Word: superbombs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...month, carried an international thunderclap. To the high-patrolling U.S. bombers, which scooped up samples of its fine dust, the radioactivity was obvious evidence of some kind of Russian atomic blast. To the scientists who analyzed the samplings, it was clear proof that the Russians had exploded a thermonuclear superbomb, a remarkably exact duplicate of the U.S.'s own. To the political leaders of the U.S., the air mass was one more ominous sign that the time was close when the Russians might have enough atomic strength to destroy the U.S. power of resistance or retaliation...
...been for Lewis Strauss's persistence in 1947, the U.S. might now have no means of detecting the Russian atomic explosion; and 2) had it not been for Strauss's personal conviction about Russian intentions, back in late 1949, the U.S. might have had no thermonuclear superbomb of its own. Conceivably, the new Russian bomb could have been hurled on the world as an unchallengeable ultimatum, could by this week have changed the political balance of power around the world...
...Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or superbomb. Like all other work in the field of atomic weapons, it is being and will be carried forward on a basis consistent with the over-all objectives of our program for peace and security...