 Germany tested its first atomic bomb in 1946 and fired a non-nuclear "V-3" missile above New York City to demonstrate its ability to attack the Continental United States with long-range missiles.Thus, after a peace treaty in 1946, the US and Germany are the novel's two superpower opponents in the Cold War.There is a reference to a brutal regime having power in China but no reference to either its ideology or whether it is headed by Mao Zedong or somebody else.