The Arms Race

Florida's last Civil War veteran, Bill Lundy, poses with a jet fighter, 1955

Origins of the Cold War• With U.S.S.R. obtaining the hydrogen bomb,

the Arms Race is on• Defense and scientific research spending

skyrockets for the next 40 years as each side attempts to demonstrate their capabilities

• This evolves into a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) which states that should one side fire on the other with nuclear weapons, the other would launch a full scale attack in response

What is the message behind this cartoon?

Origins of the Cold War• The possibility of a nuclear war weighs

heavily on the American public• Bomb shelters are built at a rapidly increasing

pace• Drills in schools have students hide under

desks if they see a blinding flash of light from a nuclear explosion (Why would they suggest this? How effective would it be in reality?)

Children practice the Duck and Cover drill, to protect themselves against the effects of a nuclear explosion, 1950s

Origins of the Cold War• Some in Hollywood capitalize on this fear (The

Manchurian Candidate, Fail-Safe, The War Game)• What motivation drove these kinds of movies?

• Others make pointed commentaries on the absurdity of nuclear war (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

• What kind of motivation drove these kinds of movies?

• A tide of unease pours over America• On one hand, they thought nuclear war could

happen at any time• On the other, they thought who in their right mind

would be the one to launch first?

Origins of the Cold War• National Security Council Paper 68 (NSC-68)

described the world being pulled by 2 forces: 1. Slavery2. Freedom

• It assumed that the U.S.S.R. was motivated by greed (Surprise, surprise) for territory and a “fanatical faith” in Communism.

• It advocated that the U.S. use as much force as needed, wherever and whenever Communism needed to be blunted

Origins of the Cold War• Truman and his advisors hoped to contain the

Soviets through diplomacy and economic isolation

• Faced with a nuclear capable U.S.S.R., Truman ceded his desires and called for increased military spending

• Specifically, NSC-68 called for open-ended increases in the defense budget (How is this still applicable today?)

Escalation of Global Communism• September, 1949: Truman announces Soviets

have tested an atomic bomb• October, 1949: Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) seizes

power in China and installs communist government

• Summer, 1950: Civil war in Korea between South Korea and Communist North Korea supported by China breaks out

• The U.S., following the Truman Doctrine, begin intervention in Korean War

Escalation of Global Communism• In 1950, Truman authorizes research of a

“super” bomb – the hydrogen bomb• November, 1952: U.S. tests first hydrogen

bomb in South Pacific and proves to be 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (What was the name of that bomb?)

• 1952: Great Britain obtains nuclear weapons• August, 1953: U.S.S.R. tests hydrogen bomb

Little Boy – First nuclear weapon used in warfare

Ivy Mike – Largest pure fission H-Bomb tested by U.S.

HomeworkWrite a short response of 2-3 paragraphs (sensing a theme yet?) that explains the Cold War arms race that details why each side sought greater destructive power through nuclear weaponry, and offer an opinion as to whether or not it was justifiable in the end.

Remember that hindsight is 20/20 and that in the heat of the moment, people react to perceived threats differently than they would looking back after the fact.

Feel free to make connections to literature and movies to back your argument, but don’t simply re-state what the creators did.