1. Arms Race Timeline

2. 1945: US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1949: USSR develops atomic bomb
“Joe 1”

3. 1951: Truman establishes Civil Defense Administration
Not taken too seriously until late 1950s

4. 1952: US tests first hydrogen bomb
500 times more powerful than bomb dropped on Hiroshima
1953: USSR tests hydrogen bomb
“Joe 4”
“Operation Ivy”

5. 1954-1958: US conducts 19 hydrogen bomb tests on Bikini Islands
“Castle Romeo” 1954

6. 1954-1958: US conducts 19 hydrogen bomb tests on Bikini Islands
“Dakota” 1956

7. 1954-1958: US conducts 19 hydrogen bomb tests on Bikini Islands
“Operation Hardtack” 1958

8. 1954: US policy of Massive Retaliation announced
Reflected policy of “brinksmanship”
“ The ability to get to the verge without getting into war is the necessary art. If you cannot master it, you inevitably get into war. If you run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.”
--Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1956
1956: Eisenhower creates National System of Interstate and Defense Highways

9. 1957: USSR launches first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)

10. 1957: USSR launches Sputnik

11. First artificial satellite to orbit the earth
Shocked Americans
1958: Congress passed the National Defense Education Act to improve math and science education

12. 1960: USSR shoots down American U-2 spy plane

13. Early 1960s: US adopts policy of Mutually Assured Destruction
Whoever attacks first, dies second

14. The arms race
scared Americans
Many built bomb shelters
Government encouraged “duck and cover”
drills