Causes of the Cold War Statistics
By the Numbers
Military Spending
- 1944 - peak American military spending during WWII: $85.5 million
- 1948: $16 million
- Total supplies flown into besieged West Berlin during the 1948 Berlin Airlift: 2.5 million tons1
- 1952: $48 million3
Foreign Policy Cost
- Truman Doctrine: $400 million (in financial and military aid to Greece and Turkey)
- Marshall Plan: $13 billion (in economic assistance to rebuild Western Europe)
Bomb Power
- "Little Boy" Hiroshima atomic bomb - August 6th, 1945: 12,500 tons of TNT
- "Fat Man" Nagasaki atomic bomb - August 8th, 1945: 22,000 tons of TNT
- First hydrogen bomb explosion test - November 1st, 1955: 10.4 million tons of TNT4
Number of CIA Employees Involved in Covert Operations
- 1949: 302
- 1952: 2,812, plus another 3,142 overseas "contract personnel"5
Number of Warheads in the American Nuclear Arsenal
- 1945: 6
- 1946: 11
- 1947: 32
- 1948: 110
- 1949: 235
- 1950: 369
- 1951: 640
- 1952: 1005
- 1953: 1436
- 1954: 2063
- 1955: 3057
- 1956: 4618
- 1957: 6444
- 1958: 9822
- 1959: 15,468
- 1960: 20,434
- 1961: 24,156
- 1962: 27,305
- 1963: 29,0492