Cold War Military Technology

The Cold War was a period of many tensions and developments. Both opposing sides constantly made new military improvements to establish dominance over the other. Foreign countries influenced American military technology during the Cold War era.

The Cold War was a large disagreement about the US’s and the Soviet Union’s system of government and economy, capitalism against communism. Each side viewed the opposition as having an “incorrect” system. Capitalism, the American system can be traced back to the 1500s. Many people lived as peasants on land owned by aristocrats, in Europe and elsewhere. Few people experimented in investing. One example of this is investments in shops sent to Africa, Asia and the Americas. These ships would return with spices, fur, and ivory, which were sold for great profits. These profits were often used to make larger investments, money would be used to make more money. This system, called capitalism, made few people rich early on.

With new inventions in the 1800s, technological improvements made it possible to produce goods more efficiently. Inventors received capital from investors, which was used to pay for the building of factories to produce the new products. Investors would own these factories. (Collier 11-12) Advances in machinery allowed fewer people to grow more crops and livestock. People moved into cities for work. Working people in the capitalist system earned low wages. Poor living conditions were not uncommon as well, such as cheap and unhealthy food, starvation and living in overcrowded conditions.(Collier, 13) People began to believe the capitalist system forced the majority into living desperate lives. Protests were held for higher wages, these efforts succeeded, although not in a major...

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... had penetrated this group of scientists. A special committee on the atomic bomb was created by Stalin on August 20, 1945, two weeks after Hiroshima (Holloway 2).

The first atomic bomb was tested in the summer of 1945, at the Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. A large, bright flash lit the sky for 200 miles. A mushroom cloud reach up 40,000 feet into the sky; civilian windows were blown out for 100 miles. A half mile crater of glass was created because the sand had melted. A cover-up story about an ammunition dump explosion was quickly released.

The atomic bomb gave Americans confidence and changed their attitudes toward security commitments to a positive one. It also caused Soviet policy to be more cautious, and lessing willing to compromise as they would be seen as victims of intimidation. Relationships were much more tense with such power (Holloway 5).