Nuclear strategy. Truman, NSC-68 and “Super”: Toward Massive Retaliation. Part II

On 29th August, almost exactly four years after the use of the weapon by the United States, the USSR conducted its first nuclear test, the RDS-1. It seems that for at least part of the US Establishment, the speed at which the Soviet nuclear project progressed was a surprise. While no one in Washington had any doubts that the Soviets would sooner or later develop their own nuclear project, it was usually assumed that both the first test and then the road to operationalising the new weapon would take the Soviets many years (1953 being one common estimate).