The+Arms+Race+1945-55

The Arms Race 1945 – 55  media type="youtube" key="aF6DhuFMtZ0?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

The Arms Race was an event that happened during the Cold War and consisted in having the superpowers challenging each other for advantage in the strategic environment by developing new technology and having greatest number of weaponry and delivery systems. Key Facts: -1945: US developed the A-Bomb and dropped two in Japan. The developpement of the Atomic bomb gave confidence to Truman and at Potsdam Stalin described him as a "changed man". Between 1945 and 1949, the Americans had a strategic advantage and tryed to use the Bomb as a tool to force concessions on the Soviets until they obtained their own bomb in 1949: this was Truman's atomic diplomacy. The consequence of it was not what they expected: the soviets became more hard to deal with since now they felt the need to look strong.

-1949: Soviet A-Bomb was developed, much earlier than the Americans expected. Russian espionage in the Manhattan Plan was evident, giving reasons to McCarthy to claim that communists were infiltrated in the State Department. The impact of this was a general fear followed by a series of "witch hunts" against communists in the whole US. McCarthyism had a strong impact in the US policies since anyone who opposed to actions against communism would be considered communist.

1950: Korean War started. NSC-68 was approved and the US tripled their expending in military forces. Truman authorizes the research on the H-Bomb. Limited War theory: no nuclear forces should be used in small wars like Vietnam and Korea and those wars would be kept in the borders of those countries: this meant that if the US is indirectly fighting China in Korea, they would not extend the war to China itself or to the US. Truman sacked MacArthur showing commitment to keep limited wars, since the General wanted to use A-bombs in Korea. The superpowers saw that having advanced weapons and a large number of them they could scare the enemy and avoid being attacked, therefore avoiding war by preparing for it.

-1952: US detonate the first H-Bomb; 1000 times more powerful than an A-Bomb. Eisenhower comes with New Look with Massive Retaliation –ending the Limited War theory- where he promised to use nuclear forces against any threat and invest in nuclear forces instead of conventional (cheaper). Massive Retaliation was a deterrence theory which was supposed to create a general worldwide fear of war, which would prevent not only a nuclear war, but any war between the US and the USSR.

 -1953: Soviet H-Bomb, 9 months later than the Americans. US had an advantage of 17 to 1 A-Bombs (huge nuclear advantage in the strategic environment). Eisenhower states that the soviets “must be scared as hell” when he evaluates the strategic environment which is much better for the US, and he was right. Eisenhower is convinced that threatening the enemies with the A-Bomb he ended the Korean War and his deterrence theory of Massive Retaliation is working – Gaddis disagrees and attributes the end of the war to Stalin’s death.

The US kept a nuclear superiority over the USSR, but the Red Army was stronger in conventional forces. This meant that for the US to maintain their “strong side” was much less expensive than for the Soviets. This also meant that if the US attacks the USSR, they could at least invade a good part of Europe and vice-versa: that caused both sides to be afraid of war, since an attack of any side would bring losses to both.

Problems: -For the Americans: As Gaddis says, nuclear bombs are good against cities, big military centers, and industrial zones. They have no great use against a war like in Korea and Vietnam. Massive Retaliation could not be used in Vietnam or Korea because it could fail and the Bomb would no longer be “respected” as before.

-For the Soviets à  Conventional forces are expensive and their economy was struggling; they also did not have enough atomic power to be able to safely reduce expenses the Red Army. The Russians not only did not have many atomic bombs, but they also did not have many bombers. The delivery systems of the nuclear bombs were only airplanes, they could not attack the US directly from the USSR; the US could attack them much easily, having allies in Europe.