Nuclear Arms Race
Manhattan Project
Fear of Germany in early 30s
Led by Leslie R. Groves
1942-1946
Potsdam Conference
Stalin first found out
Inside info from Atomic Spies (Klaus Fuchs and Theodore Hall)
Joseph Stalin knew about nuclear arms before President Tuman knew about them, thats how secret weapons were
Soviet Struggkes
Lack of Uranium
First Soviet bomb August 29, 1948
"Joe One"
US detonated first hydrogen comc in November 1952
Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM's)
Larger radars ti detect missles
Klaus Fuchs
Atomic Spy
Pretty much replicated the "Fat Man"
Convicted in 1950
Massive Retaliation
"You have nuclear weapons and you use them against him and once you get attacked you attack back so people stop attacking because they know they'll just get attacked back" -- Mr. Bruns
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
They banned nuclear testing underground
It is questioned whether we actually won or not.
Events leading up to the end:
Space Race, Entering Afghanistan, Keeping up wit hthe US
Reagan knew if he waited, their funds would be gome.
ONly way it would end was if one or the other "Died"
Cuban Missle crisis- blow to their pride
Tried to keep US's nuclear arsenal
Was spending money on satellite nations.
1979- invaded Afghanistan
Spent alot of money to try and keep it under USSR authority
US secretly trained rebels to rally against the USSR/ Soviets
Afghanis defeated and the soviets withdrew in 1989
Leader- Mikhail Gorbachev
Started in a depression
Tried to keep up with the US defense spending
Tried to start a free market economy, like the US
The soviets werent able to sustain the rapid free- market change
The rapid changes caused additional problems
Results:
Berlin Wall
The city of Berlin divided by US and Russia
The wall became a symbol of the Cold War between Russia and America
in 1950 to 1960, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled
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