On this day, 73 years ago, November 1, 1952 (September 14, 1952, the first hydrogen bomb in the United States exploded successfully. On September 23, 1949, the Soviet government announced that it had successfully exploded the first atomic bomb, thus breaking the U.S. nuclear monopoly. It was a great shock to the U.S. government and opposition. The U.S. Air Force originally thought that the Soviet Union would only build the first atomic bomb in 1952. American scientist Taylor believed this was an excellent opportunity to mobilize the government to build hydrogen bombs. He first found like-minded people in California-Lawrence of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, chemist Latimer and later Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez (They all participated in the work of the Manhattan Project.) They met in Los Alamos on October 6, 1949 to discuss in detail the manufacture of hydrogen bombs and fully assess the difficulties brought to the manufacture of hydrogen bombs by several key issues. First, the new equation cannot be calculated using conventional methods. Every step of the complex device of the hydrogen bomb requires an astonishing number of precise calculations to determine its impact on the millions of small parts inside the bomb, but the human brain is unable to cope with it. Second, it takes a high temperature of several million degrees to detonate a hydrogen bomb. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima is not suitable. A special atomic bomb needs to be manufactured as a detonator, which will inevitably affect the production capacity of the United States. Third, the real explosive of hydrogen bombs is hydrogen and its isotope neon. Neon does not exist in nature and decays quickly. Neon can only be produced by the nuclear reaction of uranium and neutrons in a specially designed heavy water reactor. However, hydrogen and neon are both gases at room temperature, so before detonation, they must remain near absolute zero, or minus 273 degrees Celsius, so huge refrigeration equipment is needed. They decided to find supporters of making hydrogen bombs. The first strong supporter they found was U.S. Navy Reserve Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss, one of five directors of the Atomic Energy Commission (the other four opposed). They are also trying to change other people's perceptions. Examples include Senator McMahon, Chairman of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Paul Nietzsche, Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Office, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley. Taylor and the others insisted that the prestige of the United States depends on its technological advantages. If the Soviets built the first fusion bomb, the United States would lose face. Through lobbying, Taylor found supporters in politics and the military. On January 13, 1950, Omar Bradley, in the name of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposed to build a hydrogen bomb. This month, the infamous McCarthyism emerged. Four days after Bradley made his decision, news came from Britain in favor of the hydrogen bomb makers that British nuclear scientist Fuchs was ordered to commit treason on the grounds that he had sold nuclear technology to the Soviet Union. This incident meant that the Soviet Union would compete with the United States, thus strengthening the U.S. government's determination to build hydrogen bombs. On January 31, a three-member special committee was formed by Secretary of State Acheson, Secretary of Defense Johnson and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Lilienthal to study whether to make hydrogen bombs. In the vote, Lilienthal, who opposed the making of hydrogen bombs, was defeated. That afternoon, President Truman announced the decision to build a hydrogen bomb. Truman's decision was strongly opposed by scientists centered on the three giants of the American scientific community-Einstein, Oppenheimer and Harvard University President James Conant. The American Association of Scientists criticized the government for ostensibly seeking peace with détente, but in fact relied on the destructive power of bombs. Under the leadership of Hans Bettie of Cornell University, 12 senior U.S. physicists issued a call stating: "We believe that no matter what legitimate reasons a country has, it has no right to use such bombs." This kind of bomb is no longer a weapon used in war, but a means of exterminating the entire human race. Einstein distributed a world-renowned statement, pointing out that hydrogen bombs could destroy all life in one fell swoop because of their radioactivity. The great man believed that "the idea of achieving military security through comprehensive arms is a sad fantasy at the current level of war technology." He felt that the arms race had reached a point of hysteria. Oppenheimer and Conant asked to resign from the president's General Advisory Council. Because Einstein and Oppenheimer opposed the making of hydrogen bombs, they were later politically persecuted by the U.S. government. The strong opposition of atomic scientists did not prevent the U.S. government from continuing to manufacture hydrogen bombs. As time went by, the difficulties in manufacturing technology were also being overcome one by one. When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, many American scientists who opposed it turned to participate in the development of hydrogen bombs. In this way, the development process has been accelerated. First, a large number of heavy water reactors have been established. They can not only produce plutonium required for ordinary atomic bombs, but also produce neon required for hydrogen bombs. Major improvements have been made to the past atomic bomb and a new type of atomic bomb that can detonate hydrogen has been developed. In the spring of 1951, computer expert John von Neumann successfully developed a new type of "high-speed electronic digital computer" that solved the special mathematical problem of thermonuclear bombs. Also at this time, Stan Ulam and Taylor solved the problem of detonating the hydrogen bomb. In May of that year, the United States manufactured a hydrogen bomb with an atomic bomb as an ignition device. On November 1, 1952, the first explosion test was successful on the small island of Elugelab in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The hydrogen bomb tested by the United States in November 1952 used a "warm fuel" of liquid heavy hydrogen and triple hydrogen. This hydrogen bomb was huge and difficult to apply. Later, the first "dry" hydrogen bomb was successfully developed in Los Alamos. On March 1, 1954, it was successfully tested again on Bikini Island in the Pacific. Its power was equivalent to 15 million tons of TNT gunpowder, which was 750 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Because the outer side of this hydrogen bomb is covered with a layer of uranium, the outer uranium absorbs neutrons during explosion and splits into radioactive dust-"dead ashes", which can fly 200 kilometers away and endanger human life. The first victims of the hydrogen bomb were Japanese again. At that time, 200 kilometers away from the center of the explosion, a Japanese fishing boat named "Fuyong Maru" was operating. Due to radioactive dust pollution, after the 23 people on board returned home, one of them died and the rest became disabled. Eisenhower became president of the United States in January 1953, promising to use strategic weapons to "end the Korean War with glory" in exchange for votes. After he came to power, he intensified his efforts to implement the former president's national defense policies and strategic principles. In the spring of 1954, the United States successfully exploded a hydrogen bomb using solid potassium neon as a fusion material three times in a row. Amid this series of explosions, Taylor became a popular figure. This nuclear scientist, born in Budapest in 1908, has been called the "father of the hydrogen bomb".