Precursor

• Prior to the development of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), or nuclear missile, the Germans developed the V-2 missile, which delivered conventional munitions, during World War II. Germany used the rockets to terrorize England and Belgium. Europeans, Russians, and Americans all captured V-2s, examining their construction to build missiles in the 1950s.
  
  

R-7

• The Soviet Union developed the R-7 as an ICBM in 1957 but also used the R-7 to launch the world's first satellite, Sputnik, in October of 1957.
  
  

Effects

• The news that the Soviet Union had an intercontinental missile that could deliver nuclear bombs and launch satellites filled Americans and Europeans with fear.
  
  

The Atlas

• The Americans had been working on their own missile program and tested the Atlas several months after the Soviet test. By the end of the decade, both the United States and the Soviet Union had operational ICBMs on alert.
  
  

Significance

• The advent of the ICBM amplified the amount of destruction the Americans and Soviets could wreak in a nuclear war. ICBMs led to the development of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), the idea that a nuclear war would only be averted if both sides had the power to completely destroy one another.