The Arms Race

The Arms Race

NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)
1. April 1949
  1. Established by the EU after the Blockade in order to ‘keep the USA in and the USSR out’
  2. NATO members agreed that if any NATO country came under attack, all members of NATO would come to their defence. Defending the West against Communism.
2. 1955
  1. The USSR created the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of Eastern European countries which mirrored NATO.
A continuing commitment to maintaining a large army, navy and air force, and the development of ever-more-deadly nuclear weapons
1. 1945
  1. USA became the first country to develop and use a nuclear bomb
    1. By 1949 the USSR had caught up
2. By 1953, both countries had hydrogen bombs, and during the 1950s and 1960s both countries competed to create large numbers of nuclear weapons.
  1. However, the USSR was simply not wealthy enough to mass-produce missiles and Khrushchev’s claim that the USSR was ’producing missiles like we are producing sausages’ was an empty boast.
Importance
1. It prevented a war in Europe
  1. The USSR had 3 million troops and could easily capture Western Germany. However, the Soviet leaders would never order an invasion because they feared an American nuclear retaliation.
2. In 1961, America had almost 20 times more nuclear weapons than the USSR. What is more, American nuclear weapons were able to reach the USSR, whereas Soviet weapons could not reach America.

Zusammenfassung der Ressource

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