Origins:

• The U.S. was already afraid of communism before World War II, but the Soviet Union was our ally against Germany
• Once it was clear that Germany was falling, both countries rushed to occupy as much territory as possible.  One the reasons the U.S. used the Atom Bomb was to end the war faster so the Soviets would not take as much territory in Asia
• The Soviet Union wanted some control in what it saw as buffer states, and tended to move towards making them puppets.
• The U.S. saw this as the Soviets moving to gradually expand towards world dominion and developed a policy of containment.  The Truman Doctrine (1947)--the U.S. would help the people of free countries fighting communist takeover (either from without or within)
• mindset--everyone has to choose sides
• The U.S. supplied Berlin by air (which no one was sure would be possible) when the Soviets blockaded it in 1948 to try to take complete control.

 planes lined up for Berlin airlift

• Domino theory--fear of other countries falling to communism
• The Red Scare of the 1950s ( Joseph McCarthy )--anyone who had had communist or disloyal ideas was a threat to the nation and should loose their job
• Korean War (1950-53)
• Cuban Missile Crisis , October 18-29, 1962.  The Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba.  Kennedy responded by blockading Cuba.  The Soviet leader, Nikita S. Khrushchev, authorized the firing of nuclear weapons against the U.S. if the U.S. invaded Cuba.  After several days the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles.

The Nuclear Arms Race

• The Soviets did not start full-scale research on an atomic bomb until after Hiroshima, but once Stalin realized its importance and started pushing they caught up fast.
• first Soviet atomic bomb tested Aug. 1949 (espionage helped them at most by 3 years).  Stalin wasn’t satisfied he was secure still and the U.S. felt a lot more insecure
• The first Soviet atomic bomb had used the same design as some early U.S. bombs. But the first Soviet hydrogen bomb was an original design, different and perhaps even ahead of that of the United States. On August 12, 1953, the Soviet Union exploded its first thermonuclear bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan.

• U.S. cold war strategy was based on bombers carrying nuclear weapons--for one thing, it was cheap, and Truman and Eisenhower both were reluctant to increase the size of the government and distort the economy by large-scale defense spending.  Substituting technological superiority for a large standing army put a new weight on being ahead
• after initial slow development, intercontinental ballistic missiles came to be seen as the next key technology
• First successful test of Atlas was Dec. 1957, first unit activated April 1958 but real operational capability probably not until 1959.  Initially had to be erected and fueled (and LOX) before launch.
• Soviet  R-7/SS-6 Sapwood ICBM tested Jan. 30, 1958, limited operational capability in early 1960.

 Titan ICBM

What caused the end of the cold war?

• bankrupcy of the Soviet Union
• due to arms race, corruption, problems with their system
• some people argue that Reagan's commitment to Strategic Defense Initiative (defense against ICBMs) was the specific increase in the arms race that the Soviets couldn't afford
• thaw in relationship between U.S. and Soviets in later 1980s, new willingness to negotiate on both sides, the U.S. didn't take advantage of Soviet weakness

Transformation of Soviet Union

• Gorbachev's Coming to Power (1985)--a new generation
• Economic Reform Plan: Perestroika (Restructuring)
• make the system work better by giving more incentives
• not traditional incentives but market-based incentives--small step towards a free market
• Political Reform Plan: Glasnost (Openness) eg. less censorship of newspapers, arts
• Foreign  Policy: From Detente (willingness to make treaties with your enemy to make things stable) to Disengagement (step out of the race)

Fall of Berlin Wall (Nov. 9, 1989)--see also a personal account

• came from ordinary people who refused to live by the old rules

Disintegration of Soviet Union (1991)

• Secession of Baltic States [Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia]
• Aborted Communist Coup
• Collapse of U.S.S.R. & Boris Yelsin's Rise to Power--moving substantially away from communism

• end of the arms race--no one to compete with any more
• new mission--small wars, police actions (when do you have the right to interfere in another country?)
• need different kinds of weapons, spending money different places
• budget cuts, major cuts in some programs

Impact on U.S. technology?