Thursday, November 21, 2013
What if the Soviet Union and US had both started a Nuclear Defense Race Rather than an Arms race?
In class we talked about anti-ballistic missiles. We learned that they cost five times more to make and are often inaccurate. This deterred both countries form concentrating on defending themselves from nuclear weapons rather than building more for deterrence because the economics favored the aggressor. However, I have wondered if both countries started with a buildup of ABMs, would they have been able to make them more accurate and maybe even reduced the cost of them. Maybe if all energy on both sides was used to make an impenetrable defense, then nuclear weapons would cease to be a threat. Also, the Flaw in MAD of having an insane person who doesn't believe in MAD get a hold of nuclear weapons and starting a nuclear war would cease to exist. This was president Reagan's argument for the Strategic defense initiative(Star Wars). Maybe we would have laser's in space protecting us from all nuclear threat. It seems absurd and unreachable but If it could be done, wouldn't the problem of a country destroying the world with nuclear war be solved?
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I agree with your opinion that if both countries built up ABMs, that nuclear war would cease to exist, or at least be much less of a threat. Although the ABMs are very inaccurate, if many were sent at a time to destroy a missile, the chances would be much more likely of hitting the missile. If we were able to defend ourselves from nuclear war, threats would be very minimal, and war would not be as devastating.
ReplyDeleteBoth countries spent tons of money on weapons when they could have been using the money on something more efficient I think. Weapons were producing more and more as the Cold War went on, meaning more and more money spending for each money.
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