Development of Nuclear Weapons and Industry - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video describing the early period of Nuclear weapon development and proliferation
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#ColdWar #Nuclear #Atom

[@yourstruly4817]

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes me wish for a nuclear winter.

[@4dosmohos]

#remasterbigiron

[@anerkas]

We won't go quietly. The Legion can count on that.

[@blackhatfreak]

Well with things going on with Russia and Ukraine you'll get your wish soon enough I think.

[@SirHenryMaximo]

As a lawyer myself, I laughed hard at that intro!!!

[@TheColdWarTV]

I'll see what we can do about sliding some lawyer jokes in going forward!

[@mikotagayuna8494]

"Our words are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!" - Gandhi, 1930

[@paulbasaur]

that nuke lord-ghandi Civ reference yess lmao

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Great Video! Right up my alley!!

[@patricklynch9574]

Everybody to love a good disaster especially if its nuclear.☠☠☠🤘🤘🤘

[@jacksonbooth421]

There needs to be a collaboration between these two nerds ASAP

[@PlainlyDifficult]

@@jacksonbooth421 good idea!

[@Sabocat]

100% this entire episode was an excuse to show Igor Kurchatov's beard

[@TheColdWarTV]

noooo......

[@itsblank194]

I see cold war, i like

[@franzfanz]

I mean, if someone was to deliver me a nuclear weapon I'd simply refuse to sign for the package. Crisis averted.

[@TheColdWarTV]

nah, they always get sent "no signature required"

[@austin357]

Hey, it said “leave in a safe place”!

[@NZAnimeManga]

"Tube alloys", not "Alloy tubes"

[@Sventimir]

The quote about lawyers and nukes actually comes from a play "Other people's money" by J. Sterner, which the movie featuring de Vito with the same title is based upon.

[@phazoneatermetroid77]

I loved the Civ Ghandi reference

[@thatsjohn3938]

Thanks for putting this together this was great

[@sebastianweinholdt707]

Looking forward too the future episodes : )

[@pikminlord343]

another great episode!

[@patrickmcglonejr8163]

Loved the Ghandi reference for Sid Meier's Civilization

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

4:44 that photo is very unsettling. Interesting beard I guess

[@TheColdWarTV]

Sooo....i shouldn't try to grow mine out to be similar??

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

The Cold War Do it.

[@neonz616]

Ha, instant upvote from me for the Sid Meier's Civilization Gandhi reference! :)

[@hasnainakhtar6707]

Thanks

[@alexd9735]

I believe it would be beneficial for viewer to possibly understand Soviet lack of trust towards west if you have included Churchill lobbing to nuke Moscow before they could get hands on nuclear weapon. It is especially funny to read how pro Churchill (like Churchill project) sources are downplaying this by saying that he just wanted to test the reaction of listener. Very funny.

[@lundsweden]

Is this actually true though? What is your source?

[@the1ghost764]

Wow 😳 Excellent video. I must of watched this @ least 3 times.

[@asiftalpur3758]

😳

[@rzpogi]

It's interesting to know that the Philippine constitution (written in 1987 when the cold war is still active and the US still have their bases here) prohibits the development and use of nuclear weapons and all visiting foreign forces are prohibited from bringing their own nuclear weapons within Philippine soil/waters. This has been violated multiple times as some US subs that stop over for refueling and supplies have nuclear torpedoes on them.

[@BuildingCenter]

This series is going to blow up, even though I expect at least one melt-down in the comments.

[@brokenbridge6316]

This video was very informative. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

[@michaelberg9456]

Cool vid

[@riekopo7638]

There's a new game by Slitherine coming out soon called ICBM. It's pretty awesome.

[@JosephKeenanisme]

Great stuff and looking forward to the series. You know you're a student of the cold war when you see a nuclear test film and you know which one it is.

[@sshray1115]

Rocking!!

[@stephen9869]

This is going to be good!

[@FDNY101202]

Can you guys please do a video on the bridge of spies when that time comes around? Thanks 👍

[@______608]

Last time I was this early the US and Russia were allies

[@deanbuss1678]

I can see this is gonna get good 😊.

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

How can I develop nuclear weapons, personally

[@grimreaper6557]

go to any major library and you can find the information on how to build one problem is if you check them out your put on a watch list so if you start buying the matierials needed to build them well then guys in black battle dress come knocking at your door

[@iKvetch558]

Nah...nevermind that library stuff...LOL...all you gotta do is watch the 1986 movie "The Manhattan Project"...it will lay the whole thing out for you. 😁

[@thelogician3845]

In fact you can get almost all the necessary stuff legally but then u won't be able to get the nuclear fuel so .....

[@TheColdWarTV]

I heard a story once about a Dr. Emmett Brown who, in 1985, managed to procure Plutonium from a group of Libyan terrorists, but he wanted it for a science experiment rather than weapons production. But that is just a story I heard once...

[@NorthForkFisherman]

@@TheColdWarTV I understand he did some serious shit with it.

[@alphagamer9505]

Can you guys make a playlist with all videos in chronological order

[@whitebread.]

Yo, I really love the content you guys put out. It's everything I look for in a history channel. There is one tiny thing that is annoying me though. The weird brownish grey filter on the video is weird, and a little bit distracting. Besides that, this is really good stuff. I hope to see plenty more in the future!

[@alinur5568]

Hope the decolonisation episodes come soon

[@Cancoillotteman]

As any player of Sid Meyer's Civ, I must share my PTSD of Ghandi. A single Indian unit spotted on the map desirves an immediate proportionate retaliation by invading the totality of their country.

[@patrickmcglonejr8163]

They must be purged before they become madmen with nukes!

[@MTWolfgang]

Nice choose for Halloween month

[@888HUSKERS]

Still waiting on follow up videos to this.

[@peterhann9748]

Hi David!

[@davidbocquelet-dbodesign]

Nice portal video, i can see at least a dozen vids behind....

[@sttot]

The captions have a typo "destruwwction" instead of "destruction" around 9:52

[@ChenAnPin]

Will you guys mention how the Republic of China in Taiwan was developing and almost acquired nuclear weapons?

[@beemail6983]

I've 2k hours in a 2k games... Game. Civilizations ftw

[@nolanlewis538]

Are we getting a series on the space race as well? 🤞

[@jwenting]

So mind that neither China nor the USSR ever believed in the concept of mutual assured destruction. Both believed that a nuclear conflict could be won if only executed with enough preparation, and believed that the percentage estimate of population losses were acceptable.

[@alexanderman1000]

I love the puns . etc

[@andraslibal]

Wow, to have a video on this topic and to completely fail to mention the Soviet advantage in fusion bomb design and how the US needed to catch up to them and how instrumental Teller Ede was in achieving that and promoting the continued development of weapons ...

[@Vrelk]

Best hostdavid ever.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

Of important note to the video on the topic of MAD. The US was not actually under threat of total or even large destruction until the early 70's at the earliest. Despite what people thought back then the USSR did not have as many ICBMs that could reach the US as we now know what the CIA and the President knew back then. For example, during the Cuban missiles crises the USSR only had 3 ICBMs that could reach the US operational. So could those 3 missiles have done a lot of killing in the US? Yes, of course. But it would not have led to the destruction of the US alone unlike what the US missile and bomber force could do to the USSR at the time. *Also, I didn't mention the USSR's bomber force because it was not going to be a actual threat to the US. First it was pretty small to start with. And then secondly the US would know those bombers were on their way to the US hours in advance with the early warning the US would have had with it's radar stations around the world. This would have given the US interceptor fighters each multiple sorties at shooting down the USSR's bombers which would have had no fighter escorts on a trip to the US. This would have led to most if not all the USSR bombers being shot down before they got to the US. I would bet the USSR in the event of war would not even try to send their bombers capable of dropping nukes to the US. I would expect the USSR to use it's bombers to drop nukes on US and Allied forces in Europe.

[@cezardan01]

That poor bell button. It just gets abused in so many ways on this channel. :))

[@milmex317th]

Montabellu islands Let's hear it for ENWETAK Marshall islands. The Clean up Crew.🤘🇺🇸

[@user-eq5we2iw7l]

I see Cold War, I like

[@amh9494]

UK gives all it's data and progress to the Manhattan project driving it forward precipitously, after the war the USA decided too withhold everything. A good lesson in what it is to be an 'ally' of the USA.

[@ThatGuyWhoLivesinChina]

By the mid-1960s, there were 274 Nike-Hercules batteries and 10,000 (nuclear-tipped) missiles across the U.S.

[@TheColdWarTV]

haven't forgotten about Nike, Mr Cuerdon! Going to give it the treatment it deserves ;)

[@ThatGuyWhoLivesinChina]

@@TheColdWarTV - Thank you, Mr. Cold War. I love your shows.

[@herosfigueiredo3272]

Duck and Cover!!

[@ThoriberoCaroli]

# Ghanditrauma... :I

[@stalkinghorse883]

There are those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. And at the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.

[@annescholey6546]

Is it said that Man has bettered the means of his own doom since the Stone Age in every battle and war seemingly mostly in Central Europe for six hundred years.

[@elhombredeoro955]

The Soviets had a better access to Manhattan project than UK.

[@silverismoney]

I'll give up my nukes as long as no one else builds nukes , ok ? .. soviets: ok, you first. us: no. you.

[@mr.fahrenheit6054]

Hi there Cold War! I was wondering if you'll highlights the infamous Communist Party staged assassination towards several high ranking generals on September 30th, 1965 in Indonesia which we call G30S/PKI. It is truly interesting to see foreign view about one of my country darkest history regarding it's controversies, background and impact toward Indonesia (politic, social, economy) and geopolitical climate.

[@TheColdWarTV]

We will be covering the September 30th movement for sure

[@wtfbuddy1]

Nice intro to the series, thank you for putting Little Boy before Fat Man, so many people think it's the other way around. Canada had it's finger in the material for Trinity - please let this be known. Cheers

[@G_Flash84625]

Please talk about the South African nuclear weapons program!!!!!!

[@v1adio779]

Yes, but have you ever heard about project coast?

[@tristanmichel9750]

Really sad to hear only one sentence about France. Indeed, France was the most advanced country in terms of nuclear technology prior to WWII. Uranium was already purchased to the Katanga's mining company ( Congo DRC) and so was also the heavy water to Norsk Hydro company ( Norway) by 1939. Nuclear facilities were already planned by 1939 and so was the French Nuclear Comission. So, if France wouldn't have lost to Germany in 1940, they would have been the first country to detonate a nuke.

[@Zaeyrus]

"As long as we have the rattling gun and they don't..."

[@Arbiter099]

"We have got the Maxim gun and they have not."

[@Zaeyrus]

@@Arbiter099 i have to remember to check the quote before i post it :D :D, thnx for correction

[@NoirChat138]

We'll meet again...

[@TheColdWarTV]

...in all the old familiar places...

[@NoirChat138]

@@TheColdWarTV btw mushroom clouds are terrifyingly beautiful

[@jaredkennedy6576]

If a nation was serious about nukes being a second strike/retaliatory/deterrent type weapon, then they would get rid of their offensive capable ones. Go to just the second strike capability, like the subs.

[@569139]

The modern SLBM's have the accuracy to be used in a "First Strike" role Targeting ICBM silos. launch control and such. The CEP (Circular Error Probable) on the Trident D5 warheads are thought to be within 100-150 meters...

[@jaredkennedy6576]

@@569139 True, but they are primarily a second strike weapon. Air delivered now that there aren't bombers in the air 24/7 is really a first strike, and since most land based locations are known those really aren't viable as a second strike.

[@569139]

@@jaredkennedy6576 Good points!!

[@AeneasTroy]

I always wanted to have a nuclear car. Make it happen please.

[@TheColdWarTV]

I'm sure you can visit the Corvega Assembly Plant to get a nuclear car. Beware of the Raiders however.

[@gagandeepsinghsudan5477]

You missed south africa and india neuclear test

[@thelogician3845]

That was post cold war I think....atleast the 1997 one

[@TheColdWarTV]

We didn't miss them. They just come later in the story.

[@NorthForkFisherman]

@@TheColdWarTV Any plans for maybe taking a look at shadow programs that developed? The DPRK was in the quest for nukes long before the CCCP fell apart and of course, Israel.

[@Davbach01]

@@TheColdWarTV At 8:40 you skipped UK's tests and moved to France and China's tests, or did I miss something? The United Kingdom became the third country 1952, China 1964

[@lesliecat209]

@@thelogician3845 India first tested a nuclear device in 1974

[@Finallyelii]

Destruwwction

[@Thunder11110]

(kicked off)

[@daemon.running]

I dunno, Stephen Colbert made them seem pretty cool.

[@gus3247365]

What do I know .. I've just been doing this for 70 years ....I missed the thouands of years first hand and I don't trust what I read in certain books .

[@ethanreighley1336]

I read somewhere that 3 days before America dropped the bomb Japan successfully tested a nuclear weapon, is that true?

[@TheColdWarTV]

No. Japan did have a nuclear program but it was rife with problems, even more so than the German one. By the time of the surrender in 1945, the most progress that had been made was the design on paper of a centrifuge

[@ethanreighley1336]

@@TheColdWarTV thank you for the reply 😀

[@Marinealver]

So todays state of the world are we safer, or never in more danger? Let's ask Ghandi!

[@Untiem]

Τhe spheres of influence in Europe were agreed in Yalta Eastern Europe was meant to be under Soviet influence wasn't a stand against the US

[@asiftalpur3758]

sure.

[@hdjfhebsn]

First

[@wilhelmheinzerling5341]

What about the Soviets shelling nuclear artillery at China when they lay claim to Mongolia and along the north western boarder w USSR...

[@mdmiloy5897]

WWE

[@JohnWick-iv3cn]

It's was me Austin

[@ariebrons7976]

first of all, like the talmudic refference. second: how was an officer detered from rebelling? I mean having the worlds most powerfull flare must have made some pilots feel ineasy. one push and we would have been doomed. Also: I thought Rosenberg was found innocent, twenty years after his death. (I heared that, can't quote an article) to summarise: the USA built the first nuke. spies kept on leaking info to the USSR. the USSR built it's own arsenal the world has been at a standoff ever since then and each side has been purchasing more powerfull bombs (sorta like a roadrunner-wiley e.coyote standoff). and now one wrench into this rube goldberg machine, and we're all screwed. Do I need to add anything? thanks in advance A.brons

[@gojo76]

japan during cold war , please

[@aquilarossa5191]

I wonder how much the spying helped the USSR. Criticality of enriched uranium and plutonium was well understood by the world's scientific community before WWII, so how to build a bomb would not be difficult for physicists to work out. What the USA struggled with was how to enrich uranium for either bombs, or reactors that produce plutonium for bombs. That was a major challenge and expense. The facilities were huge and there were several failures before they finally found the best way to do it. Even if the Soviets got bomb designs, they still had to build that massive infrastructure for enriching and go through that same process of finding the best ways to produce the highly fissile materials. How much spying helped them largely depends on how much information they got about enriching. Even now enriching is the stumbling block for countries with nuclear ambitions, which is why supply of machinery like the centrifuges is so tightly controlled. Once they have it, building the actual bomb appears to be far less of a challenge. P.S. What may have helped was that the implosion plutonium 239 bomb could use a non critical sphere of the material and cause it to go critical by igniting conventional explosive around that sphere to compress it into criticality, i.e., lower the critical mass threshold. That means less plutonium is required (less than 10kg). The plutonium version became preferred because producing plutonium proved easier than enriching uranium 235 to the degree required, i.e., lesser enriched uranium in a reactor would produce plutonium 239 as a byproduct. But a uranium gun type bomb is actually a very simple device. Any competent machinist could make one using a mill and lathe if they have the highly enriched uranium 235. All it takes is two portions to be bought together so that their sum exceeds criticality. The explosion is the consequence of that mass being achieved. Producing the materials is the difficult part, so I am not sure how much spying helped the Soviets with that (information about it only tends to mention that bomb designs were leaked to them).

[@billrhodes5603]

My understanding is that the main information that the spies provided had more to do with the shape of the explosive "lenses" that surround the plutonium core, and the fusing of the same to detonate at exactly the right moment to ensure even compression of the sphere. U-235 is too difficult to separate out of U-238 (the USA had thousands of centrifuges working around the clock for 3 years and only produced enough for one bomb....Little Boy, the one dropped on Hiroshima). Pu-239 is produced in reactors at great expense so an efficient way to cause the Pu-239 to reach criticality needed to be designed. The Soviets would have certainly figured it out for themselves eventually (they had some pretty brilliant scientists), Fuchs and Rosenberg probably saved the USSR a decade or more. And about the USSR being able to build the infrastructure so rapidly...not hard to do when you have millions of "zeks" (aka political prisoners used as slave labor) who could be mobilized by a single orde from Stalin to build whatever he wanted regardless to their well being.

[@jerrywatt6813]

Yes I read the atomic accidents by Mc caffeine (spelling ? ) it's a good book for those with no nuclear training in trusting reading

[@frederikbjerre427]

Nuclear weapons is a blessing to the world. I still remember the socialist 5. Column in Europe who fought against them in order to give the USSR an advantage. Thank God they lost.

[@mariacheebandidos7183]

so, there was a period when the US was the sole nuclear power but didn't use it. thus a strong argument can be made that the US hasn't used it since Japan (in a world war and still faced strong internal opposition) more because of self restrain and internal oppositions than the headline-grabbing, looks-good-on-books-and-movies, "mad" narrative / theory

[@duster0066]

imo the US didn't use to be so war like and aggressive on the world stage. The "leader of the free world" position was forced upon us by the second world war outcome, and was not desired by many here. However that job changed us, and now I believe we have become aggressors due to our perceived responsibilities of the keepers of world order. We have become global bullies just like all of the world leaders before us. My support of Trump has nothing to do with the ugly person he appears to be. But rather that he is not owned by our politics, and he is exposing the ugly and corrupt country we have become. He is not the solution, but he is shining a light on the problem. It is up to us to accept we have a problem and institute changes or ignore our deep faults and return to business as usual. Note I do not ignore our early history of aggression in the western hemisphere. We are humans and just as nasty to those different than us as every other culture has been. Only that we didn't desire to rule the world before the end of WWII. The ideals set down in our founding are noble, but the execution has been flawed because we are human too.

[@Game_Hero]

What about the nuclear programs of Pakistan and India? The guy behind the Pakistani program has quite an interesting history.

[@TheColdWarTV]

those programs come later in the timeline.

[@Game_Hero]

@@TheColdWarTV ah ok. It's just that from memory it was in the 50s. Guess I was wrong :)

[@bhutochakrabarti4173]

Looks like comrade stalin was intelligent enough to sense the treacherous plan of those capitalist pigs with their nuclear weapons. Lol. Hey in this series would u also cover nuclear disasters occurring in both usa and USSR? Anyways another informative and nice video.

[@Sky4Jus]

When USA was making atomic bombs, their target was Berlin. After making one, Germany was already capitulated, so they tried this weapon on other Axis power - Japan.

[@Norg1]

whos next to have them ???? i really think usa should give japan and south korea nukes only to lessen our responsibility in that region alla let japan take care of itself

[@NorthForkFisherman]

And that's what causes wars. Not understanding the history that's gone before. The Chinese AND BOTH KOREAS would lose their damn minds over the Japanese having the bomb. The same goes if you switch the variables around right now. The DPRK is exceptionally weak despite its bluster. It has no real navy or air force. The armored corps are all '60s vintage tech. It has tons of artillery, but that can't hold ground. A massive army, well-motivated but very under-equipped compared to both the US and ROK. Its only real defense is the nuclear deterrent. The only thing that the government of the DPRK (the Kim family) cares about is avoiding regime change. Everything else is for show.

[@Norg1]

@@NorthForkFisherman well i just think if china and north korea have nukes then show should south korea and japan just tp have balance but the point in that is it benefits usa the most esp in the future if they wanna leave this region

[@NorthForkFisherman]

@@Norg1 Nope. What benefits the US most is economic stability and increasing prosperity of our allies. And why on Earth would we think about dis-enagement of this region? We're so heavily invested in both capital and politically, we're never leaving. The world has become a very small place and we simply can't leave anywhere without a probable adversary filling that vacuum.

[@bhutochakrabarti4173]

Well , such a good waste of money.

[@billrhodes5603]

Not really...The USA and USSR probably would have fought WWIII after WWII. WWII had what 50 million deaths almost 100% caused by conventional weaponry. The existence of nuclear weaponry meant that the USA and USSR had to find different means to combat each other....diplomacy, proxy wars, economic warfare etc. rather than open conflict. That open conflict would have have been cataclysmic. So to quote the great Ozzy Osborne "Thank God for the Bomb."

[@SourathChatterjee]

It seems you forget India and Pakistan are also Nuclear Armed Countries. Only difference is that one is home made other is stolen 🤣🤣