How did the development and attainment of nuclear weapons establish a relative peace between the United States and the Soviet Union?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary but correct responses should include: Had the United States kept its monopoly of nuclear weapons, the country would have been permanently secure in the role of world arbiter for which its size and wealth equipped it. But the government felt obliged to share the secret with Britain, whose collaboration had been vital in making the bomb. Partly as a result of treason by Soviet sympathizers in the British foreign-service, Russia's research team produced its own "A-bomb" in 1949 . Since Russia's main strength was in manpower, the new technology did not favor it, but the tensions of the time obliged the superpowers to match each other's menace. Coldwar stimulated the development of new military technologies. Paradoxically, however, the very scale of the fear inhibited conflict. Outside the Soviet sphere of influence, Western Europe could enjoy a security unthinkable without nuclear bombs, which canceled Soviet superiority in other forms of military prowess. On the other hand, nuclear equivalency with the United States guaranteed Russia's free hand in territories it had already conquered or coerced. Yugoslavia broke free of Russian hegemony in 1947–1948 before the completion of the Soviet bomb. Afterward, other East European satellite states tried to do the same and failed. Within a few years, technical improvements in the nuclear arsenal brought Russian and American firepower to the level of "mutually assured destruction." The balance of terror kept the peace between them.