Ethan Phan

5/1/18
Arms Race/SDI Article

Arms Race and SDI Article

On August 29,1949, the sky of the Semipalatinsk Test Site in present day Kazakhstan

was lit up by the blast of the Soviet RDS-1 nuclear bomb nicknamed “First

Lightning”(Soviets Explode Atomic Bomb, History.com,) It had just been a test but it still

had made a bigger impact than just Semipalatinsk. “First Lightning” was the first Soviet

nuclear test and the first nuclear test made by a country other than the US(Soviets Explode

Atomic Bomb, History.com,). The American intelligence had previously thought that the

Soviets wouldn’t be ready to test any bombs until at least 1953(Soviets Explode Atomic

Bomb, History.com,). This event was a key event in the early parts of the nuclear arms race

because it showed that the USSR was far more advanced than the Americans had previously

believed. This event was just one of many shows of forces displayed by the two world

superpowers. The Cold War was a battle of dominance between the US and the USSR to see

who was truly the most powerful and dominant nation in the world in which the US won.

The threat of nuclear warfare intensified the deep mistrust and rivalry between the two

countries and their ideologies. It was the battle of the East vs. the West, Capitalism vs.

Communism, the Soviets against the Americans. This rivalry extended further than the tense

political situation, the intensity of the rivalry was seen in sports and media. In the 1985 film

Rocky IV, the American protagonist fights the steroid using Soviet boxer in the name of

freedom and America. The biggest news coming out of the 1980 winter Olympics in Lake

Placid NY, was the US’ underdog triumph over the Soviets in the men's hockey semifinal to
send them to the finals where they’d eventually win gold. All across America fears of

communism and the soviets infiltrating American society were spreading and growing.

After WWII the USSR was at its strongest point yet still could not match up to the

US’ economy or Military (Li, Brandon. The USSR was at its best, was only almost as strong

as the US, Aug 17, 2015). The US’ GDP of $1.47trillion was nearly four times larger than

USSR’s $343 Billion(Li, Brandon. The USSR was at its best, was only almost as strong as

the US, Aug 17, 2015). The US’ military had over a million more soldiers and was far more

experienced and the USSR’s Navy and Airforce greatly inferior to the US Navy and

Airforce(Li, Brandon. The USSR was at its best, was only almost as strong as the US, Aug

17, 2015). Although they could not match the US in economic and militaristic factors, they

could match and outpower the US’ nuclear program. Until the late 70’s the Americans had

vastly outnumbered the USSR in the number of nuclear weapons. By 1980 the USSR had

some 5,000 more nuclear warheads than the Americans and in their prime in the late 80’s the

soviets possessed some 40,000 nuclear warheads, about 15,000 more than the Americans(Li,

Brandon. The USSR was at its best, was only almost as strong as the US, Aug 17, 2015).

Despite being outmatched in military and economic power, the soviet nuclear program

rivaled the US’ nuclear program. This threat of Nuclear warfare was the only threat the

Soviet Union had to the US.

Despite a shot having never been shot during the cold war/Arms Race, the

competition for the bigger badder world super power had a clear winner. At the conclusion of

the Arms Race the Soviet Union had crumbled and the Russian economy was beginning to

sink into a deep depression (Johnston, Matthew. ​The Russian Economy since the collapse of

the Soviet Union,​ Investopedia, Jan 21, 2016). While the remnants of the Soviet Union
flustered, the US was assumed as the dominant global superpower(Friedman, George. ​Beyond

the Post-Cold War World, ​Stratfor, Apr 13, 2013). In the battle over who the dominant nation

had been the US and its allies had triumphed over the Soviets and their allies, paving the way

for the dominance of the US globally.