Tensions: arms race

As tensions raised, America and the USSR were competing to outdo each other in just about everything. After the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Japan to end WW2, it did not take long for the Soviets to create one of their own. Feeling pressured to outdo their opponents, the US felt compelled to make a bigger, better, and more destructive bomb. The US turned to J Robert Oppenheimer, the creature of the atomic bomb, to create the hydrogen bomb. On January 31, 1950, Truman authorizes the H-bomb. On November 1, 1952, the first test of the H-bomb follows through. Soon after, in August 1953, less than a year later, the Soviets have created their own H-bomb.