After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a race to develop nuclear weapons. By the mid 50s, both nations had developed powerful hydrogen bombs. Constant ongoing research, development and testing resulted in the creation of tens of thousands of hydrogen bombs by both sides.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles were created that could carry multi-megaton warhead to anywhere on earth. In the United States, silos were dug to house the missiles and their support personnel. In the Soviet Union, missiles were placed on trucks and constantly moved around to conceal their locations. The Interstate Highway System that was build during the 50s in the United States was originally conceived as a system of roads for shuffling around U.S. missiles.
Squadrons of bombers were built and maintained to carry the hydrogen bombs. Airbases were constructed to house and maintain the bombers. At times, groups of bombers were rotated so there would always some in the air at any moment in case of a surprise attack.
Fleets of submarines were created and equipped with nuclear missiles. Naval bases were built to construct and service the subs. Nuclear engines were developed so the subs could patrol for extended periods of time with the need to return to base for refueling.
Advanced radar systems were deployed to detect missile launches by either country. With the speed of the missiles, there would only be minutes warn of incoming missiles. The world teetered on the brink of almost instant annihilation for decades. There were a number of close calls as false alarms were triggered.
The United States and the Soviet Union were capable of destroying each other in hours with all these nuclear weapons so they found themselves in a stalemate situation. This was called “mutually assured destruction” or MAD. Drills were carried out in schools and businesses during the 50s and everyone lived with the fear of a devastating nuclear war.
Since the U.S. and Soviet Union could not attack each other directly, they worked through proxies all over the world, fomenting rebellions in and wars between client governments. The term the evolved for this was the “Cold War”. We had allies in Europe and Asia and the Soviet Union had Communist Cuba in the Caribbean.
In 1963, the Soviet Union began constructing bases for nuclear missiles in Cuba. They decided that if the United States could have nuclear weapons stationed in Europe, then they could station missiles near our borders. U.S. President Kennedy decided otherwise and told them that we would go to war if they brought the missiles to Cuba. Soviet ships carrying the missiles were heading for Cuba. The U.S. Navy set up a blockade. One of the Soviet ships strayed over the red line that the U.S. had told them not to cross. The captain of the nearby U.S. Naval vessel had to decide whether or not to take the world to a war that both sides could lose. He thought that the Soviet vessel might have had navigation problems so he waited and eventually the Soviet vessel turned around and left the prohibited zone. The fate of the entire human race rested on the shoulders of that one man who later said that he just could not bring himself to trigger World War III.
When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the Cold War ended. The long nightmare of a nuclear third world war was over and the world could move out of the shadow of destruction. One positive benefit of the Cold War was the creation of a computer network by the U.S. military that was decentralized and could withstand the devastation of a nuclear war. This network was turned over to civilian control and became the Internet.
Soviet R-12 nuclear ballistic missile:
