After WWII, the United States ended the war with dropping the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union saw that the U.S.A. had better weapons than they did so they started trying to out do the U.S. The U.S. figured out and also wanted to be better. The U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. had quite a competition in the nuclear arms race which caused mutually assured destruction (M.A.D.) which indirectly led to the space race.

In 1945, the Americans ended WWII with dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. When the U.S.S.R. realized that the U.S.A. had something better than they did and decided to make their own atomic bomb. The United States realized that the Soviet Union had caught up with them and decided to make an even more powerful bomb and made “Mike”, a very powerful hydrogen bomb, 1,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb. Not much later Russia caught up by detonating “Layer Cake”, another hydrogen bomb. This competition continued until they had formed a strong rivalry.

The newly formed rivalry between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. caused more and more powerful weapons to be built. Some of the weapons that were made were few atom bombs, long and short range missiles, hydrogen bombs, and a whole lot more. So many destructive weapons were built that soon the idea of mutually assured destruction was put into play. Mutually assured destruction, also known as M.A.D., is basically like it sounds; its the idea that either country can destroy each other and the rest of the world with it.

This risk made the the leaders of both countries spend many years negotiating until they agreed on a treaty to end the danger. The Nuclear Test Ban treaty said that any testing of nuclear weapons was illegal (History.com). Even though the test ban stopped the competition over nuclear weapons, the United States and Soviet Union were so good at competing with each other that they ended up taking their rivalry up and out to space.

The United States and Soviet Union had a large competition that included the nuclear arms race, and eventually lead to the space race. Many nuclear and extremely powerful weapons lead to mutually assured destruction. This eventually lead to the space race and therefore the lunar landing and so much more. These accomplishments are due to these countries competitiveness and urge to be the best.

Works Cited

History.com. “Nuclear Test Ban Treaty”. Web. <http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/nuclear-test-ban-treaty>