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Arms race - Coggle Diagram
Arms race
Significance of arms race
The arms race made each side more powerful with both countries spending huge amounts of money to build up their armies, navies, submarine fleets and stocks of weapons, missiles and other conventional weapons.
Both sides felt that it was most important to stay ahead of the other
By 1950, both sides had enough weapons to destroy the world many times over
Both sides understood the risk of having so many weapons so started building up forces to prevent war rather than start and win a war.
Timeline
America
1945 - Atomic bombs used
1952 - Hydrogen bomb testing
1953 - Truman is replaced by President Eisenhower
1957 - Intercontinental ballistic missile tested
USSR
1949 - Atomic bomb developed
1953 - Hydrogen bomb tested
1953 - Stalin dies and a power struggle starts
1956 - Khrushchev becomes leader of Soviet Union
1957 - Intercontinental ballistic missile tested
New leaders and their significance
Eisenhower
Elected as president in 1952
Wanted to stop the spread of communism but worried about the threat of nuclear war
Was willing to work to improve relations
Khrushchev
Emerged as leader of the USSR in 1956
Criticised Stalin and his policies and started de-Stalinising Russia
Offered a policy of peaceful co-existence