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at first the atom bomb was just a colossal kind of destructive force, but then they became bigger than that

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from 1945 to 1949 only the United States had them

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this was a reassuring monopoly

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the Americans didn't feel that they had to build up the rest of their conventional forces as much

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considered putting atomic bombs and this technology under international control

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a Quixotic notion but intellectually important

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many of these ideas remain relevant today

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failed to control the fission bomb

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one ton of TNT will level a typical 5-story building

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the atomic bomb had the destructive power of 10,000 tons of TNT

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delivered in state-of-the-art bombers such as the B-29

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a B-29 crashed in the Soviet Union in 1944 and the Soviets built a copy of it

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atomic bombs have their effects in three ways:

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1. heat

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2. blast

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3. radiation

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including the radiation of all the particles thrown up by the blast which drift in the prevailing winds until the lethality of that radiation dissipates (fallout)

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highly deadly radius of explosion of approximately one mile

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1949 United States lost the monopoly of the atomic bomb

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what did this mean to the way the United States defended itself?

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the need to develop much larger conventional forces, since atomic bomb is no longer a trump card

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took up the possibility of developing a fusion bomb, a thermonuclear bomb

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use the fission reaction to create a fusion reaction

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these were fission/fusion bombs, sometimes called hydrogen bombs, were vastly more powerful

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code name "The Super"

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the Soviets were developing their own thermonuclear weapons as well

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a year or two behind the Americans

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the progress of these technical developments created windows of vulnerability and windows of opportunity

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1949-1954: American window of opportunity in Cold War

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both sides have nuclear weapons but Americans have more powerful conventional forces

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1950 NSC 68 document

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we have to spend more money on conventional forces because the Soviets have cancelled out our atomic advantage

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the decisions on big defense spending doesn't come until the Korean war, but then it increases rapidly

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Soviets moved too soon in supporting Korea since it caused America to begin defending Taiwan and Vietnam, something they weren't doing before

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1953: Eisenhower comes into office

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we now have new technology, e.g. the B-47 jet-powered bomber

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some advisers were in favor of launching a preventive war against the Soviet Union

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Eisenhower weighs the risks and decides on a policy of detainment plus deterrence

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he was going to threaten nuclear war in order to avoid any war at all

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April 1954: Hydrogen bomb

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Hiroshima atomic bomb: 10,000 tons of TNT

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Hydrogen bomb had 1 million tons of TNT

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100 times that of the atomic bomb

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lethal radius

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atomic bomb: 1 mile from blast

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hydrogen bomb: 7 miles from blast

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150 square miles of high lethality

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plus much greater radioactive fallout

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hydrogen bombs don't just damage parts of cities but obliterate entire cities