The Cold War was a fascinating (and ultimately scary) period of geo-political history. In the ashes of World War II and the defeat of fascism, two remaining superpowers — and the conflicting ideologies they represented — vied for control of the rest of the world. While the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged each other directly, hundreds of thousands would lose their lives in the proxy wars to follow.
A big part of the Cold War — perhaps the part that everyone remembers — is the massive arms race between the two countries. Weapons of all varieties were being developed, tested, and deployed into combat — the likes of which had never been conceived before that. Of course, we’re all familiar with the M-16 rifle and the AK-47, but the arms race truly did involve the entire capitalist and communist worlds.
Now, we’re not going to get into the classic M-16 versus AK-47 debate, or even dig too deep into which side did what better. The video below is a review of the most important developments in small arms technology during one of the most politically tense periods of human history.
The Military Arms Channel takes you through the most important rifles of the Cold War era in the video below.
~ Firearm Daily
