The Atomic Bomb's Effect On The Cold War

The atomic bomb, a powerful weapon, launched an already weary world into a state of paranoia and political tension. This discovery, while spectacular in its own right, caused a need for new international laws. For safety reasons, a weapon of mass destruction cannot exist without regulations. Constant danger of instant death and nuclear explosions provoked more hostility than World War II itself. Without any defense against this cataclysmic force, the world was in desperate need for reassurance. The policy M.A.D.,which stands for mutually assured destruction, provided some consolation. M.A.D. had an even bigger effect on this time period than expectations allowed. Life and death hung in the balance of this piece of psychology merged into foreign
had many effects on the Cold War, it also leads to the Free World’s victory over communism. The Cold War officially ended on December 25th, 1991, when an agreement was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, and Ronald Reagan, president of the United States. Each country took part in the START, or the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, and SALT II, or the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II, talks which approved of the regression of nuclear weapons. Both countries were instructed to stop mass producing nuclear weapons, which had been making the effects more dangerous and effective. The Soviet Union then fell apart due to communism’s inept ability in the advancement of the economy and infrastructure. This once vast country split apart into 15 smaller and different countries, including: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Spending 27% of its money, the USSR used billions of dollars on their nuclear arsenal, crippling the Soviet economy and creating a depression in northern Europe.. The “credibility gap” in the Soviet Union increased substantially as the war went on. Fewer people than before believed in the power of a fascist government and plausibility on how and why events are occurring. As Mutually Assured Destruction was not a huge foreign policy, the people of the USSR worried that massive retaliation, the ability to respond by a military attack with nuclear weapons to devastate the enemy, could be a considered U.S. policy. Unlike the Soviet Union, who is still in a depression, the America’s economy was fine. Capitalism allowed corporations to grow and expand and while revolutionizing their products, while in communism, no one had the drive or access to resources to improve what it was they were selling. M.A.D. created a stable environment, allowing the nature of two different societies to run its course. The American economy allowed expansion and change while the communism’s stoic nature could not adapt to the