arms race
The Arms Race was one of the scariest races between the USSR and the US. The whole world had to sit back and watch as these two superpowers battled it out with who could produce more of the deadliest weapon that could wipe out tens of thousands of people at a time. If this turned from a race into a war, humanity could have been wiped out and the whole world could have been destroyed.
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startThe US was the first country to develop and use a nuclear weapon. We first used them in Japan during WWII. In 1949 the Soviet Union tested their first bomb and it worked successfully. The US wanted to keep being ahead in science since they didn't think that the Soviets were that advanced, so they made the H-bomb which was a lot more powerful and in a few years the Soviets also made an H-bomb. Both of the countries settled into this competition to see who could build more of these demolishing nuclear weapons.
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mutual destructionThis spread fear through people around the world in fear of what would happen if a war broke out between the two. This meant that both of the countries could do equivalent damage and wipe out one another with their bombs. Both sides were ready to launch just in case the other one attacked, however the damage that these weapons would cause was way too high and risky so neither country fired theirs. Other countries such as Great Britain, France, and the People's Republic of China also developed their own nuclear weapons.
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finishThe production of racing to create more was becoming very expensive to keep up with. There were enough bombs produced that if they were used they would destroy the world. Later on after both sides realized this they signed the SALT I and SALT II agreements which allowed both of them to reduce the production of the weapon. The Arms Race basically came to an end when the Soviet Union crashed in 1991, which was the end of the Cold War. It was safe to say that the damage that was caused was very small to what could of happened if those weapons were put to use.
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