Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2018

 

Nuclear Arms, US-Soviet Relations and the Origin of the Cold War (Abstract)

 

Zhao Xuegong

 

In World War II, the joint development of the atom bomb by the United States and Britain meant that the two shared a monopoly of nuclear weapons. Although the main reason the US launched a nuclear attack on Japan was to reduce its military casualties and shorten the war, this act had a profound impact on US-Soviet relations. The US and the Soviet Union fiercely contested the preservation or abandonment of the nuclear monopoly. The United States, which regarded the atom bomb as an important tool for achieving its political and foreign policy goals, toughened its Soviet policy, while the Soviet Union adopted a tit-for-tat approach and sped up its nuclear program. Despite their political and propaganda needs, both sides expressed support for international control of atomic energy, but in fact the differences in their positions and their refusal to compromise meant that this move ended in failure. Although nuclear weapons were not a Cold War product, they played an important role in the collapse of the alliance among the US, Britain and the Soviet Union and in the development of the Cold War.