-- ~- ~ ·~ 

.• REF 

Soviets RePort Blast 

While Counseling West 

Not to Becoine Alarmed 

Bulletin 

BY the United Press 

Chairman Lewis{,. Strauss uf-the Atomic Energy 

Commission announcfld early today that Russia con~ 

ducted an atomic test on the morning of August 12. 

He said information received by the United States 

"indicates that this test involved both fission and 

thermonuclear reaction.'' 

The thermonuclear reaction is the reaction of the 

hydrogen super-bomb. The fission reaction is the 

reaction of the atomic bomb used as a heat trigger for 

the H-homb. 

"The Soviet Union ~nducted an atomic test on the 

- morning of August 12," Strauss said. ''Certain in• 

formation to this effect came into our hands that . . . 

night. Subsequent information on the subject in di· 

cates that this test involved both fission and thermonuclear reaction. 

"It will be reca)led thaJ more ~ t\ree years ago 

the United States decided to accelijt\~ :Work on all 

forms of 'atomic weapons. Both tl$l95I and the 

1952 Eniwetok test series includ'~'lits iuvolvilijf 

y similar reactioU:' . ·. .\Y 

i~ . MOSCOW (Thursday), Aug. 20 (UP) .-Russia 

i>: announced today it has explo~ Cl hydrogen bomb. 

: A Soviet government commUnlque said the bomb 

~ was exploded "a few days ago'' for "experimental 

purposes." · · 

:

0 The announcement came less than two week$ after Sos, viet Premier Georgi 'Malenkov said in a speech that the 

s. United States had "no monopoly" on the H-bomb. 

~ "A few days ago· in the Sovjet Union one. of the types of 

g Ute hydrogen b~mb was exploded for experimental pur· 

~s poses,'' the official communique said. 

d "As a result of the explosion a thermonuclear reaction of 

·~ great force was set off," it added. 

If ''Th~. experiment showed. the power of the hydrogen t bomb is many times stronger· than the power of atom 

bombs." . :: :e "It is well ~oWn that for•

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t ·seleral )rears the Sovtet Union 1 . :.1: has possessed atomic weapons, foundation whatever for· such 

" I 1 " it and carried out corresponding a arm. 1- tests of these weapons " the an- T?e announcement said the . · ' Soviet Government repeatedly 

o. nouncement added. has proposed to other govern-

~ It said that as follows fromi ments a substantial .reduction 

Malenkov's address before the, of armaments, includmg a ban 

t- Supreme Soviet last August 8 ' 01!- the '!lse. of aton;iic weapons, l- , . . · . 'l with strict mternational control 

I 

'the Soviet Umon also pos1 to enforce the ban within the 

[ sesses the secret of the manu- framework of the United Na· 

sifacture of the hydrogen bomb." tions. 

t I The communique said Malen- These proposals, it said, wei:e 

I kov's an n o u n c e men t had i made in connection "with the 

l j' "evoked numerous comments" .

1

. unchanging policy of the Soviet 

; abr.oad, and added: Union directed toward strength- r "Certain foreign circles who ening the peace and security 

i based their policies on the for-' of· many peo'ples." 

' mer monopaly of the United'. . "The ~ o vie t Government 

t States of the atom bomb, and I firmly continues to hold this 

also of the hydrogen bomb, are See BOMB, Page 2, Col. 4 - trying .to frighten the people ~ with the facts that the Soviet j 

1 Union passesses the secret of - the manufacture of the hydro- • gen . bomb and. in this connec- ' 

tion have caused alarm using · · the fact for the purpose of in- , ~. Plnsifying the". ·arrilaments race. • · "The Soviet government con- . siders it necessary to declare 

' now as .before there is no l 

ID:A39378 

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BOMB-From Page 1 

IReds Report H-Bonib Test 

) position at the present time," detonation. It could be readily 

the announcement added. identified. · ; 

The communique was pub- The magnitude of a hydrogen i 

lished in the government news- b?mb blJ'.I'st W?uld also help to j 

papers Pravda and Izvestia. differentiate it from an A· 

The two newspapers ran the bomb blast. 

announcement in the upper Secretary of State John Fosrfght hand corner of the second ter Dulles told a news conferpage under a two-coJumn head- en<;e last Wednesday that the 

line saying merely: Umted States had not, at that 

"A governmental communique time, rece!ved any evidence that: on testing of hydrogen bomb in the Russians had set off an 

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th s · t u · " H-bomb. e ovie mon. · Thus it appeared that if RusThere was no ?ther comment sia has tested an H-bomb, it on the explosion !'nnounce- must have been within the past ment anywhere else m the pa- week. 

pers. 

It was almost 6 a. m. as the 

papers hit the streets with the 1 

big news. Many early risers en route ' 

to their jobs queued up at news- . paper stands in Moscow to buy · the papers. 

Moscow Radio was to begin 

broadcasting the news on its · internal service at 8 a. m. Mos- . cow time. 

; The United States was able : to detect three previous atomic ! explosions in Russia with deli- 1 cate instruments that pick up. i the radioactive particles spewed 

r into the atmosphere by an 1 atomic burst. American scienJ tists have great confidence ht 

the ability of these instruments 

to record an atomic blast any- where on the globe. They also , claim that it is possible to tell j 

whether an A-bomb or an H- . bomb was set off. j 

i Detection is effected by earth- ' - shock from the explosion, by 

1 noise and by radioactivity. The > last effect defines the explosion > as unmistakably of atomic or- ' igin. Intensely radioactive par- . ticles fill the bomb cloud and can be scooped out of the air 

; as it moves on the prevailing r westerly winds across Russia 

; and Siberia to the Aleutians and 

; Alaska. 

t A hydrogen explosion, as distinct from an A-bomb blast, can , be determined bY. its special and 1 9,uite 4iftereD;t ~a~o.activity. Trit tiui:n, the special form of "ex- 1 plosive" hydrogen, would be : present in the cloud, not all of · i't be_iil~ fused ot burned in the ; ....,._ 

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