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With Cold War tensions heightening at the start of the 1960s, the superpowers are drawn into an escalating arms race. The world's safety depends on a nuclear paradox known as "mutual assured destruction."
 
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| With warheads primed and suspicion deeply rooted, all it takes is a simple human error or technical glitch to sound the alarm of a nuclear attack.
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| Go West with CNN Interactive's Andy Walton as he begins an interactive journey through America's Cold War heartland -- home to Trinity, NORAD and a deserted "town" named Mercury. |
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| Why even the most tense Cold War flashpoints never brought the superpowers to war.
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TIME: A Bang in Asia
September 8, 1961
Pravda: Common sense must gain the upper hand
August 20, 1963
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The flash from a 50-megaton Soviet nuclear bomb test in 1961 was visible 600 miles away. In other words, if it had been dropped on Detroit, people in New York would have been able to see it.
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