1. Y10 GCSE History
The Arms Race

2. How USA and the USSR became nuclear powers
Lesson objectives
To understand:
How USA and the USSR became nuclear powers
How an arms race developed between the USA and the USSR

3. NAGASAKI RUINS
9th August 1945 3

4. Nuclear Weapons
To end the war in the Pacific, the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Japan- One on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki.
The ‘Manhattan Project’ was a secret project created by the US government aimed at making the world’s first atomic weapon during WWII
The creation of the atomic bomb ushered in a new era- The Nuclear era

5. Background America maintained it’s nuclear monopoly until 1949
In 1949 the USSR had produced its own atomic bomb and became a nuclear power
But what happened next?

6. DATE OF TESTING OR INTRODUCTION INTO THE ARSENAL
Why was it called an Arms Race?
DATE OF TESTING OR INTRODUCTION INTO THE ARSENAL
ATOMIC BOMB
INTERCONTINENTAL BOMBER
JET BOMBER
H BOMB
ICBM 6

7. The ICBM Inter-continental Ballistic Missile
Original design came from the Nazis who planned to send rockets to bomb America in WWII (Projekt Amerika)
But as part of Operation Paperclip, the US govt recruited Nazi scientists after WWII to help with their own rocket development programme
ICBM Rockets were capable of travelling over 5,500km, carrying a nuclear warhead
The USSR tested the first successful ICBM in 1957

8. The US developed nuclear weapons – CREATING the nuclear threat
The US developed the hydrogen bomb – REFINING the nuclear threat
The USSR developed the ICBM – making the nuclear threat GLOBAL 8

9. What was the arms race?
Task-Your task for today is to complete all the activities on the two task sheets on all the remaining issues surrounding the build up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which we will be looking at next week
These include the U2 crisis and MAD
Use P to help you with your activities

10. extension
Evaluate what you think was the most important development of the Nuclear Arms race

11. Homework
Write a newspaper front page about what you think is the most important flashpoint of the nuclear arms race so far
Due next Thursday