Nuclear Strategy in the Cold War

A Handout

1952

• Americans explode an H-Bomb

• 1000 times more powerful than A-Bomb

1953

• Soviets explode an H-Bomb

1955

• U2 spy plane goes into service for the CIA

1957

• Sputnik• first satellite• (USSR)

1958

• ICBM• first intercontinental

ballistic missile • (USA)

1960

• Polaris

• American missile launched from submerged submarine

1960

• Triad System • an arsenal of ground,

air and water-based missiles

Massive retaliation

• American commitment to hit the USSR with everything in their arsenal if Russia launched an offensive

Flexible response

• A more sane approach. American commitment to use either conventional weapons or nuclear weapons depending on the level of force necessary.

Mutually Assured Destruction

• Logical result of the nuclear arms race. Both the USSR and USA have enough weapons to totally destroy their enemy. Therefore no war will start. It would be MADness.

1949

• USSR developed its own A-Bomb. US no longer had a monopoly on nuclear power.

1957

• USSR had a rocket capable of launching a nuclear warhead that could reach continental USA

1962

• Cuban Missile Crisis revealed that strategy of massive retaliation was too dangerous. Flexible response was more appropriate.

Co-operation

• Both sides agreed to a Test Ban Treaty (1963) and a Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (1968)

• A hot line was installed between the White House and the Kremlin to allow a quick coordinated response to potential trouble spots.

• US allowed Soviets a free-reign in Eastern Europe.

Korea (1950)

• Korea erupted into civil war. USSR and China backed the north; US backed the south

Berlin (1961)

• Soviets sealed off West Berlin with a wall. Hope for German re-unification dashed. This was a provocation to the USA.

German Democratic Republic

Federal Republic of Germany

1949 – Partition of Germany becomes permanent

1961

JFK, 1961: “Ich bin ein Berliner”

Cuba (1962)• Soviets exported nuclear weapons to Cuba which

could hit American targets. Another provocation to the USA.

Vietnam (1964)

• Civil war in Vietnam escalates. USSR and China back the north; US backs the south.

East Germany (1953)

Hungary (1956)

Czechoslovakia (1968)“Prague Spring”

Behind the Iron Curtain

• Despite their nuclear superiority the Americans did not use massive retaliation. They stood by while Soviet tanks crushed anti-Soviet uprisings in Eastern European nations. Americans did not have the resources or stomach to challenge the Soviets in their own backyard.