Build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Arms Race

After the USA used nuclear weapons to defeat Japan in World War 2, the Soviet Union began to focus on building its own nuclear weapons and a 'nuclear deterrent'.

1940s and 1950s - The USA leads

On the 6th and 9th August 1945, the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to defeat Japan and bring them to surrender. This ended World War 2.
On the 29th of August 1949, the Soviet Union completed its development of an atomic bomb. The USSR was 4 years behind the USA with its nuclear capabilites.
In 1952, the United States successfully built a Hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen bombs are estimated by experts to be 1,000x more destructive than the atomic bombs used in Japan in 1945.
In 1953, the USSR built their own Hydrogen bomb (H-bomb). They were now only 1 year behind the USA.

1950s - Neck and neck

Atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs were important because they allowed countries to do lots of damage to their enemies.
Missiles became very important because they allowed countries to remotely fire lots of missiles at their enemies quickly. The atomic bombs over Japan had been dropped out of planes.
In 1958, the USSR completed a test of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, called an ICBM. These missiles could be fired 5,500km (the distance from Lisbon to New York over the Atlantic Ocean).
The USA developed ICBMs in 1959, but the USSR had taken the lead in the Arms Race.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Whilst the Soviet Union didn't have nuclear weapons (before 1949), the USA knew that in a war, it could use nuclear weapons and win.
After 1949, both the USA and USSR had nuclear weapons.
After 1959, both sides could fire nuclear weapons 5,500km at each other.
If there were to be a nuclear war between the 2 countries, it is likely that both countries would have been completely destroyed, firing nuclear missiles at each other. This concept was called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
This made using nuclear weapons seem like a worse option.

The Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was signed on the 14th of May 1955.
The Warsaw Pact was a rival to NATO (which was created in 1949).
It was an alliance between the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and more).

1Key Topics

1.1Conflict & Cooperation 1918-1939

1.1.1The Treaty of Versailles

1.1.2The Terms of Versailles 1

1.1.3The Terms of Versailles 2

1.1.4Versailles & the League of Nations

1.1.5LoN Successes & Failures

1.1.6LoN Failure - Upper Silesia

1.1.7LoN Failure - Corfu & Washington

1.1.8End of Topic Test - Treaties and Agreements

1.1.9The Great Depression

1.1.10Tension in Europe in the 1930s

1.1.11WWII & Failure of the League of Nations

1.1.12End of Topic Test - Tension in the 1930s

1.1.13Grade 9 - Conflict & Cooperation

1.2The Cold War 1945-c.1989

1.2.1Emerging US-Soviet Rivalry

1.2.2Communism in the 20th Century

1.2.3The Truman Doctrine & Marshall Plan

1.2.4East-West Alliances

1.2.5Berlin Crises

1.2.6The End of the Berlin Wall

1.2.7End of Topic Test - East & West

1.2.8Build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.9The Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.10Cold War Conflict - Vietnam

1.2.11Cold War Conflict - Afghanistan

1.2.12End of Topic Test - The Cold War 1945-1989

1.2.13Grade 9 - The Cold War

1.3From the End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.1Reagan & Gorbachev

1.3.2Consequences of the Soviet War in Afghanistan

1.3.3End of Topic Test - End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.4Grade 9 - The End of the Cold War

2Changing Interpretations

2.1Changing Interpretations

2.1.1Appeasement

2.1.2The Responsibility for Cold War Tensions

2.1.3End of Topic Test - Appeasement

2.1.4Grade 9 - Changing Interpretations

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