Atomic Diplomacy: A nuclear arms race between the United States and the USSR

Yijun Chung

St paul preparatory seoul

Abstract

As the tension between USSR and the United States heightened, the battle of atomic weaponries were crucial to determine who was in the upperhand. First began from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapon was interpreted as a global threat, or a phenomenon for some. The USSR, deeply stimulated by the United States pertaining the power of the deadly weapon, were also inclined to do the same. Here, one of the features of game theory, prisoner’s dilemma intertwines with the actions both country makes. The United States publicly opened up their nuclear power, the first in the Berlin Blockade in 1948 to 1949 when President Truman used B-29 bombers to encourage the decisions of the Soviet Union, and the second in the Korean war. The Soviets on the other hand were contrasted, keeping the principle of mutually assured destruction against the United States. The two countries drove the world into chaos, despite the end of the devastating world war. If either side have crossed the boundary, this war would have even cost more lives than the two great wars. 

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