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1950s: BRINKMANSHIP

1950s: BRINKMANSHIP. What will be the Cold War policies of the 1950s?. The Arms Race. The 1950s starts a nuclear “arms race” between the US & Soviet Union

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1950s: BRINKMANSHIP

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  1. 1950s:BRINKMANSHIP What will be the Cold War policies of the 1950s?

  2. The Arms Race • The 1950s starts a nuclear “arms race” between the US & Soviet Union • Cold War policy is brinkmanship. Each country tries to push each other to the “brink” of war in order to get an advantage – a game of “chicken” • By 1950 the Soviets had developed and tested their own atomic weapon • So, the US developed the more powerful Hydrogen Bomb (H-Bomb) • Instead of splitting an atom, the H-bomb fused two atoms together • The Soviets countered with their own H-bomb in early 1953 • 1953: President Dwight Eisenhower appoints anti-communist John Foster Dulles as his Secretary of State http://video.google.com/video play?docid=-3597507450536748258 http://vce.com/AtomicGallery/AtomicGallery.html

  3. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) • Dulles develops the MAD policy: if the Soviets attack US interests, the US will use a massive nuclear retaliation against them • The US begins increasing number of nuclear weapons & the planes to deliver these weapons • US CIA and Soviet KGB also begin spying programs • 1953: Stalin dies and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev • Khrushchev begins building up the Soviet arsenal • By the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union announced that they had developed the Vostok Rocket • This ICBM could deliver a nuke • Soviets clearly ahead in the “arms race”

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