USAFLOCKHEEDU-2SPYPLANEDRAGONLADY1955-200550THANNIVERSARYIron-onPATCH

Описание

On May 1, 1954, despite the breezy spring weather, leaders across Washington D.C.’s intelligence community found themselves breaking out in a cold, panicked sweat. Over the skies of Red Square in Moscow, the Soviet Union had just introduced its newest bomber — the Myasishchev, ominously nicknamed “Hammer” — during a Russian May Day celebration. Coming on the heels of the Soviet Union’s successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb the previous summer, the unveiling fueled a growing fear that Russia had not only eclipsed the West in terms of both nuclear weapons and bomber production, but was gearing up for a potential attack on the U.S. as well. The U.S., which had been allied with the Soviet Union during World War II, only to see it transform — literally overnight — into its fiercest Cold War.