The nuclear arms race and mutually assured destruction

Both superpowers built up massive nuclear arsenals during the Cold War, a prolonged arms race that intensified after the Soviet Union tested its own atomic bomb in 1949. Once both sides had large enough, secure enough arsenals to guarantee a devastating retaliatory strike even after being attacked first, a doctrine known as mutually assured destruction took hold, the idea that a nuclear war would leave no real winner, widely credited with helping deter direct military conflict between the two superpowers themselves throughout the Cold War.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report