In 1948 bombers capable of striking Soviet Union with atomic weapons were placed in Britain, and General Lucius Clay, who headed US occuption forces in Germany, tried to convince Truman to provoke war with Soviets. How inviting might such policy have been if Soviet Union had not exploded atomic bomb in 1949, thus raising doubts about whether or not US could initiate strike against Soviets without retaliation.
Following Soviet test, US 'national security' elites wrote NSC-68 which laid blueprint for aggressively challenging Soviet interests by 'any means necessary' short of war *until* new, more terrifying weapon - hydrogen bomb - could restore unquestioned US military supremacy. Michael Hoover (forever liberated from tyranny of over-post messages)