Your comment made me wonder if there's an alternate history work of fiction where the atom bomb wasn't built. Something like Man in the High Castle for WW2 victory or For All Mankind for the Space Race.

I found:

- The Oppenheimer Alternative https://www.amazon.com/Oppenheimer-Alternative-Robert-J-Sawy... (Fission bomb instead of Fusion bomb)

- The Berlin Project: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30753656 (earlier atom bomb)