The H Bomb

On 1 Nov 1952, the US detonated the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb (or H-bomb), on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave us a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Following the successful Soviet detonation of an atomic device in September 1949, we accelerated its program to develop the next stage in atomic weaponry, a thermonuclear bomb. Popularly known as the hydrogen bomb, this new weapon was about 1,000 times more powerful than conventional nuclear devices. The Soviet Union exploded a thermonuclear device the following year and by the late 1970s, seven nations had constructed hydrogen bombs. The nuclear arms race had taken a fearful step forward. And now it’s really unstable; we’re not sure who has nucs. We do know that Iran does—or will shortly. The world is certainly a dangerous place. Our nation needs both a strong defense force and clear willingness to use it. The world properly sees less than that as weakness.thermonuclear weapons,