Arms Race

• What is believed to have marked the start of the arms race?


  The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945
• When did the USSR develop their first successful atomic bomb?

  1949
• Why was the hydrogen bomb developed?

  The USA had found a spy in their nuclear team
• What was the name of the spy found the USA's nuclear team?

  Klaus Fuchs
• What did the USA believe about Fuchs' espionage?


  It had sped up the development of the USSR's atomic bomb by one year
• When did the USA create their first hydrogen bomb?

  1952
• When did the USSR develop the technology to create a hydrogen bomb?

  1953
• How much more powerful is a hydrogen bomb compared to an atomic bomb?


  1000 times more powerful
• What type of bomb did the USA create and when?

  Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile in 1957
• From how far away could ICBMs hit targets?


  2,700 miles away
• How long after the creation of ICBMs did the USSR take to develop the same technology?


  A few months
• How did the arms race impact US-Soviet relations?


  • Created more fear and tension between the superpowers
  • During the 1950s, the USA invested around 13% of their GDP on military spending
  • By the 1960s, the USSR spent around 20% of their GDP on their defence budget
  • They believed the existence of nuclear weapons would deter warfare
  • Developed the policy of Mutually Assured Destructions (MAD) in the 1960s