The Arms Race

1. The Arms Race Numerous people feared that the thoughts were the more nuclear weapons a country had the more power they had.

2. Background • The United States and Russia were the countries involved in the nuclear arms race • The main cause or start of the nuclear arms race was the bombings of the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. Thus, the USSR tried to equal the U.S in nuclear weapon power and this is how the nuclear arms race. Although Russia exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949 • Thus America and Russia began to build up their supply of nuclear weapons

3. Background (cont.) • The argumentation between the United States and the USSR began near the end of World War I. The Bolsheviks (later Communists) overthrew the existing Russian government led by Vladimir Lenin. • December 1922 was when the making of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was made under Communist control. The United States denied to identify the Soviet state until 1933.

4. H-Bombs • The United States produced and used its first H-Bombs in 1952 and this ultimately changed the world. • Russia produced its first H-Bomb in 1953 and later China exploded its first H-Bomb in 1967 • A hydrogen bomb or H-bomb is a weapon developing a large amount of its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes is what a hydrogen is and it was smaller in size than the city of Hiroshima but 2500 times as powerful.

5. The First H-Bomb Test • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNcQX033V_M

6. Bombers • The United States produced a bomber which could fly 6000 miles and it could deliver a nuclear pay-load which Russia could not afford to make so they could not top the United States in the bomber department. • Since Russia could not afford to create a bigger bomb they focused on creating bigger bombs which was more cost effective • This caused the Arms Race to escalate and become a battle between a delivery system battle as well

7. Delivery Systems • The United States went into a plane delivery system while the Soviets put their money into more of rocket delivery systems • By 1981, the United States had 4,000 planes capable of carrying nuclear weapons while Russia had 5,000 • At the end of the 1950’s American Intelligence had predicted that if there were an attack from the USSR that there would be twenty million deaths and twenty-two million injured people

8. Russia v. United States • Russia would focus on making more nuclear weapons but less of a quality value in the 1960’s • While the United States focused on making better quality nuclear weapons but it focused on making fewer • By the year of 1961 there were so many nuclear weapons between the two countries that they could have destroyed the world itself

9. ICBM’s • ICBM stands for Inter-continental ballistic missiles which are missiles that follow an airborne route and has the range to carry a nuclear bomb over 5,500 km • By the year of 1981 the United States had 8,000 Inter-continental ballistic missiles while Russia had 7,000

10. The Arms Race in Outer Space • http://www.history.com/videos/the-space-race#the-space-race

11. Nuclear Shelters • In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced a program to build nuclear shelters for protection in case of a nuclear war. • The Soviets became worried and were still trying to catch up with the United States in nuclear weapons • In this time pamphlets were passed out which described how to survive a nuclear war and Kennedy talked about starting a nuclear war

12. Nikita Khruschev • A person in which Soviet scientists advised that it would take several years to catch up to the U.S • There was a suggestion to the Soviet Union that they needed to make the United States vulnerable to a nuclear attack. Khrushchev became convinced that if the United States knew they would suffer badly in a nuclear war, they would not start such a war.

13. The Bay of Pigs

14. Russia produce in the 50’s • In the 1950’s Russia had produced medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and these were made in order to support troops just in case of war • If they were to be able to unleash these powerful weapons on the United States they would need to have a nuclear base in the US but they had no allies in the US so this was not possible

15. Late 70’s and Early 80’s • The early 1980s was a ending period of resistance between the United States and the Russia which resulted mostly from the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 which made a Communist government. In 1983 Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative nicknamed Star Wars, and this was envisioned as a satellite-based nuclear protection system which would have destroyed any incoming missiles and weapons in space.

16. The Arms Race Resolutions • In December 1987 the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the U.S. President Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces and thus this destroyed the whole intermediate range nuclear missile class which allowed the world to be a safer place • In July 1991 the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Act which ended the Arms Race.

17. Bibliography • Simkin, J.. "Nuclear Arms Race." Nuclear arms race. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd, n.d. Web. 29 Apr 2012. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDnucleararms.htm>. • . "AtomCentral.com." The cold war. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr 2012. <http://www.atomcentral.com/the-cold-war.asp&xgt;. • Trueman, C.. "The nuclear arms race." historylearningcite. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Apr 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nuclear_arms_race.htm>.