Atomic+Age

Contributers • Andrew Kolodgie • Colin Kerner • Kyle Thomas • Michael Salvesen http://coldwar-coreyc0910.wikispaces.com/Space+Race
 * =The Atomic Age=**
 * ~ Year ||~  ||||~ Launchers ||~   ||||~ Warheads ||~   ||||~ Megatonnage ||~   ||
 * ||  || USA || USSR ||   || USA || USSR ||   || USA || USSR ||   ||
 * 1964 ||  || 2,416 || 375 ||   || 6,800 || 500 ||   || 7,500 || 1,000 ||   ||
 * 1966 ||  || 2,396 || 435 ||   || 5,000 || 550 ||   || 5,600 || 1,200 ||   ||
 * 1968 ||  || 2,360 || 1,045 ||   || 4,500 || 850 ||   || 5,100 || 2,300 ||   ||
 * 1970 ||  || 2,230 || 1,680 ||   || 3,900 || 1,800 ||   || 4,300 || 3,100 ||   ||
 * 1972 ||  || 2,230 || 2,090 ||   || 5,800 || 2,100 ||   || 4,100 || 4,000 ||   ||
 * 1974 ||  || 2,180 || 2,380 ||   || 8,400 || 2,400 ||   || 3,800 || 4,200 ||   ||
 * 1976 ||  || 2,100 || 2,390 ||   || 9,400 || 3,200 ||   || 3,700 || 4,500 ||   ||
 * 1978 ||  || 2,058 || 2,350 ||   || 9,800 || 5,200 ||   || 3,800 || 5,400 ||   ||
 * 1980 ||  || 2,042 || 2,490 ||   || 10,000 || 6,000 ||   || 4,000 || 5,700 ||   ||
 * 1982 ||  || 2,032 || 2,490 ||   || 11,000 || 8,000 ||   || 4,100 || 7,100 ||   ||
 * == Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) == ||
 * Overview of Arms race :** The arms race was time period in which both Russia and the U.S.A participated in. This was when the two "super-powers" of the world America and Russia wanted to show their power over the world. They did this by creating nuclear weapons such as the hydrogen bombs and others. This graph above shows the amount of atomic bombs that were created by Russia and America during the years of the arms race. There we also many tests that went on with the atomic warfare and this created radioactive material. America and Russia finally signed a treaty that said that the super-powers were to stop the testing of the nuclear warheads. This building of nuclear warheads soon had people create the ICBM missiles. The building of these missiles gave people the idea of the "space race"; the idea of putting man into space. The point of the arms race and the space race was to show who was the stronger nation. This would show to the rest of the world which is stronger.

**Mutual assured destruction** (**MAD**)
is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender, It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use of the very same weapons. The strategy is effectively a form of Nash equilibrium, in which both sides are attempting to avoid their worst possible outcome //__nuclear annihilation.__//

**Russian control on nuclear weapons:**
The Russians had a large supply of nuclear weapons. They wanted to build up there supply so they had the power to launch back if they were attacked or if they thought the U.S. would, they could have the first strike. There as was a conflict called the Cuban Missile Crisis this was when Fidel Castro took over Cuba. He was a communist and he was in line with Russia. This was during the cold war when JFK was president and the soviet leader Khrushchev wanted to test JFK's presidency. He put some of his nuclear missiles in cuba and set them up so they could hit any large city in America. When JFK heard the was mad and he didn't want to start a nuclear war. After many threats they decided to make a compromise. It worked.

**American Control on nuclear weapons:**
After Russia started loading up on nuclear bombs the U.S felt they should do the same in case Russia attacked the U.S could retaliate. During the Cuban Missile Crisis American and Russia made a compromise and that was if Russia removed its missiles from Cuba then America would remove its missiles from Turkey. It worked! However America only removed their missiles from secretly. The rest of the world still thought that they had missiles in Turkey.

**Nuclear Optimism:**
During the 1950's, most of the population thought that nuclear power was the way to go. They saw nuclear generators as the power of the future. They thought that it would provide a clean and affordable way to produce electric power. It was, but at a price. It did provide cheap energy but it produces nuclear waste which is radioactive and takes 20 years to cool. Even after it cools it never really degrades. There is also the danger of a nuclear meltdown. Which can cause an explosion and the irradiation of the nearby area. An example of this is the Chernobyl incident. America came very close to one of these incidents at the nuclear site called Three Mile Island, if our brave American scientist had not stopped the meltdown most of this area (around 70 miles) would be radioactive and impossible to live in.