Did nuclear weapons make the world a safer or more dangerous place from 1949-63?

Did nuclear weapons make the

world a safer or more dangerous place from 1949-

63?

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’

Key developments in the arms race

DateTechnological development

Who had the upper hand?

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

• By 1956 USSR had own version of the intercontinental bomber (TU20 Bear)

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 Impact of the Space Race

• 1961 USSR put first man in space – Yuri Gagarin

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

Situation by early 1960s

• Range of delivery systems (bombers, rocket missiles, submarines)

• Both sides could launch a nuclear attack and a counter-attack

• This kind of attack would produce ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (MAD)