Word: thermonuclear
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...breakthrough. It changed all the equations of scientific war, and it forced on the Department of Defense a grave decision: to concentrate intensively on the ICBM. No longer did the intercontinental ballistic missile need to hit a one-mile "pickle barrel" to be effective. A T-N (thermonuclear) warhead in the megaton range (equivalent to millions of tons of TNT) would blot out a large city even if it exploded well outside the city's limits, and its radioactive fallout would have a killing effect a long way downwind. So the ICBM, besides being fairly small, might be fairly...
...designers of the ICBM believe that re-entry is their worst problem. The missile must not burn up, as most natural meteors do, and it must not lose its shape. Its thermonuclear warhead must not be exploded prematurely, and it must not be so damaged that it will not explode...
...better chance of getting through to the target. Another method, probably the most important one, is to keep heat from penetrating more than the skin of the missile. A third possibility, exploding the warhead while many miles above the surface, is not acceptable to the ICBM-men. The great thermonuclear charge might still have a blast-and-heat effect on the ground far below, but it would not produce other effects-chiefly radioactive fallout...
Besides such considerations, there is the real possibility that the ICBM is "the weapon least likely to be used." All parties in a war may decide to keep their birds in their nests, fearing with good reason the devastating effect of thermonuclear attack and retaliation against population centers. Such forbearance would be a missile-armed extension of the U.S. policy of deterrence now based on LeMay's bombers...
...missilemen are not happy, however. Both civilian and military, they know too well the potential effect on the earth of thermonuclear warfare. They fear that some small, irresponsible nation may get hold of a missile or two and blot out the capital city of a nation that it hates. Or perhaps when the great nations are armed to the teeth with long-range missiles and nervously watching each other, some quick mistake will be made. An innocent meteor may be mistaken for an invading missile. There will be no time to check or debate, and the decision to fire...