In the early 1960s, Santa even gave the US Air Force a brand new, liquid-fueled Titan I ICBM armed with a 4.5-Megaton W38 warhead (for use against the especially naughty?).
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On October 28, 1961—two days before the Soviet Union‘s much-publicized test of a massive 50-Megaton thermonuclear bomb (later dubbed Tsar Bomba) in the Arctic—President John F. Kennedy tried to reassure 8-year-old Michelle Rochon of Marine City, Michigan, that “you must not worry about Santa Claus.”
Michelle’s letter (written in pencil) to President Kennedy, read simply:
“Dear Mr. Kennedy,
Please stop the Russians from bombing the North pole. Because they will kill Santa Claus. I am 8 years old. I am in the 3rd grade at Holy Cross School.”
From 1964-70, the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, decorated its retired Atlas D ICBM (which once carried a 1.4-Megaton W49 warhead) as Santa Claus for Christmas. Because nothing says Christmas and peace on Earth like a thermonuclear war. Ho-ho-holocaust!
In December 2013, in an unusual joint venture, the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Russia and Ded Moroz (Father Frost, the East Slavic version of Santa Claus) proudly announced the deployment of the new and very accurate Supersonic Low-Earth Intercontinental Gift Hauler (SLEIGH).
Just kidding. That photo was actually tweeted by then-Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (now senator) Dmitry Rogzin to sarcastically wish a happy new year “to our NATO friends!” I coined the SLEIGH acronym a few years later. Rogozin’s tweet was deleted in 2020, but here it is, preserved for posterity.
Hate to burst your bubble there, but due to the laws of physics and thermodynamics, Santa Claus explodes in a brilliant, thunderous fireball, a microsecond after he sets out on his journey from the North Pole.
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“Dear Mr. Kennedy,
Please stop the Russians from bombing the North pole. Because they will kill Santa Claus. I am 8 years old. I am in the 3rd grade at Holy Cross School.”
Here is the backstory.
You lost me at 'kidding'
😐
http://bsa344.com/Physics%20of%20Santa%20Claus.pdf