Transcript The Nuclear Arms Race

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
bythe
avoiding
As
Cold conflict
War increased in tensions,
2. soThe
of nuclear
increasesfor
didpower
the arms
race.weapons
Major reasons
the possibility of retaliation by nations who
deterrence
were:
possess such weapons
3. The destruction in nuclear retaliation
greatly exceeds the value of any gains
achieved by the initial attack - “mutually
assured destruction”
The case for deterrence
Short-range
Long-range
• Fired from artillery cannons • Fired from fixed missile
or mobile rocket launchers
sites (IRBM & ICBM). Some
Why was there suchICBM’s
a need
formultiple
the
(MRBM)
carried
Nuclear
weapons
were
delivered
warheads
(MIRV) by
different
types
of nuclear
weapons
• Often
carried only
one
nuclear warhead
• Firedmeans
from submarines
severaldelivery?
different
(SLBM)
• Dropped by long-range
bombers (dummy bombs &
cruise missiles)
The case for deterrence
• 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.
Deterrence
led
to
an
increase
in the
If nuclear weapons increase
in number
and
• Once rocket and guidance technology developed
number,
strength
and nuclear
sophistication
of
complexity,
whattobecomes
a significant
and
throughout
the
1950’s
1960’s,
missiles went
from
being MRBMs
tonuclear
IRBMs and
then
onto ICBM’s
dangerous
possibility?
Why?that
weapons
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
Towards non-proliferation
Cost
Proliferation
• Nuclear weapons•The
are greater the number of
weapons = the
complex and expensivenuclear
to
greater the possibility of
maintain
spreading
nuclear
weapons
• Even with a reduced
•Political
or
religious
stockpile of missiles, it now
extremists
may
obtain
costs the US about $35
nuclear weapons
billion USD per year to
maintain its nuclear arsenal
Towards non-proliferation
• Nuclear weapons are too powerful – even
limited use results in fallout and nuclear
winter
How
do you control nuclear weapons from
• spreading
e.g. the Chernobyl
in 1986
withoutreactor
givingmeltdown
up deterrence?
resulted in local environmental damage and
the global spread of fallout
• The Fukushima Power plant accident in
Japan after the massive 9.0 earthquake on
March 11th, 2011
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?
Arms control
•
•
•
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
Premier Khrushchev’s calls for “peaceful coexistence” 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.
Arms control
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
How did the culture of arms reduction
during the 1960s and 1970s affect Cold
War tensions?
Re-escalation
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
Ground-based
• To use sensors for
• To use a
detection and guidance
supercomputer for
guidance and control
• To
use “attack”
“Star
Wars” satellites
as it was nicknamed,
was a
against missiles
• To use lasers and highlayered
defense
of
two
major
systems:
speed
projectile
• To use space-based
mirrors to direct ground- weapons
based lasers against
enemy missiles
Re-escalation
Reactions
•How
Domestically,
project
was
seenhastened
as
would thethe
SDI
project
have
expensive
- e.g.
the projected
the
end ofand
theimpossible
Soviet Union
even
though
total cost might have been $100 billion USD
most of the technology was only at the
to $1 trillion USD
planning phase?
• Internationally, the USSR protested that SDI
was a violation of the ABM treaty of 1972
Re-escalation
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?