Upload
oren
View
59
Download
6
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
The Arms Race. The Cold War. This icon indicates the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable. For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation. What we will learn today. What we will learn today: What the Arms Race was. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
© Boardworks Ltd 20041 of 19
The Arms Race
The Cold War
For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation.
This icon indicates the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable.
© Boardworks Ltd 20042 of 19
What we will learn today
What we will learn today:
1. What the Arms Race was.
2. How the Arms Race developed.
3. About the technology involved.
4. The reality of the Space Race.
5. The impact of the Arms Race in the 1980s.
© Boardworks Ltd 20043 of 19
The Arms Race
World War II technology showed a glimpse of the terrible destructive possibilities of weapons.
How do you think the USA and the USSR felt about the development of such powerful weapons?
World War II saw the development of weapons with more destructive power than ever before.
The Nazi V1 and V2 rockets were the first rocket-propelled weapons.
The first atomic bomb to be exploded in anger was exploded by the USA over Japan in 1945.
© Boardworks Ltd 20044 of 19
Bombs instead of armies
The atomic bomb was first used on 6 August 1945 on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The USA said it was to end the war quickly with a minimum number of US losses. It certainly worked.
What other reason might the USA have had for exploding atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
From this point onwards the fight wasn’t about armies, it was about bombs.
It has been suggested that Japan was negotiating with the USA to end the war anyway.
© Boardworks Ltd 20045 of 19
The Arms Race was when the USA and the USSR wanted to build more and more powerful weapons.
1945 USA explodes atomic bomb
(A-bomb)
1949USSR tests
their first atomic bomb
1949USA tests
hydrogen bomb (H-bomb)
Why was this called the ‘Arms Race’?
Just like other aspects of the Cold War, it became a contest to see who which superpower was the ‘greatest’.
Both sides were desperate to have more effective weapons than their enemy.
© Boardworks Ltd 20046 of 19
The MAD theory
One side launches a “first strike”, either from the ground or from submarines. The other side’s radar detects the missiles and so launches their own missiles in retaliation. This leaves both sides devastated.
Once both sides had nuclear weapons, rapid retaliation was the only defence.
© Boardworks Ltd 20047 of 19
© Boardworks Ltd 20048 of 19
Nuclear arsenals grow
Click on the arrows to move through the timeline.
ICBM = intercontinental ballistic missile
ABM = anti-ballistic missile
MIRV = multiple independently-targeted re-entry vehicle
© Boardworks Ltd 20049 of 19
The ABM theory
Radar gives early warning of attack
Missile bases are on 24-hour standby to fire ABMs
Attacking missile destroyed in the air
The first people to develop ABMs were the Soviets. Why do you think they were worried when the USA
started to make them too?
© Boardworks Ltd 200410 of 19
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
To begin with, nuclear weapons seemed cheaper to produce than conventional weapons. However, the Arms Race, and the need to develop more and more advanced weapons, proved very expensive. In 1957, the race extended into space with the launch of the first Soviet satellite.
By 1960 Eisenhower was near the end of his presidency. Khrushchev and Eisenhower seemed likely to made a deal to limit the Arms Race. Both made public statements about their interests in ‘peaceful progress’.
© Boardworks Ltd 200411 of 19
Were Khrushchev and Eisenhower really interested in peace? Explain your opinion.
place in history
© Boardworks Ltd 200412 of 19
The Arms Race was back on, not least with Kennedy coming to power. Kennedy wanted to appear strong and so rapidly began to build up US weapons again.
In 1960, both Eisenhower and Khrushchev had hopes of an arms reduction treaty, to be discussed at the Paris Summit.
Unfortunately, a US U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR at that time. Eisenhower refused to apologize for the plane being in Soviet airspace, and the summit collapsed.
The U-2 spy plane incident
© Boardworks Ltd 200413 of 19
The missile gap
The launch of the first satellite in 1957 by the USSR was also a massive concern for the USA – they were behind in the race for space!
What impact do you think the USA’s mistake had for the USSR? What effect would the US response have?
The USA believed that in the late 1950s the Soviets had more ICBMs than they did. The USA was terrified about a ‘missile gap’.
It didn’t exist, but under President Kennedy (1960–62), US defence expenditure rose from $45 billion to $52 billion, and a range of new battlefield nuclear weapons were developed.
© Boardworks Ltd 200414 of 19
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which almost led to nuclear war, encouraged an attempt to slow down the race.
Why would you say the Arms Race occurred? Was there really any point in the amount of
money which was spent?
However, once Khrushchev had been replaced by Brezhnev in 1964, the Soviets once again increased their arms spending.
Because the USA was engaged in the Vietnam War, the Soviets were finally able to catch up with the USA by 1971.
However, it meant that a quarter of the Soviet national income was spent on defence.
© Boardworks Ltd 200415 of 19
What weapons were involved?
© Boardworks Ltd 200416 of 19
The Space Race
It was based on technology developed from captured Nazi rocket technology. Just as this technology helped develop inter-continental ballistic missiles, it could now power space travel.
The launching of the first satellite by the Soviets in 1957 ‘won’ the first round of what became known as the Space Race.
Both sides took the Arms Race into space – they were desperate to beat the other’s achievements.
“This was as much about the battle between capitalism and communism than anything else.”
What is meant by this quotation from a modern historian?
© Boardworks Ltd 200417 of 19
Key Space Race events
Why would the early dominance
by the USSR make the USA
worry about the Arms Race?
Click on the arrows to move through the timeline.
© Boardworks Ltd 200418 of 19
The end of the Arms Race
In 1980 Ronald Reagan became the new US president. He was strongly anti-communist and felt the USA had fallen behind the USSR.
He doubled military expenditure and invested enormous sums of money to develop new and even more advanced weapons systems.
In 1985, Gorbachev became the new leader of the USSR. He immediately realised the futility of trying to keep up with weapons development.
He wanted to improve Soviet living standards and increase political freedom. He knew that spending money on weapons development would cripple the Soviet economy.
Do you think Reagan knew this? Explain your views.
© Boardworks Ltd 200419 of 19
Gorbachev wanted to end the Arms Race, and meetings between the USA and the USSR took place in Reykjavik in 1986 and Washington in 1987.
Major agreements were made that put an end to the Arms Race:
Think about the Arms Race – consider both the positive and negative impacts.
Write your own balanced analysis – was it simply a terrible waste of money?
INF (1987) Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
START (1991) STrategic Arms Limitations Talks.