HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

Technology

A major feature of the Cold War was the arms race between the member states of the Warsaw Pact and those of NATO. This resulted in substantial scientific discoveries in many technological and military fields.

Some particularly revolutionary advances were made in the field of nuclear weapons and rocketry, which led to the space race (many of the rockets used to launch humans and satellites into orbit were originally based on military designs formulated during this period).

Other fields in which arms races occurred include jet fighters, bombers, chemical weapons, biological weapons, anti-aircraft warfare, surface-to-surface missiles (including SRBMs and cruise missiles), inter-continental ballistic missiles (as well as IRBMs), anti-ballistic missiles, anti-tank weapons, submarines and anti-submarine warfare, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, electronic intelligence, signals intelligence, reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

One prominent feature of the nuclear arms race, especially following the mass deployment of nuclear ICBMs due to the flawed assumption that the manned bomber was fatally vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles, was the concept of deterrence via assured destruction, later, mutually assured destruction or "MAD."

The idea was that the Western bloc would not attack the Eastern bloc or vice versa because both sides had more than enough nuclear weapons to reduce each other's existence and make the entire planet uninhabitable. Therefore, launching an attack on either party would be suicidal, and neither would attempt it. With increasing numbers and accuracy of delivery systems, particularly in the closing stages of the Cold War, the possibility of a first-strike doctrine weakened the deterrence theory. A first strike would aim to degrade the enemy's nuclear forces to such an extent that the retaliatory response would involve "acceptable" losses.