Page 384 - (DK) Smithsinian - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

INTRODUCTION

After World War II, developments in military systems and military satellites. Although World War III
technology were driven by the Cold War never materialized, much of the non-nuclear technology
confrontation between the two “superpowers” was tried out in the 1960s and 1970s, in wars between
—the United States and the Soviet Union. At the Israel and its Arab neighbors, and by the US in Vietnam.
same time, guerrilla warfare and terrorism have However, it was the 1991 Gulf War—the first major
proved enduringly resistant to the world’s most post-Cold War conflict—that revealed the true scale
advanced military arsenals. of technological progress, showcasing such wonders
as smart bombs, stealth aircraft, and cruise missiles.
From the late 1940s, a nuclear arms race between the The post-WWII era has also seen the rise of guerrilla
US-led NATO alliance and the Soviet Union created warfare and terrorism. Although they generally lack access
weaponry of awesome destructive power. With long-range to advanced weaponry, guerrillas have benefited from
bombers replaced by missiles as nuclear delivery systems, modern infantry weaponry and explosives,while the arms
by the 1960s the world had entered the era of MAD— industry has fueled low-level conflicts across the globe
Mutually Assured Destruction. Peace between the with a ready supply of automatic weapons and ammunition.
superpowers was maintained by the certainty of Despite the fact that technological progress made the
unbearable losses in the event of a nuclear war. At need for a mass citizen army outdated by the end of
the same time, each side sought to surpass the other the 20th century, when major powers fought guerrilla
in every area of conventional military technology, from forces, they found there was no alternative to putting
the performance of aircraft and submarines, to guidance troops on the ground and sustaining the losses this entailed.

KEY DATES
1945
The Soviet Union tests its first
The US and the Soviet Union
The Korean War includes the
The Sidewinder heat seeking
air-to-air missile enters service
The Soviet Union tests the
nuclear device; meanwhile, the
US Air Force pilot Chuck
The US commits ground
fighters, and the first extensive
first air combat between jet
come close to nuclear war
Yeager flies the Bell X-1 at
The first nuclear-armed
forces to South Vietnam
intercontinental ballistic
bombing of North Vietnam
first hydrogen bomb
1947 above the speed of sound 1949 NATO alliance is formed 1950–53 1953 1956 with the US Air Force 1959 missiles (ICBMs) are deployed 1962 in the Cuban Missile Crisis 1965 and begins sustained
use of helicopters
1947–49
1956–59
1967
1950
1952
1954
1964
1960s
The Chinese Civil War results in Harry S Truman, president of The US carries out its first successful The French are defeated Fidel Castro leads a successful The first night vision The Lockheed Blackbird high- AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and
television-guided Walleye bombs are
altitude reconnaissance aircraft
hydrogen bomb test, on Eniwetok
guerrilla campaign to
by Viet Minh guerrillas
the US, orders development
devices are used by US
the establishment of a communist
at Dien Bien Phu
of the hydrogen bomb
atoll, in the Pacific Ocean
deployed by the US, in Vietnam
take power in Cuba
troops in Vietnam
government in Beijing
introduces stealth technology
NUCLEAR BUNKER, MOSCOW—1956 OPERATION CEDAR FALLS—1967 THE APACHE HELICOPTER—1984