Nuclear Arms Race-Competition between the US and Soviet Union. During the Cold War. More weapons=more power. US and Soviet Union heavily built up stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Other countries developed bombs as well. Didn't produce near as many as us.World War 2-Manhattan Project creatd first nuclear weapon .Soviet Union was not informed until Potsdam Coference on July 24, 1945. Americans distruted the soviets. Klaus Fuchs--German scientist/ atomic spy at Los Alamos. Told Stalin about the bombs.-Cold War-Soviets began working on weapons too. Americans predicted USSRs weapons woul not be ready until mid 1950's. First Soviet bomb dropped on August 29, 1949 known as "Joe One".-ICBM-intercontinental ballistic missiles or rockets. Most important development in terms of delivery. MIssles were thought to be more effective than strategic bombers. Also cheaper, faster and more difficult to destroy. Biggest problem was accuacy.Muteman took over an hour to prepare.Space Race-1957 October 4. Soviet Union launched their first missile/ sattellite called the Sputnik. Space Race showed that ICBMs were not only for sciece but also for exploration.Polaris-US developed Polaris submarience. Could carry 16 nuclear missles. The accuracy increased, and they could move closer to the USSR.Defense. 1950's saw first attemps to defend agains nuclear weapons. The US and Russia built large radar systems to detect bombers and missles.-Massive Retaliation/ Mutual Deterrence-if an attack from an aggressor nation would occur, the attacked country would massiely retaliate by using force greater than the size of the attack. The aim was to deter that country from attack ing in the first place.-Cuban Missile crisis- considered the closest the world has ever came to nuclear war Cuba was on the edge of using their nuclear weapons if ayone were to invade. Started because the US and Soviet Russia were in the Cold War. The USSR was way behind the us in the arms race. Cuba was already expecting an invasion from the us. Fidel Castro thought that a follow up to the Bay of Pigs invasion. The plan was contrued by Nikita Krushcev he felt it was the only way to catch up to the US in the unuclear arms race.The actual "crisis" began on October 15th 1962 when the us reconnaissance phtos expulged that the USSR missles were under contruction in Cuba. When JFK found out he hastily formed the EX-COMM.JFK stated that any missiles launched from Cuba would still be considered an attack from the USSR, and all weapons must be removed from the island.JFK and Khruschev would communicate by writing letters. In the meantime, soldiers would be on their toes.Culmination of the Cuban Missile Crisis was when a U2 recon plane was shot down over cuba. The first letter was from Khruschev to Kennedy stating that he'd remove all personnel and weapons from Cuba, provided the US guarantee not to invade Cuba. Second was another proposition from the USSR, saying that they'll assure to leave Cuba, as long as the US removes its missiles from Turkey. The Attorney General, Robert Kennady cleverly suggested that US ignore the second letter and agree to the first. All tensions began to disappear, when both agreed to the terms. That same day, the US demanded that Soviet light bombers were also to leave Cuba.
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