ABSTRACT
In 1951 there was an intense struggle behind the scenes between East and West as to who should be first with the hydrogen bomb, and to prepare the propaganda to be linked up with it. In the middle of the year, the USA had begun to make preliminary tests with the bomb. Fear of the atomic bomb and of the danger of the coming hydrogen bomb were used one-sidedly for a single political purpose. In spite of the Korean war, the General Assembly of the United Nations, which met first in Paris and later in New York, had, during the winter 1951—52, taken up the question of disarmament, and avoided discussion of Korea. The USA exploded her first hydrogen bomb in November 1952, and in August 1953 the Soviet Union achieved the same result. Great Britain supported the American atomic policy, and Churchill declared that only America’s lead in atomic and hydrogen bombs prevented Europe’s complete subjugation under communist tyranny.
