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Abstract
“The nuclear race” was called the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in nuclear weapons during the Cold War. During the Cold War, and some other countries have been developing nuclear weapons, but no country has produced it on such a scale in which it was done, the two superpowers.
The main feature of the Cold War was an arms race between the members of the Warsaw Pact and NATO. Despite its ruinous, it has led to significant scientific discoveries in many technological and military fields.
Some of the most revolutionary breakthroughs have been made in the field of nuclear weapons and missile technology, which led to the space race.
The Cold War
For the first time nuclear weapons were created in the U.S. during the project "Manhattan". NKVD agents in the United States informed in detail about all the works of Stalin on the program. When the last Soviet leader was informed of the nuclear research by Harry Truman, the last one was surprised how calmly Stalin reacted to it, and even thought that he did not understand it. In fact, the project "Manhattan" was so secretive that Truman did not know about him before he became president.
As was written by M. Hunt (41), “The widespread hope for a postwar thaw in the Soviet Union – less political repression, more cultural openness, and more consumer goods” But this hope was not fulfilled.
In the first years after the Second World War, the U.S. was the only "nuclear state" in the world.
According to M. Hunt (41), “as a result of World War II the positions of socialism have been fortified.” That’s why U.S. leaders knew that the Soviet Union is far from creating its own bomb. Meanwhile, the U.S. tried to get the most value out of their temporary superiority. In particular, there have been attempts by the pressure to negotiate with Stalin on issues such as Berlin and Czechoslovakia. In this situation, the Soviet leader decided that just because the U.S. is not risk to deploy a new war against the Soviet state.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union performed an active way development to create its own nuclear bomb. During the war, studies have been limited due to the lack of uranium, but the supply of Eastern Europe are now solved this problem. Physicists have created all the conditions to speed up the pace of work. The curator of all the work was Beria.
In the United States believed that the USSR would not atomic weapons until at least mid 50's. However, 29 August 1949 the work of Soviet nuclear physicists had a success. Bomb RDS-1, exploded on this day, in the West was named after Stalin: "Joe -1". The nuclear arms race has begun.
The huge funds in improving the quality of weapons and increase its quantity was invested. Both nations quickly began to develop thermonuclear weapons. United States detonated the device is 1 November 1952. Once again, surprising everyone, the Soviet Union conducted a thermonuclear explosion in just 8 months. Soviet hydrogen bomb RDS-6s was completely a product of its own design, as espionage in the United States has brought no results. And most importantly - it was just the first bomb in the dimensions of the aircraft bomb bay and not on the size of a two-storey house in the United States.
The End of Cold War
The end of the Cold War, the cost of a nuclear arsenal began to decline sharply, especially in the Soviet Union. The pace of development of new systems significantly decreased. However, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, nuclear stocks are still measured in thousands of warheads. In the United States launched a large-scale program for recycling of nuclear weapons.
After the Cold War, such as the huge amount of money that was invested in the development of nuclear weapons is now being invested in programs to restore the environmental damage caused by a nuclear confrontation. Symbolically, the majority of plants for the production of nuclear weapons were converted to factories for recycling of the same weapon.
Conclusions and Consequences
The products of the arms race during the Cold War are strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, supersonic aircraft, missile, unmanned spy planes, spy satellites, electronic tracking systems, surveillance, communication, etc. Many of the military developments and entered into civilian life - Nuclear power communications satellites and GPS, intercontinental passenger jets, the Internet, etc.
For the arms race was characterized by increased international tensions and instability, persistent political scandals, the constant testing of new types of weapons and the use of military power as the main argument in political matters. However, despite this, largely due to the destructive product of the arms race, the Cold War never developed into a hot during numerous crises and local conflicts involving the superpowers.
Sources
Michael M. Hunt, “The World Transformed 1945 to the present, a Documentary Reader”, Bedford Books, p. 41-51, Print.
Brown, A. Reform, Coup and Collapse: The End of the Soviet State. BBC History. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/soviet_end_01.shtml
