Cold War Military Technology

After the Manhattan Project, American nuclear developments were heavily influenced by the Soviet Union as they built their own. Each superpower created new technologies in attempts to establish dominance over the other. Without the nuclear threat of the opposing power, there would be no motivation to make these weapons.

Although no nuclear weapons were used against each other, the US and Soviet Union did engage in “limited warfare” as each side attempted to establish dominance over the other. Direct confrontation was a rarity between the US and the Soviet Union, although conflict was supported between other states or groups. In many countries, the two rival superpowers would support opposing groups entangled in warfare. Military action spread throughout the globe with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, and Korean War (Smithsonian 384-385).

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when 75,000 North Korean People’s Army soldiers crossed the boundary of the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union supported the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States the Republic of Korea to the south. American troops had entered the war on their behalf, it was viewed as a war against international communism. This war was the first time “hot” fighting occurred - a conflict involving actual fighting.

Both leaders on each side believed that Korea needed to be unified under their own governments. Border skirmishes were common, as no leader was content with their side of the parallel. Syngman Rhee, the anti-communist dictator was reluctantly supported by the US. Kim Il Sung lead the communist north with the support of the Soviet Union (Korean War 1). Americans believed that the threat of communism needed to be contained from spreading t...

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...ation. In July of 1952, the M-48 came off the production lines, and it proved to be fully

Fig. 3: T-55 Battle Tank (Publications International) capable of standing up against the T-54 (M-48 General George S. Patton Medium Tank 1).

Another American weapon influenced by a foreign country is the M60 machine gun. It was the result of experiments trying to convert the German MG 42 into an American caliber. The MG 34 and 42 were the first universal practical machine guns, having the ability to fire faster and be cost efficient. Many other countries that faced Germany during WWII took interest in their weapons as well. The M60 featured a gas-operated, air cooled and belt fed system (M60 Machine Gun 1). The USSR also imitated the MG 42 with the RPK, by taking the concept of the MG42’s sustained fire role and combining it with the durability of the AK- 42.