Also, the USSR felt more competent when, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin (Russian cosmonaut) became the first man in space to oppose the failures of the United States. The reason this increased tensions was because Russia now felt it had the capabilities to beat the US when it came to competitive events, so this pushed them to invest more in nuclear weapons, greatly increasing tensions . However, the removal of Jupiter ballistic missiles from Turkey and Italy, following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis agreements, represented how leaders were able to barter and stop a nuclear war, thereby claiming that Nuclear arms race ultimately increased tensions between countries. point that the leaders have backtracked. Although the Cuban Missile Crisis agreements seemed like a huge failure for Khrushchev, he had eased the pressure on a possible lightning attack by the United States. By focusing on the nuclear arms race there would obviously have been an increase in tensions because both countries knew what a nuclear war was