Engineer District accordingly arranged the Crossroads test at Bikini atoll. ‘Two bombs were detonated near a "fleet" consisting of captured German and Japanese warships, a variety of other surface vessels, and submarines. For a public conditioned to equate the atamic bombs with the devastation of entire cities, the comparatively few ships sunk or damaged were a let-down. “need Afterwards, to hold the Crossroads test some congressmen questioned the at ali.4 A coordinated plan for developing atomic weapons and investigating their effects would have to wait until the new Catmission could organize. The New Commission and the Cold War The Atomic Energy Cammission officially assumed its duties on Jamuary 1, 1947. weapon The Commission delegated responsibility for nuclear development to the division of military application. The division established programs for the research, development, and production of nuclear weapons, and interpreted military requirements for the production of atomic bambs to the Commission.> International events soon lent urgency to the weapon program. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had split the Grané Alliance of World War II and had begun the Cold War. The Car _ Mmunist guerillas under Mao Tse-Tung then brought China into the Scviet orbit. Simultaneously Cammmist guerrillas threatened to engult Greece and perhaps the whole eastern Mediterranean. A coup in February 1948 installed a Communist govermment in Czechoslovakia, and a few months later the Soviets shut off the land routes to Berlin. President Tran equated Stalin with Hitler and determined to stand up to the Cammrst threats.