The year 1949 permanently changed American society. In mid-August, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon, ending the American atomic monopoly and significantly escalating the Cold War. While American officials expected that a nuclear Stalinist Russia was inevitable eventually, the USSR had done so far sooner than expected. The United States responded to this dramatic development by accelerating their own weapons program, testing the first hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb in 1951. As the arms race continued through the 1950s, both countries were forced to confront the potential realities of a sudden, devastating, nuclear war that could kill massive amounts of civilians and destroy whole cities. By the end of the decade, the United States, both on a national and federal level, had developed contingency plans for nuclear Armageddon. For those living and studying in the Morgantown area in the 1960s, the newly-built West Virginia University Hospital was central to the survival of many should the Cold War turn hot.
