1954

January 7
In his State of the Union address, President Eisenhower claims that 2,200 employees have been fired as security risks.

January 12
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces the policy of massive retaliation. It states that "local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power" and "the way to deter aggression is for free communities to be willing and able to respond vigorously at places and with reasons of our own choosing." Text

January 21
The USS Nautilus (SSN 571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched by the United States Navy. February
Soviet physicists Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tammare receive Hero of Socialist Labor and Stalin Prize for their work on the "Layer Cake."

March 1
Bravo , a 17 megaton hydrogen bomb detonated by the United States at Bikini Atoll, in the Pacific, contaminates a Japanese fishing boat, Lucky Dragon , and residents of Rongelap and Utirik.

March 4
J. Robert Oppenheimer sends written response to the Atomic Energy Commission charges against him.

April 10
President Dwight Eisenhower sends Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to offer two atomic bombs to the French for use in their war against the Vietnamese. The offer is refused.

April 12
Hearings begin at Atomic Energy Commission on J. Robert Oppenheimer.

June 28
Atomic Energy Commissioners vote against U.S. physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and uphold withdrawal of security clearance.

September 12
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend using atomic bombs on China in conflict over Chiang Kai-shek's troops on Quemoy and Matsu islands.

September 13
Soviets mass 40,000 soldiers in two formations on plains of Kazakhstan and explode a nuclear weapon between them.

September 14
Soviet Union conducts nuclear test at the Totskoye test range in which it purposely exposes some 45,000 military troops to the explosion and radioactive fallout in order to examine their performance in a mock battle.

September 23
U.S. Joint chiefs of Staff again call for nuclear attacks on China after China sentences 13 U.S. airmen shot down over China during the Korean War.