Chapter 2
Nuclear History: The Cold War
Mounting tension in an increasingly nuclear world
Soviet Union’s first nuclear test
The USSR detonates RDS-1, “First Lightning,” at a test site in northeast Kazakhstan. The United States and United Kingdom are taken by surprise—Soviet nuclear science was further advanced than either nation knew.
The United Kingdom’s first nuclear test
The U.S. tests the first hydrogen bomb
The United States detonated “Ivy Mike,” the world’s first hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen bombs, or H-bombs, are many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Duck and Cover
Eisenhower delivers the Atoms for Peace speech
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the United Nations General Assembly, calling for a future where atomic energy is used for peaceful purposes, not war. These ideas are the seeds for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nonproliferation Treaty.
The Castle Bravo Test
At 6:45am, a flash and a fireball four and a half miles wide lit up the pre-dawn sky. It was hotter than the surface of the sun.
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik
The satellite was the first object launched into orbit around the Earth. It began the space race between the United States and Soviet Union—a less deadly proxy competition for the arms race.
France’s First Nuclear Test
The first French nuclear explosion, codenamed “Gerboise Bleue,” took place in the Algerian Sahara. It brought the total number of nuclear-armed nations to four.
The U.S.S.R. detonates ‘Tsar Bomba’
The most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested was detonated over a remote island in the Russian Arctic. Andrei Sakharov, one of the Russian scientists behind the bomb, would later become a dissident and a nonproliferation activist.
Cold War treaties
China, Israel, and India become nuclear states
Three more countries became nuclear powers in the decade between 1964 and 1974.
Reykjavik Summit
As nuclear stockpiles were reaching an all-time peak, the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union met in Iceland to discuss reducing them. The meeting was a turning point, paving the way for real reductions in both countries’ arsenals.
The Cold War ends
Dissent and anti-Communist demonstrations across Eastern Europe culminate in the destruction of the Berlin Wall—and an end to the decades-long Cold War.