The Mutual Suicide Pact

Agenda Daily Log (10 mins) Mutually Assured Destruction PowerPoint (20 mins) Benchmark #3(50+ mins) Exit Ticket (5 mins)

Norms NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES If I see it THREE your name will go to Princess and Marsha. Names on the whiteboard WILL BE REINSTATED ONLY ONE PERSON OUT OF THE ROOM AT A TIME If someone has left the room, no one else will be allowed to leave. Point deduction and name referral will be given to Admin. Hats must be take off PLEASE take your hat off in class No standing in front of door before the bell rings Point deduction Progress reports will be given out TOMORROW! Phone calls will be made home TONIGHT!

Daily Log Do Now: Have you ever been in a “lose-lose” situation or a situation that didn’t benefit either side? What happened and what was the outcome? Focus Question: In what scenario, if you were a world leader, would you decide to launch a nuclear weapon?

How was your April? Probably better than the Presidents….(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alszb3bLhPw)

The Cold War Escalates The Cold War escalates during the 1960s because of heightened competition over the development of atomic weapons (Arms Race).

Nuclear Weapons: 1945 In 1945, at the end of World War Two, and at the beginning of the Cold War, who had nuclear weapons?

The Arms Race The Race is On… 1945 1949 1952 1953 America has a nuclear weapon America builds in stock of weapons to over 100 bombs 1949 Soviets develop a nuclear 1952 America develops the more powerful atomic hydrogen bomb 1953 Soviets develop a hydrogen bomb

The Arms Race By 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union had around 50,000 nuclear weapons between them. Their explosive power was equal to 15 billion tons of TNT. Both sides had enough nuclear bombs to kill the entire human race several times over.

Mutually Assured Destruction MAD was essentially a mutual suicide pact Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) Balance of Terror Absence of War (but not peace per se) assured because each side knows that if they go to war, it will lead to their complete annihilation Irony: The creation of more and more deadly weapons actually leads to the avoidance of war

Two Case Studies of MAD The Berlin Wall (1961) The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

The Berlin Wall: Background After the creation of West and East Germany the two countries developed very differently. West Germany West Germany experienced tremendous economic growth and prosperity East Germany East Germany experienced economic stagnation There were shortages of basic foodstuffs The currency was weak

The Berlin Wall: Construction To stop the flow of emigration, Khrushchev ordered the construction of a wall built entirely around West Berlin, completing cutting the city off from East Germany. The official rationale given by the Soviet Union for why the wall was built was that it was constructed to protect the population of East Berlin from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the people from developing a communist state.

The Berlin Wall: Construction The wall outlined the entirety of West Berlin. Lied within East Germany. Made of concrete. Had several checkpoints where people with the proper paperwork could enter and exit West Berlin Lined with guard towers who were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to cross the wall. In 1962 a second parallel fence was built. The space between the two fences became a No Man’s Land. It was easy for guards to see and shoot defectors. In addition to the wall, chain fences, walls, minefields, and other obstacles were installed along the length of the border between East and West Germany. The iron curtain had become real!

The Berlin Wall: Immediate Effects With the closing of the border, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West. Around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall during the 28 years it surrounded West Berlin. The death toll for defectors was between 100 and 200.

The Berlin Wall and MAD President Kennedy remarked that a wall is better than a war. Do you agree? How is the wall part of the strategy of MAD? “The building of the wall was at once a sign of failure and success. It was a sign that there would be no settlement of the problem of divided Germany. But it also reduced the possibilities of future crises in Berlin. The wall contributed to a peaceful co-existence…” – Peter Lane, 1985. To what extent can the wall be considered both a failure and a success?

Cuban Missile Crisis How did the Cuban Missile Crisis exemplify the concept of MAD?

MAD goes NUTS Ironically, the effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis was not to end the arms race, but rather to accelerate it. Both sides began to develop anti-missile technologies designed to intercept missiles before they reached their targets. This was called the Nuclear Utilization Targeting Strategy (NUTS)

Making Meaning out of the Cold War How would you categorize the Cold War in the “mutually assured destruction” phase? How are the terms MAD and NUTS representative of this period, both in a literal and figurative sense?