The Nuclear Arms Race And The Cold War

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The cold war was named so because between the USA and Russia, there was hardly any direct combat just a pile of tension, hostility, and potential violence. They were heading towards mutually assured destruction; using weapons of mass destruction which were the nuclear bombs and assuring inevitable destruction for both sides if there bombs were to go off and ultimate victory for none at the end. Each set of alliances, the Warsaw Pact and NATO competently created nuclear weapons to threaten the other one. Just in case either one of the countries decided to attack using their fatal nuclear weapon, then the other one wouldn’t just stand empty handed. Both USA and Russia found it their first priority to keep themselves as secure as possible by creation of nuclear arms. This resulted in a competition to be the most prepared and powerful, known as The Nuclear Arms Race.
As the cold war had brought upon a lot of conflict, it had also had the struggle of the economy from the remnants of the Second World War and the 70’s that had really brought the entire situation down. In the beginning of the nuclear arms race, it was commonly believed that nuclear weapons provided more benefits than the cost was so they justified their somewhat frivolous spending. While the greater explosive power of nuclear weapons may cause them to be cheaper per kiloton, as wholesale of a particular item does in today’s world, this statement proves to be untrue for the arms race and it even hides the actual economic costs of the nuclear weapons. Economic pressure had already been with the United States from the previous years that had left a negative impact before the beginning of the nuclear arms race, and all the millions, billions, and even trillions spent on acc...

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... than good. The economy crippled and the environment faced major draw backs. It had changed already tense relationships into even worse ones causing more uneasiness between major powers of the world. While the arms race did add on to the United States’ overall power, it did it at an unruly cost. Among all of those things, the arms race had even lead to current events in today’s history. While the two countries had platonically battled it out, much was changed not for the greater good of the nations but in attempt to be superior. “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five” as said by Carl Sagan. This statement couldn’t have proven to be anything closer to true throughout the lasting effects of the competition between the United States and Russia forever known as the Nuclear Arms Race.

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