Operation Crossroads and the era of high-stakes nuclear proliferation
Seventy-five years ago today, the United States tested an atomic bomb on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. It was the world’s fourth atomic explosion – after the first test in New Mexico in August 1945 and then the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Operation Crossroads kicked off an era of high-stakes nuclear proliferation and Cold War one-upmanship.