The USSR launches Luna 1 - the first man-made object to orbit the sun. Sputnik 2 was launched later that year and carried a small dog named Laika – the first living animal to go into orbit. The USSR launches Sputnik 1 - the world’s first telecommunications satellite. The USA develops MIRV technology - allowing missile warheads to hit multiple targets from one missile The USSR develops an Anti-Ballistic Missile system to shoot down in-bound US missiles The Cuban Missile Crisis – for 13 days the world stood on the edge of nuclear war The USSR detonates the Tsar Bomba, a nuclear bomb which produced the largest ever man-made explosion The USA deploys Polaris submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles close to the shore of the USSR This meant the USSR had created the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The same rocket was capable of carrying an atomic warhead for thousands of miles. In order to launch the satellite Sputnik I, the USSR had developed a rocket. The USA publishes its Doctrine of Massive Retaliation stating that any attack on the USA or its allies would be met with incredible destructive force The USA successfully tests the first Hydrogen bomb, 2500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb The UK carries out nuclear tests in Western Australia The USSR’s first successful atomic bomb test ends American nuclear monopoly USA drops atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki This nuclear arms race was also matched by similar competition over space and the race to the moon. As an army general, he felt able to resist their pressure, but he was concerned that a future civilian president wouldn’t be able to resist their arguments for limitless military spending. As President Eisenhower was coming to the end of his term of office, he warned the American public that too much power lay in the hands of this Military-Industrial Complex. There was pressure on the US government from the armed forces and arms manufacturers to increase military spending throughout the 1950s. This was the ultimate deterrent, and both sides continued to build up their arsenals of nuclear weapons to gain this advantage. This said that the existence of such massive nuclear weapons meant that open war between the superpowers, in which nuclear weapons were used, would end life on earth. In order to maintain this upper hand, the superpowers had to continue to build up their stockpiles of ever more powerful nuclear weapons so that they would have the power to massively retaliate against any such attack.Īs the Cold War developed, the theory of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) took shape. This suggested that the very fact of a country possessing nuclear weapons would prevent another country from threatening its interests, because they wouldn’t want to provoke a nuclear attack. Nonetheless, a new idea developed: that of nuclear deterrence. This was demonstrated during the Korean War when President Truman sacked General MacArthur for arguing in favour of using nuclear weapons to end that war. However, it became clear that the superpowers did not intend to use these new weapons hastily. It finally succeeded in 1949 and this began a nuclear arms race, with both sides racing to develop more and bigger bombs. Ever since the USA had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, the USSR had been determined to develop its own nuclear weapons.
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