Soviet Atomic Bomb

• What event justified the USA's decision to join NATO in 1949?

  The Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb.
• What surprised the US regarding the Soviet Union's atomic weapon development?

  The speed of the development was a surprise.
• Who was Klaus Fuchs and what was his role in the atomic bomb development?

  Klaus Fuchs was a German physicist who was a Soviet spy passing information to Moscow.
• What was the origin of the Soviet atomic bomb?

  The Soviet bomb was a copy of the American bombs dropped in Japan in 1945.
• How did Truman respond to the Soviet atomic bomb test?

  He called for the USA to build up both its conventional and nuclear weapons.
• What significant nuclear development occurred in the USA in 1952?

  The USA produced the first hydrogen bomb.
• How much more powerful was the first hydrogen bomb compared to the original atomic bomb?

  It was 400 times as powerful.
• When did the USSR test its own hydrogen bomb?

  In the summer of 1953.