Week Twelve: Nuclear Weapons

"The most haunting battle of the cold war era was one that never happened." -Robert W. Strayer

While reading chapter 21, the quote (above) caught my attention right away. The author was describing the Cuban missile crisis. During the Cuban missile crisis, Nikita Khrushchev sent nuclear-tipped Soviet misses to Cuba thinking the U.S. would steer away action against Castro. Which, personally, makes no sense to me at all. It is true that nuclear missiles are immensely terrifying, but that would just make the opposing country more defensive rather than scared. Especially with the U.S., a major superpower, would not just leave something that significant alone. American forces blocked the island and prepared for an attack. Fortunately, John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev came to a compromise. The Soviets removed their missiles and a promise was made that America would not invade Cuba. 

From then on, an arms race in nuclear weapons started. "Over the next forty years, the world moved from a mere handful of nuclear weapons to a global arsenal of close to 66,000 warheads." Luckily, both superpowers avoided conflict with one another, fearing a war would lead to a nuclear level. Yet this brought so much tension between the superpowers. The cold war was just a colossal buildup of tension. Sometimes it makes me wonder why the U.S. puts itself into war. Obviously, if both countries know it will lead to a bad result, they should just try to avoid each other. However, I do realize that they still indirectly competed with one another. Either way, it does show that if two countries know there will be a bad result, they should try to avoid provoking one another.