
    protected side to attack.

• Both sides signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991.