The USA and the USSR began an Arms Race
The USA and the USSR became very competitive - each wanting to be the strongest, and feeling threatended by the other. There was an arms race to have the most powerful weapons.
- Germany surrendered in May 1945, but the war against Japan continued. In August 1945, the USA dropped two atom bombs on Japan - destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombs were incredibly powerful and thousands of civilians were killed. Japan surrended immediately after this.
- The USA had kept the atom bomb secret from the USSR until just before it was used in Japan. For four years, the USA was the world's only nuclear power.
- But in 1949, the USSR exploded their own atom bomb. The USA developed the even more powerful hydrogen bomb in 1952. The USSR had followed with their own by 1955.
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