Explain the nuclear arms race between the superpowers and how the idea of deterrence shaped the Cold War

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to explain the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and how the idea of "deterrence", the threat of mutual destruction, shaped the conflict. You should be able to describe the build-up of nuclear and other weapons (and the related space race), explain the idea of deterrence and "mutually assured destruction", and explain how this threat both kept the superpowers from fighting each other directly and made the Cold War extremely dangerous. The task is explanation: link the arms race to deterrence, and deterrence to the character of the whole Cold War.

The answer

The start of the nuclear arms race

The nuclear arms race began at the end of the Second World War, when the United States developed and used the atomic bomb against Japan. For a few years the United States alone had this terrifying weapon. But in 1949 the Soviet Union successfully tested its own atomic bomb, and the race was on. Neither superpower was willing to let the other gain a decisive advantage in such powerful weapons, so each strove to build more and better bombs than its rival. The competition to build up nuclear and other weapons became one of the defining features of the Cold War.

Bigger weapons and more of them

The arms race did not stop at the atomic bomb. Both sides went on to develop the even more powerful hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, capable of destruction on an enormous scale. They built up huge numbers of these weapons, far more than could ever be needed simply to defend themselves. They also developed long-range missiles (intercontinental ballistic missiles) that could carry nuclear warheads from one superpower directly to the other in minutes, as well as nuclear submarines and bombers. The result was that each side came to possess enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other, and indeed much of the world, many times over.

The space race

Closely linked to the arms race was the "space race". The same rocket technology that could launch a satellite into space could also deliver a nuclear missile, so success in space was both a military advantage and a matter of prestige. When the Soviet Union launched the first satellite (Sputnik) into orbit in 1957, it shocked the United States, which feared the Soviets were ahead in rocket technology. The two then competed in space, a contest that was partly about science and prestige but was also tied to the military arms race.

The idea of deterrence

The key idea that gave the arms race its strange logic was "deterrence". Deterrence means preventing an enemy from attacking by making sure that, if they do, they will suffer terrible consequences in return. Because both superpowers had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other, neither could launch a nuclear attack without being destroyed by the other's response. This situation became known as "mutually assured destruction": both sides would be destroyed in any nuclear war. The grim result was a "balance of terror", in which the very horror of nuclear weapons made each side afraid to use them or to attack the other directly.

How deterrence shaped the Cold War

Deterrence shaped the whole character of the Cold War. On the one hand, it helped prevent a direct war between the United States and the Soviet Union, because both knew such a war could mean their own destruction. This is one reason the Cold War, for all its tension, never became a direct "hot" war between the superpowers. Instead they competed through proxy wars in other countries (such as Korea and Vietnam), through spying, propaganda and the space race. On the other hand, deterrence depended on constantly building more and better weapons to convince the other side you could strike back, which fuelled an endless and hugely expensive arms race. It also made crises, above all the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, terrifyingly dangerous, because a single mistake could trigger mutual destruction.

Examples in context

Example 1. Sputnik and the shock to America. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in 1957, Americans were alarmed: if the Soviets could put a satellite in orbit, they could also build missiles to reach the United States. This drove huge American investment in rockets, science and education, and intensified both the space race and the arms race. It shows how technology, prestige and military fear were tied together in the Cold War.

Example 2. Mutually assured destruction in the Cuban crisis. The logic of mutually assured destruction was tested in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world came close to nuclear war. In the end, the knowledge that a nuclear exchange would destroy both sides helped push the leaders to step back and compromise. The crisis shows both the danger of the arms race and how the fear of mutual destruction could, in the end, restrain the superpowers.

Try this

Q1. What is meant by "mutually assured destruction"? [3 marks]

• Cue. The situation in which both superpowers had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other, so any nuclear war would result in the destruction of both sides.

Q2. Explain why the launch of Sputnik in 1957 worried the United States. [5 marks]

• Cue. It showed the Soviet Union could put a satellite into orbit using powerful rockets, which meant it could also build missiles to reach the United States, suggesting the Soviets might be ahead in the arms race.

Q3. "The nuclear arms race made the Cold War safer rather than more dangerous." How far do you agree? [8 marks]

• Cue. Argue that deterrence and mutually assured destruction helped prevent direct war, but weigh against the danger of the arms race and crises such as Cuba, where a mistake could have caused catastrophe; then judge.