To what extent was the nuclear arms race a more stabilising factor in the cold war from 1949 to 1963?

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To what extent was the nuclear arms race a more stabilising factor in the cold war from 1949 to 1963?

From the period of 1949 up until 1963 saw increasing developments in nuclear technology by both the two superpowers, the USA and USSR. The 'race 'meant that both superpowers aimed to match each other and even gain the upper hand in terms of nuclear missile technology. Nuclear arms were seen as a form of scare tactic against the other superpower as both felt threatened by each other's ideological capability. It was also used as a form of defence mechanism in case of future attack however, the power and destruction of the weapons in which these countries created would have proved fatal not only for the opposing country but for the world. The nuclear arms race has been argued that it stabilised relations between the countries especially after the Cuban missile crisis although there is much evidence that proves otherwise, in which relations between the soviets and the United States were as tense as ever.

On the 6th of August 1949, the USSR tested the first atomic bomb in the north of what would be now Russia. This