Dbq Arms Race

From the period of 1949 to 1963, the Arms race was a period were there which saw two superpowers the USA and the USSR increasing their nuclear technology developments. The arms race ultimately prevented tensions from escalating into an actual fully fledged war. On the other hand there were de-stabilising factors that put both countries on the brink of nuclear warfare and the world at risk of annihilation, such as the pressure of domestic politics, hot wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the Cuban missile crisis. Regardless of these factors the war remained a Cold war. This is because the arms race created the most important stabilising factor which was mutually assured destruction. Both superpowers realised the devastating capability of Nuclear …show more content…
Whilst the arms race helped to deter leaders from conflict. Kennedy faced massive military pressure from Generals such as Curtis LeMay, Walter Sweeney and Marshall Carter to attack Cuba during the Cuban Missile crisis. This was a de-stabilising factor because they almost convinced Kennedy to authorise an airstrike on Cuba as a form of retaliation. The Cuban missile crisis took place as a retaliation of Khrushchev due to the ICBM's in Turkey. It was also speculated that Khrushchev could see the missiles from Russia. By 1962 both countries arms had easy access to their rivals, showing a progression in the level of danger that the arms race exposed the world to. However, stakes were so high at this point that the risk of the arms race caused Kennedy and Khrushchev to rely on diplomacy to an even higher degree. During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and other communications, both formal and "back channel." Khrushchev sent letters to Kennedy on October 23 and 24 indicating the deterrent nature of the missiles in Cuba and the peaceful intentions of the Soviet Union. On October 26, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a long rambling letter seemingly proposing that the missile installations would be dismantled and personnel removed in exchange for United States assurances that it or its proxies would not invade Cuba. Khrushchev was also under a great deal of domestic pressure but both …show more content…
The USA aimed to contain Communism and promote Capitalism. The ‘hot wars’ in Korea and Vietnam show that indirect aggression remained. This was a de-stabilising factor because the USSR and USA provided military aid and if a US or Soviet soldier directly attacked the opposing side they could have triggered a war. This also applies to the risk of hitting Soviet soldiers in Cuba if America engaged in an airstrike to destroy the missiles. Although a less stable aspect of the arms race, aggression was indirect in order to avoid deployment of Nuclear weapons. One could say this was a more stable relationship between two opposing powers because as long as they did not have armies in the field fighting one another, there was less likelihood that a conflict would escalate to all-out war. Showing that the arms race kept a consistent stability which only allowed tensions to rise to a certain level. But the developments of the arms race ultimately contained conflict from 1949 to 1963.
The nuclear arms race effectively raised the stakes in any head-to-head conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. A war between the two meant mutually assured destruction, with no winners--no real possibility of "winning" as even the victor's country would have most of its major cities, ports, and industrial centres laid to waste, and radioactive for decades to come. The arms race allowed