continued destruction, surrendered immediately. World War II was finally over, but the Atomic Age had just begun.In August, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear bomb. As a result, the US and the USSR began a race to compile an arsenal of the most powerful weapons as possible. This led to the development of the hydrogen bomb, a much more devastating version of the atom bomb.An H-bomb uses both nuclear fission and fusion to create a huge explosion. First, an uncontrolled fission reaction takes place, which creates extreme temperature and pressure. This massive force activates a fusion reaction, creating a very destructive blast at least five times the power of an atomic bomb.After years of weapons research and construction, US president Ronald Reagan announces plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, a satellite based system which would, theoretically, destroy all missiles in space before they reached America. When the Soviet Union heard this, they began a mad race to catch up. However, the country went broke trying to catch up to a project that didnt exist, exhausting their resources immensely, and eventually causing a chain reaction that ended communism in most European countries.In 1986 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan began the long process of disarmament, intending to greatly lessen the threat of nuclear holocaust. Many treaties have been signed to eliminate several classes of weapons, including intermediate-range, short-range, and long-range missiles. To this day, countries around the world are disarming and decontaminating missiles, and continuing the effort to conserve peace, although the path ahead is long, and certainly fraught with complications. Third-world countries are just now gaining access to nuclear technology, and some of these nations are constantly at war, home to terrorist factions, and other things that could be disastrous if nuclear technology...
