After World War II ended in 1942, Russia amped up its nuclear missile game. By 1943, they got into intensive missile work. Soon, they came up with their nuclear reactor, nuclear test, hydrogen bomb, and the most powerful nuclear device created–all within a span of 20 years. Russia, of course, did not stop with their nuclear weapons research there. Now, the country has developed the most powerful nuclear missile. But this time, it’s different.
Back then, the Soviet Union (present-day Russia) was in a Cold War with the U.S. It was fighting proxy wars in other countries, and the nuclear weapons programme served as a warning to the U.S. They weren’t, however, motivated to use the ‘Tsar Bomba’ (the most powerful nuclear weapon also known by the alphanumerical designation AN602) in those proxy wars. They were rather motivated to bomb the U.S than any other country. Nikita Khrushchev, the former Premier of the Soviet Union, said:
I remember President Kennedy once stated… that the United States had the nuclear missile capacity to wipe out the Soviet Union two times over, while the Soviet Union had enough atomic weapons to wipe out the Unites States only once… When journalists asked me to comment… I said jokingly, “Yes, I know what Kennedy claims, and he’s quite right. But I’m not complaining… We’re satisfied to be able to finish off the United States first time round. Once is quite enough. What good does it do to annihilate a country twice? We’re not a bloodthirsty people.
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