In August 1949, the United States found itself shocked to discover the Soviet Union has broken Washington\'s atomic monopoly. The new Soviet bomb was developed quickly, thanks to the acquisition of U.S. atomic secrets by Soviet agents. The bomb also signaled the start of the nuclear arms race between the Cold War rivals.
The consideration to build a bomb with unlimited explosive yield, fascinated and shocked U.S. scientists at the same time and splitted them up into 2 groups. On January the 31th (1950), Truman decided to develop the ¡§super bomb¡¨. After 2 years and 9 months, the bomb (82t) was completed and it was time to test it at the eniwetok-atoll near the bikini-atoll. Scientists were accommodated on ships with a distance of 50km to the detonation. The explosion was so huge and mighty, that temperatures where reached which were higher than in the middle of the sun. The explosion was 1000 times harder than Hiroshima. 9 months later, the Soviets had the H-Bomb, too.
1953, John Foster Dulles announced, that the USA will follow the line of massive retaliation so that whenever the USA or an ally would get attacked, they will strike back with all their mighty.
The nuclear race / contest got more and more abstract. The next level was that the USA constructed an h-bomb with Lithium. This means that the bomb was not needed to be cooled any longer "³ less weight "³ ability to carry with a plane
1954, Soviets detonated a 20kt bomb and occupied the radioactively contaminated area to show that they are prepared for a nuclear war. At the same time in the USA: scientists are presently working on rockets, carrying small nuclear warheads.Nuclear backpack of the USA: 1950: 298 A-Bombs 1955: 2422 A-Bombs 1962: 27100 A-Bombs, more than enough to destroy the whole earth.
May 1957: The Soviets have the first intercontinental missile (ICBM)
The citizens of America reacted on the international arms race with a fear of World War III. In school, pupils had to learn, how to ¡§effectively¡¨ protect yourself. You had to duck and cover. Also, a new industry branch came up: The sale of family shelters. 2395 dollars the piece. The era after the Korean War was an era of technological and nuclear race as well as reproaches of a missile-gap.
Within the soviet states there were again and again hard crises so that more and more citizens tried to flee from the DDR. To stop this tide of refugees, the government seizes the drastic measure to built (against the will of the NATO) a wall, between east and west Berlin on August the 13th 1961.Many in the East, meanwhile, risked death to flee across the Wall. Within the first year, 50 Germans died trying to cross to the West. One of them, 18-year-old Peter Fechter, bled to death in the no-man\'s land between East and West, in front of outraged West Berliners.Yet for the next three decades, the Wall remained a symbol of the Cold War\'s cruelty and Europe\'s division. Its message was a bitter one: Whatever happened beyond that line, the West might lament, but would not interfere.
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