a term characterizing the foreign policy of the USA after the end of World War II. It was motivated by the desire of the American ruling circles to use the US nuclear weapons arsenal to blackmail and pressure other countries. Atomic diplomacy was based at first on the monopolistic possession of atomic weapons by the USA and later on retention of American superiority in the production of atomic weapons and on the invulnerability of the territory of the USA. In the implementation of atomic diplomacy, the USA rejected all proposals of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries for the prohibition of the use, the cessation of the production, and the elimination of stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The development in the USSR of atomic weapons in 1949 and hydrogen weapons in 1953, and later of intercontinental rocket missiles, doomed atomic diplomacy to failure.