The Nuclear Weapon Factor in US Military Cooperation with European Allies mid-1940s – end of 1950s.

Abstract

The article deals with the role and place of a nuclear weapon factor in the doctrinal, strategic and technological aspects of military cooperation between the United States of America and European allies from the mid-1940s – the end of the World War the Second and first use of nuclear weapon by US in 1945 to the end of 1950s, when Soviet Union developed own rocket and nuclear technologies and stated the Space Race. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of the deterrent factor of nuclear weapons in the doctrines and strategic documents of the late 1940s and the development of these doctrines in connection with the successes of the Soviet nuclear program in the early 1950s and the violation of the American nuclear-weapon monopoly. The processes of allocating the use of nuclear weapons as the basis of the strategic plans of the United States and their allies regarding a possible armed conflict with the Soviet Union and the beginning of the development of the principle of «nuclear sharing» as a way of giving access to strategic armaments within the Alliance of NATO are enlightened. The influence of technological development as a key factor in the expansion of US and European allies’ military resources has been characterized and the role of USSR technological advances in rocket technologies in the beginning of the transformation of Western strategic doctrines in the early 1960s are described.

Keywords

• usa
• europe
• nuclear weapon
• military
• cooperation