American Technological Advancements and the Cold War

American Technological Advancements and the Cold War

Many of the military technological advancements that have been made in the last 60 years can be attributed to the Cold War. Much of the technology developed during the period of the Cold War is still in use today by the military and government. Advancements in offensive technology are well known to just about everyone in the way of nuclear energy harnessed in the form of the nuclear bomb, but little is known about the battle for information during the Cold War. The Cold War produced some of the most advanced technology used in the fields of detection and reconnaissance in history. The United States’ detection and reconnaissance technology played a major role against communism during the Cold War, and these types of technology still play roles today.

A cold war is an ideological conflict with military standoffs while keeping diplomatic relations open. The Cold War consisted of two sides (or Superpowers); the first was the United States, who believed in and practiced capitalism, the opposing side was the Soviet Union, who believed in and practiced the idea of communism. Many historians dispute the start time of the conflict; however, it began some time after World War II and dragged on until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The Cold War Project Group Online claims “the advancement of technology during the Cold War was greater than that of any one time period” (“The Arms Race”). The war developed nuclear missiles and many other technological advancements taking the world into a new era, the Nuclear Era. It was estimated at one time the United States and the Soviet Union could nuke the world seven times over; the governments realized the pointlessness of so many nuclear missiles and turned their attention toward other ways to get an upper hand in the conflict. Tensions ran high during this time; without military confrontation, research and resources were redirected towards other fields of technology such as detection systems, surveillance equipment, and underwater technologies.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, other wise known as NORAD, is a series of radar stations in North America that were built in 1950s. NORAD is a joint United States and Canadian organization that provides warnings and aerospace control for North America. The North American Aerospace Defense Comm...

... middle of paper ...

...ent, they have found usefulness in today’s world through reassessing their mission or in scientific research. The art of reconnaissance changed during the Cold War with the invention of the spy satellite, the U2 Spy Plane, and the nuclear powered submarines. Today much of the photo taken by the United States spy satellites and U2 Spy Planes are classified but they are still used today as a part of the military and the Center Intelligent Agency to identify threats just as they did during the Cold War; submarines The tracking down and monitoring Soviet submarines movements during the Cold War was one of the major missions of the nuclear submarines, unfortunately today the submarine force of the United States is slowly shrinking do to budget cut with in the military. Fear and uncertainty surrounded the Cold War, however thanks to these technological advancements during the Cold War it helped to keep offensive weapons form being fired and destroying the world. Unfortunately only a few of these technologies have found there way into the world today. The Cold War was a conflict that brought fear to Americans but also brought the United States new technology that is still around today.