The Arms Race and Nuclear Strategy. Although there were interesting elements I did find it a slog to work through this module. There is no doubt that Nuclear weapons played a very significant role in ensuring peace between East and West across Europe who have benifited from 40 years of peace through deterrence.

The different policies that evolved of first strike capability, an assured nuclear response, MAD are worthy of study, however the sheer scale of the resources that USA, Russia, China, UK and France have put into nuclear weopns is staggering, especially when you consider all of the training, maning, submarines, aircraft, fule used etc..... And we are left with a residual legacy and with other "third world" nations seeking and gaining entry into the nuclear club (India and pakistan) while Iran is being threatened with sanctions for attempting the same thing.

If anything the Arms Race led to a constant paranoia between USA and USSR which was a major handicap in the proces of detente. The development of global strategy which could have destroied the World is an un-real development, but I remember military training exercises in the early 1980s where there would be simulated tactical nuclear weapons being used.

MILITARISATION OF THE COLD WAR.

The NSC 68 document was a great read as it was the blue print for much of post 1950 American policy. It influenced defence, foreign, security, economic and domestic policies for decades to come, to such a degree that it would also influence daily life for millions of Americans. Most importantly it influenced an entire generation of US politicians, military leaders and strategic thinkers and to some degree I believ that the World is still influenced by this today - look at Donal Rumsfeld!!.

I also believe that it had far reaching influence in Western academia which has only recently (since late 1990s) challenged the American position and stance (since open access to documents in the former USSR).

The Korean War has a personal link for me, in that my Father-in-Law fought in the conflict as a young man. The Korean War showed showed the protagonists (USA and the West on one side and USSR and China on the other) that it could get ‘hot’. It also provided Congress with evidence of USSR and Chinese communist ‘expansion and collusion’. The linkage of the Korean War and Communist expansion was considered to be the final piece of evidence that proves that the USA has no option but to approve of the policy espoused in NSC 68 and leads to approval of spending plans for a massive militarisation programme by the USA. Soviet Russia will also not boycott the UN Security Council again!

A very interesting period in history. The theatre level decisions in Korea are masively interesting, the Pusan perimeter, use of an amphibious landing and then the fatally flawed decision of US led forces to go all out for "victory" expecting China to set there and let it happen. Original documents are great to read as always.