When did the US and Soviet union start the arms race?

Question

A specific year or years

Answer 1

When we dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

Answer 2

I would have to think that the arms race had already begun when World War II ended. Both the Soviet Union and the US knew that Germany possessed a great deal of missile technology and had done a lot of research on jet propulsion and atomic energy. Both sides wished to acquire as many people, prototypes, experimental setups, and documents about Germany's research as they could. It was a race to capture as much of Germany as you possibly could before the war ended. In fact, part of the reason we dropped the atomic bomb on Japan was to prevent the Soviet Union from invading Japan from the north. The simple fact is the West and the Soviet Union never trusted each other during World War II, but were motivated to work together by a common threat, Adolf Hitler.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Answer 3

The massive build-up of armaments in the U.S. began during World War II, actually around 1939, as Franklin Roosevelt began to prepare us for possible war with Germany or Japan.

After V-J Day the United States began to disarm. Disarmament continued up until the Korean War, in the summer of 1950, but we maintained our nuclear arsenal and converted some of our strategic bomber forces to nuclear missions.

Meanwhile as the Soviet Union recovered from World War II it began a massive military build-up, and tried to consolidate its occupation of Eastern Europe in a process that led eventually to the Berlin Airlift of 1948.

China was taken over by Communists--with Soviet help--in 1949. The invasion of South Korea by North Korea in 1950 led to an all-out shooting war. From that point on the United States was involved in building up its military forces, which continued well into the Vietnam conflict.

The arms race was recognized as an arms race by 1953, but it probably started in 1950-51. Some would say it started in 1946, as the United States began converting to a strategic nuclear force, but I lean more toward the later dates.

Answer 4

the US has been hostile to the ideology of communism ever since the russian revolution took place. by the end of the 2nd world war, the US had emerged as the largest capitalist with the largest invstment in the arms industry. its only potential challenger was the USSR. BYE the WAY, the US was the first to drop the bomb on Japan, to assert its strength in the weapons market.

the commies just joined the race. the defending of their ideology was a very strong motiviation, and they took up the challenge. technically the a-bombings in hiroshima and nagasaki tiggered the arms race between the 2.

Answer 5

When the rubble stopped smoking from World War II, or perhaps a little before that.

Answer 6

The arms race actually began with
Sputnik. Despite that it was not a military weapon.

Answer 7

1949 when the soviets detonated their version of the Atom bomb

Answer 8

Right at the end of ww2. They turned on us for using the berlin airlift to feed thousands of starving germans and haven't been the same since.

Answer 9

Immediately after WWII

Answer 10

at the end of ww2 really but even during the war it was known that after the war there would be great military tension.

Answer 11

At the end of ww2