Cold War History

The U.S. military uses the term “Broken Arrow” to refer to an accident that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons components.

The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), also known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), is an arms control agreement intended to restrict the testing of nuclear weapons and limit nuclear proliferation.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a comprehensive international arms control agreement addressing both horizontal and vertical nuclear proliferation. Negotiated and signed under President Lyndon B. Johnson, the NPT opened for signature on July 1, 1968. It was later ratified by the Senate under President Nixon and entered into force on March 5, 1970. Glenn Seaborg, […]

On October 30, 1961 the Soviet Union detonated the largest nuclear device in human history. The weapon, nicknamed Tsar Bomba, yielded approximately 50 megatons of TNT.

The successful test of RDS-1 in August of 1949 inspired the Soviet government to institute a major, high-priority program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946.

The Cold War began shortly after WWII and plunged the world into a series of conflicts that would last more than forty years.

In January 1950, President Truman made the controversial decision to continue and intensify research and production of thermonuclear weapons.

Operation Plumbbob was a series of 29 nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. military between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site.