Tsar Bomba

Just as World War II motivated many of the original members of the Manhattan project, the Soviet threat during the Cold War was a major factor in the American research and development efforts of the era.  Although America got the bomb first, the Soviet Union did not waste much time in matching and even surpassing the American’s technological advantage.  In 1961, the Soviets detonated the largest bomb in the history of humanity in Siberia:  the Tsar Bomba was a 50 megaton thermonuclear device, scaled down from a theoretical yield of 100 megatons.

The fireball was 5 miles wide and caused damage over 1000 miles away.  With this scale of destructive power, for many the important issue of the Cold War was not the relative righteousness of the two factions, but the basic survival instinct.  Many American scientists contributed to the war effort in spite of personal reservations to prevent the destructive forces that power the sun’s furnaces from touching America’s cities and landmarks.

Sources:

The Cold War