Word: thermonuclear
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...come from fusion of heavy hydrogen atoms at uniform high temperature. As the U.S.'s Atomic Energy Commission had indicated, they were apparently a result of collisions of high-velocity atoms with low-velocity ones. Experts in fusion techniques do not class this action as real thermonuclear fusion...
...real thing. And the U.S. has even put SAC alert crews into the air deliberately to reinforce U.S. diplomacy at precise pressure points, e.g., during Russia's threats of intervention in the 1956 Suez crisis, to show on Communist long-range radarscopes that the U.S. carries a thermonuclear stick big enough to last at least until the U.S.'s own big ballistic missiles are operational...
...Capabilities. The new Minuteman ICBM is a three-stage rocket, 57 ft. long, weighing 65,000 lbs., with predicted 5,500-mile range. It is designed to pack a thermonuclear warhead smaller than that of the liquid-fueled ICBM Atlas, but big enough to take out major targets. Its major components can be broken down to make shorter-range missiles; by itself the missile's third stage could make a useful tactical ballistic missile (TBM) with 500-to 1,000-mile range; its second and third stages would combine to make a 1,500-mile IRBM for use from...
...development of the atom bomb, combines two new Navy weapons: the swift, deep-swimming nuclear submarine, and the intermediate-range, shipboard-type ballistic missile, Polaris. Such a mating would permit the far-ranging nuclear subs, lying submerged offshore at vital points around the Eurasian land mass, to launch thermonuclear missiles at any target within 1,500 miles of their position, and be all but immune to counterattack...
Overzealous Polarismen, clocking this swift progress, are certain now that they have the ultimate deterrent to all-out thermonuclear war. The U.S. might as well get ready to scratch the Air Force's Strategic Air Command, they boast, since 40 Polaris subs (life span: 15-20 years), along with the necessary hardware, crews, tenders and a few extra bases, would cost only $7 billion-and that would about pay for all the deterrent the U.S. needs...