Recommended for You. Home ». Classifieds ». Obituaries ». Search DailyHerald. President Woodrow Wilson led the way by making it a key point in his famous Fourteen Points speech, wherein he laid out his vision for postwar peace. At the Washington Naval Conference , the United States, Britain and Japan signed a treaty to restrict arms, but in the mids Japan chose not to renew the agreement.
Moreover, Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles and began to rearm. To help discourage Soviet communist expansion, the United States built more atomic weaponry. But in , the Soviets tested their own atomic bomb, and the Cold War nuclear arms race was on. Four years later, both countries tested their first intercontinental ballistic missiles and the arms race rose to a terrifying new level. President Dwight D. After a series of mishaps and failures, the United States successfully launched its first satellite into space on January 31, , and the Space Race continued as both countries researched new technology to create more powerful weapons.
Throughout the s, the United States became convinced that the Soviet Union had better missile capability that, if launched, could not be defended against. Many politicians used the Missile Gap as a talking point in the presidential election. Yet, in fact, U. Over the next three decades, however, both countries grew their arsenals to well over 10, warheads.
The Cold War arms race came to a tipping point in after the John F. After U. The tense Cuban Missile Crisis standoff ensued and came to a head as Kennedy and Khrushchev exchanged letters and made demands. Unlike the two Cold War-era nuclear superpowers, then, Beijing did not integrate nuclear strategy with conventional military strategy or pursue any form of nuclear warfighting. It developed a nuclear force based on missiles rather than gravity bombs, because missiles are more appropriate for counterstrike purposes; did not mate nuclear warheads to missiles in peacetime; pledged not to conduct a nuclear strike before suffering a nuclear attack ; and promised not to attack non-nuclear-armed countries.
The Chinese leadership also wanted to maintain full control over the weapons, an objective easier met by maintaining a small nuclear arsenal and refusing to engage in arms races with the United States and the Soviet Union. Unlike some other nuclear-armed states, Beijing never delegated authority over nuclear strikes to senior military officers. Starting in the early s, as tensions increased in U. During this period, its stockpile of weapons grew modestly in size while Beijing prioritized qualitative improvement, seemingly to ensure that it kept pace with technological developments in the U.
Accordingly, China improved the mobility of its forces to make it difficult for the U. It also diversified its platforms, notably by investing in a sea-based deterrent, because submarines are less predictable launch locations; extended the range of its missiles to target the US homeland; and invested in multiple independent reentry vehicles to increase its chances of penetrating U.
Beijing, in other words, seemingly became interested in developing a first-strike capability against U. Britain is to announce an increase to its nuclear weapons stockpile as part of a wide-ranging review of The EU launched legal proceedings against Britain on Monday, alleging that London had broken the protocol of its UK nuclear weapons buildup in coordination with US may trigger new arms race.
But it has the potential to trigger a new arms race. UK's decision to increase the number of nuclear warheads could be a result of its consultation with the US. The UK now does not have independent research and manufacturing systems for nuclear weapons. The ballistic missiles equipped on UK's strategic nuclear submarines are actually US-produced Trident missiles. The nuclear warheads are also provided by the US. Therefore, the US and the UK may simultaneously upgrade their nuclear warheads and even research and develop the next generation of submarine-launched ballistic missiles together.
The UK hopes to raise its discourse power among European countries with the development of nuclear weapons. It also hopes to influence relations between Europe and Russia with its adjustment of nuclear policies.
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