Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1949. Race for bomb heats up; Cold War on the horizon

Everyone had expected the Russians to eventually figure out how to build an atomic weapon, but not just four years after World War II.

The news blanketed Page One on Sept. 24, 1949: President Harry Truman had announced to the nation that the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atom bomb.

Journal stories and editorials reacting to the news took comfort in the logic that the United States, with a four-year head start, would be able to stay ahead of the Soviets in the atomic race.

Journal editorial:

"While there should not be any attempt to minimize the seriousness of Russia's possession of the bomb, there should not be, on the other hand, nervous or panicky fear that the explosion of an atom bomb by Russia means that our superiority in military atomics has been caught up with by Russia . . . Certainly Russia is far behind us in industrial capacity and productiveness."

Two members of The Journal's Washington Bureau, Frederic W. Collins and Harold N. Graves Jr., wrote for the front page a long question-and-answer column, offering their judgment based on their experience speaking with government officials. They predicted a change in U.S. policy to protect "a margin of atomic superiority over the Russians."