Please read the following text and answer the question below afterward in your own words:

What was the Cold War arms race?

The arms race was a competition between the United States (and their NATO allies) and the Soviet Union (and their Warsaw Pact allies) for supremacy in weapons and technology during the Cold War. During the Cold War, the world grew more dangerous because each side feared the other. As a consequence, each side built up their armies and weapons. As one side built up its own military and weapons capabilities, the other side felt more threatened. One weapon that created immense fear was the atomic bomb, sometimes called the nuclear bomb. The nuclear arms race dominated relations between the United States and the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.

Question That Needs To Be Answered: What is an arms race? Why did the arms race escalate during the Cold War?