On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. It came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapon knowledge so soon. Previously, the United States had used two atomic bombs on Japan to cause them to surrender during World War II. The impact that the possession of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union had upon the United States was that it caused Americans to question their own safety.

President Truman responded by reevaluating the United States position in the world and called for the United States to build up its conventional and nuclear weapons to halt the spread of Soviet influence around the globe.

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