1945

US USES ATOMIC BOMBS ON JAPAN TO END WWII

In an attempt to end the war in the Pacific without a costly invasion
of Japan, the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively. A
uranium gun-type atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on
Hiroshima. When Emperor Hirohito did not heed President Truman’s
call for surrender, the US dropped a plutonium implosion-type
bomb named Fat Man on Nagasaki.

The two atomic bombings, together with the Soviet Union’s

declaration of war on Japan, finally convinced Emperor Hirohito to
surrender to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Use of the
atomic weapons demonstrated America’s technological superiority,
but also increased existing tensions with the Soviet Union, setting
the stage for the Cold War.

1948 – 1949
BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT
After WWII, control of Germany was divided between the Western
Allies and the Soviet Union. Berlin was located in the Eastern Soviet
sector, but since it was the country’s capital city, its control was
also divided between the Western powers and the USSR. In June of
1948, the USSR attempted to gain control of the entire city by
cutting off all surface traffic to West Berlin.

The United States responded with a daily airlift of food and supplies
into the besieged city. The airlift lasted until September of 1949. In
all, the western allied powers would deliver 2.3 million tons of
supplies and fuel to West Berlin during the airlift.

1949
USSR TESTS FIRST NUCLEAR WEAPON
The Soviet Union had begun research on its own atomic bomb
program in 1943. Aided by information and plans stolen from the
Manhattan Project by Soviet spies, the USSR was able to develop its
own nuclear weapon within only a few years after the end of World
War II.

In August of 1949, it conducted a successful test of a 20-kiloton

bomb years ahead of American predictions, effectively creating the
nuclear arms race between the two super-powers.

1950
US TESTS FIRST HYDROGEN BOMB
On November 1, 1952 at 7:15am local time (October 31, 1915 hours
GMT), the United States tested its first thermonuclear device
(hydrogen bomb) on the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll in
the Marshall Islands about 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. Code named
Ivy Mike, the device was detonated remotely from a distance of
about 30 miles.

The resulting fireball was 3 miles wide and reached a height of

120,000 feet. The mushroom cloud that followed the fireball was
100 miles wide. The yield of the explosion was a little over 10
megatons, more than 700 times larger than the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima. Elugelab was vaporized and the crater left
behind was more than a mile wide and more than 160 feet deep.

1950 – 1953
KOREAN WAR
Japan began ruling Korea in 1910, but ceded control of Korea when
it surrendered at the end of WWII. The United States and the USSR
agreed to split Korea into two occupation zones. The zone north of
the 38th parallel was occupied by the USSR and it helped the
Koreans living there form a communist government. The US
occupied the south and it oversaw elections that resulted in a
democratic government.

When the two major powers withdrew, friction between the north
and south finally erupted into war in 1950 when North Koreans
invaded the south. The south was unprepared for the aggression
and was immediately overrun. Eventually, the US stepped in to help
the South Korean military, essentially creating a proxy war between
the Soviet Union and the United States. No final peace treaty was
ever signed to end the Korean War. Instead, the two sides signed an
armistice in 1953 that ceased hostilities and formed the Korean
Demilitarized Zone, a no-man’s land between the two countries
which constituted the new border.

1957
THE SPACE RACE BEGINS
The US and the USSR each wanted to achieve technological
superiority over the other. Included in that struggle was the
race to become the first country to build a rocket capable of
launching an object into space. Not only would this be an
immense technological achievement, but a rocket that was
powerful enough to carry a payload into space could also carry
a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the other country.

In October of 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the world’s

first artificial satellite. Average Americans could turn on their
AM radios and hear Sputnik transmit its beeping signal.
Sputnik caught Americans off guard and embarrassed the
nation. For the US military, this was proof that the USSR had
the missile technology to attack the United States with
nuclear weapons. The USSR put Sputnik 2 in orbit before the
US was able to put its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit in
 January of 1958. Both countries then began a race to the
moon.

1959 – 1975
VIETNAM WAR
Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, was considered an important
sphere of influence by both US and Soviet leaders. When nationalist
forces created North Vietnam in 1956, the USSR and China
recognized and backed the new communist country while the US
became committed to stopping the spread of communism in the
region and backed South Vietnam.

As in Korea, the US and the USSR avoided direct warfare by backing

the opposing governments and forces. The war was immensely
unpopular in the US, which finally withdrew the last of its forces and
aide to South Vietnam in 1975. North Vietnam ultimately prevailed in
the war and Vietnam was unified into the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam in 1976.

1960
USSR TESTS THE LARGEST NUCLEAR WEAPON EVER BUILT
Known as Big Ivan to the Soviets and as Tsar Bomba in the US, RDS-
220 was the largest nuclear weapon ever built. Designed as a 100
megaton hydrogen bomb, its yield was reduced by 50% when it was
tested. The device was air-dropped from an altitude just above
34,000 feet over the Mityushikha Bay test site on Novaya Zemlya
Island on October 30, 1961.

It detonated at 13,000 feet and its fireball still reached the earth.
The blast pressure was measured at 300 psi and the flash of light
was visible more than 600 miles away. The mushroom cloud
reached an altitude of 210,000 feet.
 • 1961
BERLIN WALL DIVIDES GERMANY

By 1961, massive numbers of East Berliners were fleeing

through the open border to West Berlin. Late on August 12, in
an effort to stem the tide of defectors, Soviet Premier
Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to
stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good.

Construction of the Berlin Wall on the border between East

and West Berlin began on August 13. The first construction of a
barbed wire and concrete block fence was created in just two
weeks. The wall was more than 26 miles long and eventually
the barbed wire fence was replaced with a 13-foot wall.

• 1962
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was briefed by

the CIA that an American U-2 spy plane had taken photographs
of Soviet nuclear missile launch sites under construction in
Cuba. He formed a group of advisors that would later become
the Executive Committee (Ex Comm) to develop the US
response.

Over the next 13 days the Cuban Missile Crisis would unfold,
bringing the US and the former Soviet Union the closest we
have ever been to nuclear war.

1963 – I
TITAN II ICBMS DEPLOYED
The largest land-based missile ever deployed by the US, the Titan II
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was 103 feet tall and 10 feet in
diameter. The Titan II could launch from its underground silo in just
58 seconds and it carried the W-53 warhead with a yield of 9
megatons (9,000,000 tons of TNT).

With a range of more than 5,500 miles, the Titan II was an important
component of the US strategic triad. Fifty-four Titan II ICBMs were
deployed in groups of eighteen around three Air Force Bases, with
the first units coming on alert in early 1963. All fifty-four missiles
were on alert by December of that year. Davis-Monthan AFB,
Arizona hosted the 390th Strategic Missile Wing (SMW) which was
comprised of the 570th and 571st Strategic Missile Squadrons
(SMS). Little Rock AFB, Arkansas hosted the 308th SMW which was
comprised of the 373rd SMS and 374th SMS. And McConnell AFB,
Kansas hosted the 381st SMW which was comprised of the 532nd
SMS and 533rd SMS.

1963 – II
“HOT LINE” ESTABLISHED BETWEEN US & USSR
The Cuban Missile Crisis prompted the US and USSR to set up a
direct line of communication between the two countries to enable
rapid and direct communication between them in crisis situations
which might impact the security of either country (such as the
accidental launch of nuclear weapons).

Commonly referred to as the “Red Phone,” the communication link

was actually a tele-typewriter that transmitted written messages—
not voice. The “Hot Line” reduced the time it took for the US and
USSR to communicate directly with each other and reduced the
possibility for misunderstandings. It was first used extensively in
1967 during the Arab-Israeli War. The US used the Hot Line to
explain US fleet movements in the Mediterranean.
1983
ABLE ARCHER AND THE WAR SCARE
In early November of 1983 the world may have come closer to
nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. NATO
was conducting what it considered a routine exercise named Able
Archer, a simulation designed to train and test the procedures for
shifting from conventional to nuclear war.

However, the Soviet Union interpreted the exercise as a prelude to

a first strike by the United States. Much remains classified about
what came to be known as the War Scare of 1983. But the National
Security Archive has amassed and published a large collection of
documents that are available online. Included in this library is a 100-
page report by the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
from February of 1990 entitled The Soviet “War Scare.” Declassified
in 2012, the moderately redacted report concludes that the
intelligence community did not “attach sufficient weight to the
possibility that the war scare was real”, and as a result “the
President was given assessments of Soviet attitudes and actions
that understated the risks to the United States.” The Board further
concluded that the US had “inadvertently placed our relations with
the Soviet Union on a hair trigger.”

1987
LAST TITAN II COMES OFF ALERT
On May 5, 1987, the last active Titan II ICBM came off alert at Launch
Complex 373-8, Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. While missile crews
would continue to pull custodial alerts at the complex as
deactivation progressed, this day marked the end of the operational
life of the largest land based missile in the US arsenal.
Designed to function for just 10 years, 54 Titan II ICBMs stood alert
in their underground silos for almost 24 years, ever vigilant, ever
ready, maintaining peace through deterrence.

1989
BERLIN WALL COMES DOWN
In June of 1987, US President Ronald Reagan stood at the infamous
Brandenburg Gate, part of the Berlin Wall, and challenged the Soviet
General Secretary: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

A little less than 18 months later, millions of Germans celebrated as

thousands of their compatriots tore down the Berlin Wall—one of
the most iconic symbols and enduring images of the Cold War.

1991
SOVIET UNION COLLAPSES – COLD WAR ENDS
Riding the wave of unrest symbolized by the opening of the Berlin
Wall, leaders of every Eastern European nation except Bulgaria
were overthrown by popular uprisings by the end of 1989. The Soviet
Union was in turmoil and there were several attempts to overthrow
General Secretary Gorbachev.

Finally, on December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. The

president of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin, formed the
Commonwealth of Independent states. After 45 years, the Cold
War, the longest war in US history, was over.