Nuclear Weapons an Analysis of the Intelligence

Nuclear Weapons

An analysis of the Intelligence Community's efforts against the Soviet Nuclear arsenal during the Cold War

The Cold War was one of the defining periods in U.S. history. Going to the moon was more about the culture and events that were occurring during the 1960s than anything else. When Kennedy announced in 1961 that the U.S. would put a man on the moon, it was more about the Cold War and showing up the Soviets than merely for scientific discovery. "So we decided to engage in this major scientific and technological endeavor and prove to the world that we were second to none," Roger Launius, the curator of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum stated (Lamb, 2012). However, the race to achieve a technological domination was not limited to space alone. Each country had developed nuclear technologies that were promoted because of the competition between the countries. This analysis will provide a brief introduction to the Intellegence Community's efforts to analyze the Soviet arsenal during the Cold War.

The Cold War

In an effort to keep pace with the technologies that the Soviets were developing the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was created. This low-profile intelligence agency -- the DoD's answer the CIA -- worked around the clock to discover emerging Soviet military menaces and report them to Washington; because of the Top Secret nature of these subjects, the agency employed a team of artists to create highly accurate renderings of each threat, for use in policy briefings and DIA publications like Soviet Military Power (Tarantola, 2013). During the period between 1965 and 1989, DIA's artists created more than 1000 paintings and drawings of Soviet threats -- now known as the DIA Military Art Collection.

Figure 1 - Soviet Ground-Based Laser (Tarantola, 2013)

Many of the technologies that the U.S. feared were never actually developed. However there were still very real threats that included nuclear technologies. On August 29th, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan and this testing ended America's monopoly of atomic bombs during the Cold War. In the 1950's, and the Arms Race became the focus of the Cold War; later America tested the first Hydrogen (or thermo-nuclear) bomb in 1952, beating the Russians in the creation of the "Super Bomb" (Atom Central, N.d.).

Cuban Missile Crisis

The United States and Cuba have exhibited elevated amounts of hostility toward each other since the days of the Cuban revolution. During the revolution, Cuba confiscated a significant amount of U.S. owned assets which caused quite a stir among American politicians and business leaders. Not only did Cuba nationalize property held by U.S. interests during the revolution, but Cuba also became an ally to Russia during the Cold War which could have been considered an even greater offense. Since Cuba is in such close proximity to the United States, this allowed the Soviet Union access to North America and ultimately led to events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Despite wanting to avoid conflict with the West, Khrushchev was confronted with an aggressive United States government, and had to represent his government accordingly. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a prime example of his position and the overt military action that took place when the CIA funded a paramilitary force of rebel Cubans to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. Kennedy refused to give the invasion a strong military aid and it ultimately failed, which was something of an embarrassment to the United States. It was also a U.S. sponsored military offensive against Cuba, a communist country and Soviet ally.

For nearly two weeks in October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in deep confrontation, with the real possibility nuclear disaster as they negotiated the existence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Excerpts of speeches, meeting notes, letters, and reminiscences of several key players including Kennedy, Khrushchev, and others depict this ominous situation (Valois, 1970). In addition to the attack on Cuba, Khrushchev also had to deal with U.S. missile installations in Turkey and Italy that were too close to the Soviet Union for comfort. The missiles in Turkey were just outside the Soviet border and were somewhat similar to missiles the Soviets installed in Cuba.