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The Nuclear Arms Race Deterrence, Détente and Star Wars.

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The Nuclear Arms Race Deterrence, Détente and Star Wars
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The Nuclear Arms Race

Deterrence, Détente and Star Wars

OVERVIEW

In this lesson we examine:• Beginnings of the arms race• The case for deterrence• Motivations for non-proliferation• Arms control• The effects of “Star Wars”

Beginnings• The US had a monopoly on atomic weapons from

1945 until 1949, when the Soviet Union exploded its own nuclear device.

• Early fission weapons, such as Fat Man or Little Boy had yields of 12.5 kilotons of TNT and were delivered by bombers

• By late the 1950s certain fusion weapons had yields of 24 megatons – approximately 1,000 times more powerful than fission weapons and were delivered by guided missiles

As nuclear weapons became more powerful and accurate, how did this affect their possibility of

use?

The case for deterrence

1. Defense against nuclear attack is virtually impossible — safety can be achieved only by avoiding conflict

2. The power of nuclear weapons increases the possibility of retaliation by nations who possess such weapons

3. The destruction in nuclear retaliation greatly exceeds the value of any gains achieved by the initial attack - “mutually assured destruction”

As the Cold War increased in tensions, so did the arms race. Major reasons for

deterrence were:

Short-range• Fired from artillery

cannons or mobile rocket launchers (MRBM)

• Often carried only one nuclear warhead

Long-range• Fired from fixed missile

sites (IRBM & ICBM). Some ICBM’s carried multiple warheads (MIRV)

• Fired from submarines (SLBM)

• Dropped by long-range bombers (dummy bombs & cruise missiles)

The case for deterrence

Why was there such a need for the different types of nuclear

weapons delivery?

Nuclear weapons were delivered by several different means

• Both NATO and Warsaw Pact powers heavily developed and built technologies to counter these different threats; thus the arms race was not only limited to nuclear weapons but also associated weapons and technologies.

• Once rocket and guidance technology developed throughout the 1950’s to 1960’s, nuclear missiles went from being MRBMs to IRBMs and then onto ICBM’s that contained about 10-15 MIRV warheads capable of hitting multiple targets from a single missile

• At the height of the Cold War during the 1960’s, the US had around 30,000 nuclear warheads; the combined number of nuclear warheads among all nations was around 70,000 – with each warhead capable of 20x the damage done at Hiroshima

Deterrence led to an increase in the number, strength and

sophistication of nuclear weapons

The case for deterrence

If nuclear weapons increase in number and complexity, what

becomes a significant and dangerous possibility? Why?

Towards non-proliferation

Cost• Nuclear weapons are

complex and expensive to maintain

• Even with a reduced stockpile of missiles, it now costs the US about $35 billion USD per year to maintain its nuclear arsenal

Proliferation•The greater the

number of nuclear weapons = the greater

the possibility of spreading nuclear

weapons•Political or religious

extremists may obtain nuclear weapons

• Nuclear weapons are too powerful – even limited use results in fallout and nuclear winter

• e.g. the Chernobyl reactor meltdown in 1986 resulted in local environmental damage and the global spread of fallout

Towards non-proliferation

How do you control nuclear weapons from spreading without

giving up deterrence?

Arms control

Context Question: From the point of view of the US and the USSR, how might reducing the nuclear stockpile be beneficial for domestic development?

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) (1970) – global treaty signed by many nations that agreed not to become armed with nuclear weapons and for nuclear-states not to attack non-nuclear powers unless they were allied with a nuclear power

• Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) (1969) – talks between the US and USSR which led to two documents:– Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) (1972) –

regulated quantity and deployment of radar and detection systems but permitted further research; an attempt to prevent the arms race to extend beyond nuclear weapons

– Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (1972) – limited deployment of land and naval deployed nuclear weapons but permitted their improvement and refitting

• SALT II Agreement (1979) – limited total numbers of fixed nuclear missile launchers and naval-deployed nuclear weapons; treaty was not ratified by the US Congress, but both powers agreed to abide by the treaty

Arms controlPremier Khrushchev’s calls for “peaceful co-existence” did not initially result in nuclear arms

control. From the 1960s onward, President Nixon’s “détente”

(reduction of tension) led to the process of nuclear weapons

control that would continue even after Nixon.

The Helsinki Accords – 1974

• During the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 35 nations, including the US, USSR and Canada agreed to the de facto national boundaries that had existed since the end of World War II

Effects• This ended the controversy

over the existence of West Germany and East Germany

as promised by the Yalta and Potsdam agreements

• The Accords were used as a defense by Eastern

European countries against future Soviet interference in

their affairs – any interference could be

interpreted as a violation of national boundaries, human

rights and sovereignty

Arms control

How did the culture of arms reduction during the 1960s and 1970s affect Cold War

tensions?

Context Question: In WWI, how did the Entente powers overcome the stalemate of trench warfare?

Re-escalation

After President Reagan’s election in 1983, the US

government proposed research and

development of the Strategic Defense

Initiative (SDI) to detect and defend against

missiles that had already been fired.

Re-escalation

Space-based• To use sensors for

detection and guidance

• To use “attack” satellites against missiles

• To use space-based mirrors to direct ground-based lasers against enemy missiles

Ground-based• To use a

supercomputer for guidance and control

• To use lasers and high-speed projectile weapons

“Star Wars” as it was nicknamed, was a layered

defense of two major systems:

Re-escalation

Reactions• Domestically, the project was seen as

expensive and impossible - e.g. the projected total cost might have been $100 billion USD to $1 trillion USD

• Internationally, the USSR protested that SDI was a violation of the ABM treaty of 1972

Re-escalation

How would the SDI project have hastened the end of the Soviet Union even though most of the

technology was only at the planning phase?

1. What were the principles of nuclear deterrence and how did these motivate the US and USSR in the nuclear arms race?

2. What problems did the superpowers realize with nuclear deterrence? What steps did they take towards finding a solution?

3. Why did the US pursue the SDI program? How did this affect the USSR?

Re-escalation


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