💥 The Soviet bomb, 1949
American leaders expected the USSR to need many more years. On 29 August 1949 the USSR tested its first atom bomb in Kazakhstan. The US monopoly was over, and the race began.
New Forms of Conflict: Nuclear and Guerrilla War Versus Conventional War, 1945-75 » The Nuclear Arms Race, Delivery Systems and MAD
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B6, Key topic 3
- How the Soviet bomb and the hydrogen bomb started a nuclear arms race
- How nuclear weapons were delivered: bombers, land-based missiles and submarines
- The chemical and biological weapons that were also developed
- What MAD theory was and why it mattered
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Unlock This CourseFrom one bomb to a race
This lesson is part of the Paper 2 Section B breadth study on the changing nature of warfare, 1919-2011. In August 1945 the USA used two atom bombs on Japan. For a few years it was the only country with the weapon. That did not last, and from 1945 to 1975 the world's two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, competed to build more and better nuclear weapons.
Key terms:
- Arms race: a contest between countries to build more and better weapons than each other.
- Hydrogen bomb: a bomb that gets its power by joining atoms together (fusion). It is set off by an atom bomb and can be far more powerful.
- Megaton: a unit of explosive power equal to a million tonnes of ordinary explosive.
- Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM): a rocket with a nuclear warhead that can travel between continents.
- Weapon of mass destruction: a weapon able to kill very large numbers of people at once.
- Deterrence: stopping an enemy from attacking by threatening a terrible reply.
- Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD): the idea that if either superpower attacked, both would be destroyed, so neither would dare.
The Soviet bomb and the hydrogen bomb
🌊 The hydrogen bomb, 1952-53
In January 1950 President Truman ordered work on a hydrogen bomb. The USA tested one at Enewetak in the Pacific on 1 November 1952, with a power of about 10 megatons. That is hundreds of times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. The USSR tested its own hydrogen bomb in 1953.
Weapons kept growing. In 1954 an American test at Bikini Atoll reached about 15 megatons. In October 1961 the USSR exploded a 50-megaton bomb, the largest ever. Such bombs were too big to be useful in a real war, but they showed that each side could build almost anything. By the mid-1960s the USA had more than 30,000 nuclear warheads.
Delivering the weapons
A bomb is useless without a way to get it to the target. In 1945 that meant a bomber. By 1960 there were three ways, often called the nuclear triad.
✈️ Bombers
Long-range jet bombers such as the American B-52, in service from 1955, could carry hydrogen bombs across the world. The weakness was that bombers took hours to arrive and could be shot down.
🚀 Land-based missiles
The USSR tested the first ICBM in August 1957, and the USA put its first Atlas ICBMs into service in 1959. A missile took about 30 minutes to arrive and no defence could stop it. Later American missiles, such as the Minuteman, were kept in underground silos.
🚢 Submarines
The USA fired a Polaris missile from a submerged submarine in July 1960. A submarine hiding deep in the ocean was almost impossible to find, so its missiles were safe from a surprise attack. The USSR built missile submarines too.
What changed: by the 1960s a nuclear attack could come from the other side of the world in minutes, from land, sea or air. What stayed the same: bombers did not disappear, and both superpowers kept all three kinds of weapon.
Chemical and biological weapons
Nuclear weapons were not the only weapons of mass destruction. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 had banned the use of poison gas and germ warfare, but not the making of such weapons, so the great powers carried on developing them.
- Chemical weapons. Scientists in Germany found nerve agents, such as tabun and sarin, in the 1930s. After 1945 the USA, the USSR and Britain studied them, and powerful new nerve agents, such as VX, were developed in the 1950s. They could be delivered in artillery shells, aircraft bombs and sprays, and rocket warheads. They were stored in large amounts but not used in war between the superpowers.
- Biological weapons. These use germs or poisons made by living things. In 1969 President Nixon ended the American biological weapons programme. In 1972 many countries signed the Biological Weapons Convention, which banned making and stockpiling them. It came into force in 1975. The USSR signed it but kept a secret programme going, which came to light after the Cold War.
MAD theory
At first, American leaders hoped their bombers and their lead would protect them. After the Soviet bomb and the ICBM this was no longer true. Each side now had so many missiles, spread between silos, bombers and submarines, that a first strike could never destroy them all. The side attacked would hit back, so any nuclear attack meant the end of the attacker as well.
This was Mutually Assured Destruction. It meant nuclear weapons worked as deterrence: they were built so that they would never be used. Supporters argued that MAD kept the peace between the superpowers. Critics said it rested on terror, cost vast sums, and could fail through a mistake. In October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the USA and the USSR close to nuclear war, but both stepped back.
Common mistakes
- Saying the Soviets built the first atom bomb. The USA did, in 1945. The USSR followed in 1949.
- Mixing up the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb. The hydrogen bomb is far more powerful, and uses an atom bomb to set it off.
- Thinking MAD means the USA could win a nuclear war. The idea is that nobody wins, which is why nobody starts one.
- Forgetting that chemical and biological weapons were also weapons of mass destruction.
Exam-style question
Explain TWO ways in which the delivery of nuclear weapons in the early 1970s was different from the delivery of the atom bombs in 1945. (In 1945 the USA had dropped two atom bombs on Japan, each carried by a single B-29 bomber.) [6 marks]
Model answer
One difference is the speed and certainty of delivery. In 1945 each atom bomb was carried by a piston-engined B-29 bomber, which flew for hours and could in theory have been shot down. By the early 1970s both superpowers had intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as the American Minuteman, which could reach the enemy's homeland in about 30 minutes and which no defence could stop.
A second difference is the range of ways of delivering the weapons. In 1945 there was only one: a bomber flying over the target. By the early 1970s there were three, because the superpowers also had missiles in underground silos and missile submarines such as the American Polaris boats. A submarine could hide under the sea, so an enemy could not destroy every weapon in a first strike, which made an attack on the USA or the USSR far too dangerous.
What lifts it to the top level: two differences, each comparing 1945 with the early 1970s, with specific facts about both sides.
Exam tip
In a "different from" question, write about BOTH periods in every paragraph, using a word such as "whereas". Facts about only one period earn very little.
Recap
- The USSR tested an atom bomb in 1949, and both superpowers had hydrogen bombs by 1953.
- Delivery grew from bombers to land-based missiles (ICBMs, from 1957) and submarine-launched missiles (Polaris, 1960).
- Chemical and biological weapons were also developed; the Biological Weapons Convention came into force in 1975.
- MAD meant that an attack would destroy both sides, so nuclear weapons were meant to deter, not to be used.