The Cold War Intensifies 7.3

Nuclear Weapons When we learn that the Soviets have the atomic bomb, Truman authorizes research on a thermonuclear bomb, which is many times more powerful than an atomic bomb.

Nuclear Bomb Yields Kiloton = 1000 tons of TNT Megaton = 100,000,000 tons of TNT Little Boy (Hirosima) = 13 Kilotons (390,000,000lbs!)

“Davy Crockett” - .01 to 1 Kiloton Since this was the Cold War, American war planners thought nothing of arming troops with a W54 nuclear warhead. The resulting weapons system was known as the "Davy Crockett," and it's range was just 1 to 1.5 miles. Which meant that depending on the range it was fired at, plus other factors like the direction the wind was blowing in, it might've been a suicide weapon for its 3-man team under the right conditions.

Castle Bravo – 15 Megatons(3,000,000,000,000lbs) 1,200 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII

The race heats up… 1953 – We test our first thermonuclear bomb 1954 – Soviets test their first thermonuclear bomb 1954 – We test 19 thermonuclear bombs

TSAR bomb 50 megatons (10,000,000,000,000 lbs)

Mushroom cloud was 64 miles high Blast was felt in Finland Broke glass windows 1000 miles away Shockwave traveled the Earth 3 times

The US government believes in a policy of deterrence The US government believes in a policy of deterrence. We will become so strong, no one will attack us Brinksmanship – the ability to go the very edge of open war to achieve political goals ICBM’s – since we had much better planes to deliver our bombs, the Soviets began to develop missiles ICBM=intercontinental ballistic missile

The Cold War “Race for Space”

A time-lapse map of EVERY nuclear detonation from 1945-2008 Click the box below to play the video