U.S. Nuclear Deterrence: The Cold War and Colorado's Nuclear Weapons Factory

In an extensively researched account seasoned with secrecy and espionage, Hobbs traces the emergence of nuclear technology through the development and testing of the first atomic weapons. Initially intended to crush the WWII Axis powers in Western Europe, atomic weapons were first deployed in the Pacific Ocean theater. But post-WWII events brought an unexpected change in tensions among the Western Allies and U.S.-Soviet relations, in particular.

   In late 1948 massive forces of Soviet tanks and armed forces lined up in Eastern Europe facing a diminished and war-wearied Allied defenses. Stalin continued to amass combat forces and materiel that the Soviet military had prepared for a World War III.

   Stalin had been planning this offensive as he fought alongside Allied Forces during World War II. He was waiting for the moment that his increasingly powerful armies could sweep through Western Europe and initiate his visionary communist world domination.

   All Stalin needed to do was to give the order for his armored divisions to begin their rapid advance through Western Europe. There was only one thing deterring Stalin: the U.S. had a nuclear arsenal. And they had proven that they were willing to use it.

   Stalin knew he couldn’t catch up with U.S. nuclear capabilities even after his scientists had stolen the designs to the first U.S. atomic bombs. U.S. military planners and government officials realized that more nuclear weapons were needed to deter Stalin’s plans for World War III.

   The Cold War evolved in an effort to control nuclear weapons technology and assure the U.S. maintained a strategic advantage. A superior U.S. Cold War nuclear capability and Colorado’s Nuclear Weapons Factory were to be that deterrence to an imminent World War III.