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What are we learning?
• To examine the impact of the competitive development of nuclear weapons 1949-63
• To decide whether nuclear weapons made the world a safer or more dangerous place
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2kdpAGDu8s
Why was there an ‘arms race’?
‘The purpose of weapons is usually to fight wars; nuclear weapons were developed to make the prospect of war so horrifying that war would be avoided.’
Why was there an ‘arms race’?
1.International tension:–Impact of world events–Defensive needs
2.National and personal issues:–Importance of national prestige–Eisenhower & Kennedy
3.Domestic factors:–Role of the Soviet army–Power of US ‘military industrial complex’
How did the Arms Race develop?
• July 1945 Manhattan Project• Atomic bomb tested in New Mexico• Used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki • Attempts to control nuclear
weapon development • 1946 Baruch Plan (UN) failed• USA have upper hand
The USSR and Nuclear Developments 1940s
• 1949 – exploded atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk
• Helped by spies (Ted Hall & Klaus Fuchs)
• Igor Kurchatov (physicist)
1950s developments• In Nov 1952 USA tested hydrogen
bomb in Pacific (Eniwetok)• Briefly USA have upper hand
1950s continued• By August 1953 USSR had tested lithium
bomb• Lithium easier to use with conventional
bombers (does not need to be refrigerated)
• Start of 1954 Soviets have upper hand
1950s continued• USA test lithium bomb in March 1954• Level playing field. Competition now
develops over development of delivery systems.
1950s: Delivery systems
• 1955 USA developed first bomber (B52 Stratofortress) with intercontinental range
1950s: Delivery systems
• Conventional aircraft not ideal (quite slow and vulnerable)
• Leads to rocket development which was pioneered by USSR scientist Tsiolkovsky
• Influence of captured Nazi scientists (WW2 German V2 rockets)
• 1957 first rocket launched in Kazakhstan
• It was an ‘Ballistic Missile’ able to carry a thermo-nuclear bomb
1950s: The Impact of the Space Race
• Oct 1957 – USSR launch Sputnik• First ever space satellite• Obvious military applications of
satellite technology...
1950s: The Impact of the Space Race
• Nov 1957 – Sputnik 2 carried doggie called Laika to space!!
• Meanwhile USA failed to successfully launch satellite programme... ‘Kaputnik’!
1960s: The USA’s position
• July 1960 Kennedy launched first submarine-launched ballistic missile (Polaris)
• USA authorised construction of 41 nuclear submarines
• Expansion to 1,054 Minuteman ICBMs• 1962 USA 4,000 missile warheads; USSR
220 missile warheads• USA committed themselves to
putting a man on the moon within 10 years