Question
The Cold War produced an arms race as well as arms control. What were the reasons for boththese developments ?
Solution
Since the Cold War did not eliminate rivalries between the two alliances there were mutualsuspicions between them. This led to an arms race. Huge stock of arms were considered necessary to preventwars from taking place. On the other hand, both the sides understood that inspite of restraint, war might occurdue to the following reasons :
(i) Miscalculation of the number of weapons in the possession of the other camp.
(ii) Misunderstanding the intentions of the otherside.
(iii) A nuclear accident by mistake or by a soldier mischievously to start a war.Thus, both the powers - the US and the Soviet Union - decided to limit or eliminate certain kinds ofnuclear and non-nuclear weapons to maintain a stable balance of weapons. Starting in the 1960s, three treatieswere signed. These were Limited Test Ban Treaty, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Anti-BallisticMissile Treaty.
