The arms race refers to the buildup of nuclear weapons by the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold WAR, a buildup that provoked fear of global destruction in the already tense standoff between the two most powerful nations in the post-World War II era.
The arms race began in 1949, when the Soviet Union successfully tested its first ATOMIC BOMB. The United States had naively assumed it would have a monopoly for 15 years after the war. Now it found itself in competition to build bigger and better bombs. The American decision to create a HYDROGEN BOMB in 1950, with the expectation that the Soviets would do the same, escalated the arms race.
Then in 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik. This meant that the Russians now had the missile capability to launch nuclear warheads as well. Competition developed in the missile area. President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered intermediate-range ballistic missiles to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and by 1958, Great Britain, Italy, and Turkey all deployed American missiles on their territory. Additionally, Eisenhower pushed for the development of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to coordinate the advancement of missile technology. As the Eisenhower administration came to a close in 1961, the arms race was well under way, and the president had good reason to decry the advent of a MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL complex in his farewell address.
The arms race further accelerated during the administration of John F. Kennedy. The New Frontier, Kennedy’s call for a more assertive and revitalized America both at home and abroad, included an ambitious arms buildup. Consequently, nuclear confrontation reached new heights and came to a head as the two superpowers confronted one another over Cuba in October 1962. Only in the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis did Kennedy attempt to reduce tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The result was the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, negotiated with both Great Britain and the Soviet Union. This treaty banned detonations aboveground, an effort to curb atmospheric pollution with radioactivity. It was a first, small step toward reining in the arms race.
It fell to Richard M. Nixon to achieve significant reduction in the arms race. Nixon’s efforts at detente with the Soviet Union culminated in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (salt). The SALT agreement of 1972 limited the number of ICBMs in the possession of each nation, and limited the construction of antiballistic missile systems.
President Jimmy Carter attempted to follow Nixon’s lead. Carter renewed talks with the USSR to further bring the arms race under control. SALT II, initiated in 1978, placed limits on the number of bombers and missiles on both sides and on the development of new weapons systems. Carter’s efforts, however, satisfied no one at home. Liberals charged that the SALT II agreement did not go far enough to reduce the arms race. Conservatives believed Carter had surrendered a decisive advantage to the Soviet Union in terms of the number of missiles, and the agreement was never ratified.
Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, assumed office in 1980 and, in language reminiscent of Kennedy 20 years before, declared that a “missile gap” existed between the United States and Soviet Union. The results were similar as well. The arms race was renewed in earnest as the United States embarked on a major military buildup. Reagan’s tone changed, however, during his second term in office, and he attempted to negotiate an arms agreement with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev. In December 1987, Reagan and Gorbachev signed a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces. The treaty was a significant accomplishment, marking the first time that the two rival nations had agreed to destroy a whole class of weapon system. Additional agreements followed during the administration of George H. W. Bush.
While the arms race that dominated the cold war era ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world still
Launch of a U. S. Air Force Atlas missile, February 20, 1958, Cape Canaveral, Florida (U. S. Air Force)
Faces the threat of nuclear proliferation, as more and more nations develop nuclear weapons.
Further reading: Sheldon Ungar, The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992).
—Matthew Flynn
World History
