9/1/2023 0 Comments Ww2 united states gas mask![]() ![]() In 1966, the United States announced that the Soviet Union had installed a short-range ABM system around Moscow comprised of 64 launchers with Galosh nuclear-tipped interceptors (the system still exists today). government’s preferred nuclear strategies, research on missile defense (and criticism from defense hawks such as Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson) notwithstanding. ![]() 2Though some analysts believed nuclear war might be winnable or at least survivable, the concepts of deterrence and mutually assured destruction by the 1960s had become the U.S. Absent credible defenses, both countries increased the sizes of their nuclear arsenals. 1ĭespite these initial endeavors, neither Soviet nor American ABM programs progressed far enough to protect either side against a nuclear strike. A succession of American research and development programs ensued, including Nike-Zeus, Project Defender, and Nike-X. The United States initially emphasized strategic air defenses that could stop Soviet bombers, but focus shifted to missile defense programs later in the 1950s as the Soviets progressed steadily on missile technology and eventually launched Sputnik into orbit. The Kremlin started an ABM research program to protect against incoming American missiles in 1953. As will be discussed at the end, Obama retains two viable options for missile defense in Europe: “The Bargaining Chip” or “The Gas Mask.” Arms Control and Missile Defense: Fit To Be Tied?Įfforts to defend against The Bomb began during World War II and accelerated in the early years of the Cold War. This paper will review the history of missile defense since World War II in search of insights that can be applied to the current situation. To chart a course forward for Washington and Moscow, it first helps to turn an eye to the past. Hated by Russia, it threatens to impede cooperation on a host of critical issues such as negotiations over a successor agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires at the end of 2009. ![]() missile defense installation in Europe is a major reason why. Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitriy Medvedev inherited a strained bilateral relationship from their predecessors. The parties may agree on the desirability of theater missile defenses to defend against rogue state attacks, but even such narrow agreements are debated vigorously. Most Republicans, on the other hand, hold Ronald Reagan’s belief that vulnerability to nuclear attack is philosophically illegitimate and missile defense is therefore a moral imperative. Most Democrats regard national missile defense as technologically infeasible and excessively expensive. In the American political sphere, Democrats and Republicans continue to disagree. ![]() In the context of U.S.-Russian relations, missile defense continues to generate heated rhetoric and military threats. People, places, and technologies may change, but basic dynamics remain the same. What is most remarkable about debate over missile defense today is how similar it is to years past. From these simple roots, missile defense quickly grew into one of the most controversial national security issues of the Cold War-and beyond. Such vulnerability did not sit well with American or Soviet leaders, so both sides accelerated efforts to defend against nuclear attack, primarily through anti-ballistic missile (“ABM” or “missile defense”) systems that might destroy incoming missiles before they delivered their devastating payloads. This terror was accentuated by the advent of long-range missiles that could reach targets in fewer than 60 minutes. Once both countries tested powerful hydrogen bombs in the early 1950s, the nature of the nuclear balance of terror became crystal clear: each nation possessed unstoppable weapons that could inflict incalculable damage and kill millions of people. For the first time in its history, the continental United States was subject to unpreventable destruction at the hands of a foreign power. The symbolic age of American invulnerability came to an abrupt end in August 1949 when the Soviet Union announced that it had successfully tested the atomic bomb. Published by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (July 2009) ![]()
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