Causes of Arms Race
1. The United States continues to implement the policy of hegemony after World War II
In one of the speeches Truman made in 1946, as follow ‘The United States today is a strong country, no country is more powerful than it. ... ... This means that we have such a power, you have to act as the burden of leadership and responsibility.’ This proved that U.S.A has the ambition to become the leader of the world and take responsibilities in every world affair that include US interests. If U.S.A wants to maintain this policy of hegemony and its influence in the world, she must have enough strength as compared to the other countries which dare to challenge her power, and military advancement over other is one key to maintain her power. Thus U.S.A is putting huge amount of resources continuously into its military upgrades and developments. However another country might perceive that she is also capable of leading the world (in this case, the USSR). So USSR was also building up its military strength to challenge the U.S.A, thus causing the arms race and space race between two countries. Yet, the countries could not only lead the world on terrestrial spaces, they had to show the world that space could also be conquered by them- achieving what they would deem as the epitome of superiority. However the reason for USSR’s ambition led us to the second reason, a traditional great-power chauvinism left from Tsarist Russia.
2. A traditional great-power chauvinism left from Tsarist Russia
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. The USSR leaders are tend to believe the Russian race is better than the others and should be the leader for the rest. We can see this from the forming of USSR. The Soviet government placed the Russian Federation and the Russian people in a very special place, high above the ground above the other races and nations in USSR. Also because of this traditional great-power chauvinism led to the soviets to treat them as the leader of the world, led to challenge the other leader U.S.A. During the process, arm race occurred with many other competitions such as space race.
3. The increase in USSR strength
Even if the soviets had the ambition to challenge US, they still needed to have the strength to compete with U.S.A. In 1950 the GDP per capita in USSR is only 31% of the GDP per capita in U.S.A, but in 1960, it raise to 58%. This shows a tremendously development for USSR economy in ten years time. The following table is a comparison of strategic nuclear forces between USSR and U.S.A
Year InterContinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) Submarine-launched Missiles
USSR U.S.A USSR U.S.A
1963 100 424 100 224
1970 1300 1054 240 550
1972 1050 1054 160 656
1974 1575 1054 720 656
1975 1618 1054 787 656
1979 1618 1054 787 656
And based on the table we can see USSR started large scale nuclear weapon manufacturing in 1960s. By early 1970s, US-Soviet strategic nuclear forces were generally balanced to ensure the complete destruction for the opposite side. This clearly shown the process of arm race, and it was only started when USSR experienced a fast development from 1950s to 1960s. Only after 1960s, USSR has the economic backing to challenge U.S.A as the world leader.
4. Principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
This is particularly applicable for the Arms Race. Both countries may have started developing their weapons to stock up a formidable arsenal which would in turn prevent its rival from attacking it, as it would guarantee a retaliation at a much more destructive level. Therefore, for defense purposes, the countries both produced more and more weapons.
Comparison of causes of A/S Race to that of Cold War
1. Ideological Struggle
It is evident that the Cold War was the battle of the ideologies- Communism vs. Democracy/Capitalism (depending on whether you are taking the political or economic point of view respectively). The Iron Curtain which divided the Eastern from the Western bloc shows the divide between the two systems. While the concept of détente (peaceful coexistence) was pursued (especially at the beginnings of the Cold War), there was an intention to promote communism to the rest of the world on USSR’s part (while maintaining cordial relationships with its rival). In Khrushchev’s own words, "We must realize that we cannot coexist eternally, for a long time. One of us must go to his grave. We do not want to go to the grave. They (America) do not want to go to their grave, either. So what must be done? We must push them to the grave." The USA issued their own Truman Doctrine to contain the spread of communism, and throughout there was a strong advocacy for the promotion of ideals of democracy throughout the world. In Ronald Reagan’s words, it was hoped that “the march of freedom and democracy . . . will leave Marxist-Leninism on the ashheap of history.”
The Arms Race was, as explained above, an extension and reification of this ideological struggle.
2. (Deep rooted) Mistrust and Distrust
Despite coordination efforts during WWII against a common enemy Germany (antagonistic cooperation), there is a long history of mistrust and distrust among the two countries. Events that happened during the Cold War, such as the Berlin Blockade and Marshall Aid increased the amount of mistrust and distrust among them. (As many of us have pointed out in our history essays, it was a continual vicious cycle.) While not directly a cause of the Arms Race, we can see evidence of such suspicion through the increased espionage activity, which occurred during the races, from the U2 reconnaissance planes to GRU (Russia’s military intelligence agency), trying to squeeze out the secrets of the rival’s progress and at the same time keeping one’s own secrets watertight.
3. Power Rivalry
During the Cold War period, it was pretty much established that only 2 countries could take the status as the dominating “world superpower”, and those 2 countries, needless to say, were the USA and USSR. (I’m starting to type USSA and USR. It’s pretty confusing.) It is therefore an aim of theirs to finally achieve that coveted status.
The Arms/Space Race provided a convenient platform for both parties to compete (it is relatively easier to quantify who the winner and loser was, and it was probably less violent, though no less dangerous, as a hot war).
