Hydrogen Bombs and the Arms race

enrico Fermi suggest the original idea.

Oct 22, 1941

in a discussion on thermonuclear physics, Enrico suggests to Edward Teller that an atomic bomb would be "interesting". Picture source Text source

Acheson-Lilienthal Report

Mar 16, 1946

photo
This report was published with an early idea that dangerous nuclear materials should be controlled for the good of the public.
This report was used by the U.S. for the foundation of their nuclear policy.

Soviet's unleash JOE 1

Aug 29, 1949

The soviet union detonates a 22 kiloton bomb in semipalantisk, Kazakhstan. This test was unknown to the U.S. until a weather plane collected radioactive debris, which was a good implication of a nuclear bomb.
The russians used espionage to gather information on the Manhattan project, and then used said information to creat JOE 1. Image and Factual source

Truman decides to build H-bomb

Jan 1, 1950

JOE-1 infoPresident Truman decides that they should build a hydrogen bomb, or "superbomb" as the media callled it.
This was a reaction to the Russian detonation of JOE-1, which outdid the american bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Trumans' decision was accepted by most, and it was seen as a way to acheive a higher military standing than the Russians. Date and Photo

Teller and Ulam publish their atomic report

Mar 9, 1951

PDF (primjary source) Teller and Ulam publish their report “On Heterocatalytic Detonations I. Hydrodynamic Lenses and Radiation Mirrors". This report supports the idea of why Uranium will prove to be a better nucleear core than the previously used monatomic gasses.

Sausage bomb

Oct 31, 1952

[Photo](href='http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/hbomb/page_09.shtml)[Source](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Ivy.html)
Operation Ivy Mike is detonated, with the force being amplified by linking nuclear reactions (each reaction is one "sausage").
This was a more effecient bomb which meant that more could be produced if nuclear bombing became an ordinary tactic.