Nuclear Weapons Experts Warn That We Are Closer To Nuclear Catastrophe

Written by Dr. David Hall

How the US justifies its nuclear arsenal 

The only use of nuclear weapons in war was in 1945

Early in World War II American scientists, some of them from Germany and Austria, became alarmed that Nazi scientists were developing an atomic bomb. Leo Zillard and Albert Einstein contacted President Roosevelt warning about the possibility. The response was to authorize under strict secrecy the Manhattan Project which rushed the research and development of the US uranium and plutonium atomic bombs. 

Following the massive deaths and injuries caused by the these bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, US policy-makers made the case that these horrific weapons were so terrible that no one would dare use them again. President Eisenhower warned of the emerging "military-industrial complex," and extolled "Atoms for Peace" in part to mitigate the horror of nuclear bombs. However, development of nuclear energy also led to further development of nuclear weapons. 

Deterrence is a dangerous myth 

Deterrence became the very grounds on which successive governments justified their nuclear arsenals.

The US emerged from World War II as the sole possessor of nuclear weapons. 

"Though it inspired greater confidence in the immediate postwar years, the U.S. nuclear monopoly was not of long duration; the Soviet Union successfully exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949, the United Kingdom in 1952, France in 1960 and the People’s Republic of China in 1964."

Soviet nuclear scientist Yulii Khariton later said, "when we succeeded in solving this problem [of building an atomic bomb], we felt relief, even happiness -- for in possessing such a weapon we had removed the possibility of its being used against the USSR with impunity." Israel, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Iran all sought nuclear weapons as a safety precaution against other nuclear nations. 

Atmospheric testing on nuclear weapons

Atmospheric testing of US nuclear weapons began in 1947 at the Nevada Test Site, then the Marshall Islands, off Kiritimati Island in the Pacific, plus three in the Atlantic Ocean. Several years later the USSR tested at Novaya Zemlya island, and Semipalatinsk in Kazakstan. Global radiological contamination from more than a thousand tests is still a major health problem worldwide. Whole populations in exposed regions continue to show increased rates of cancer and more non-specific effects undermining good health.

Are nuclear weapons illegal?

International treaties outlaw biological and chemical weapons as weapons of mass destruction. The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons is binding only for signatory nations, and none of the nuclear nations have signed. Humanitarian law outlaws use of weapons that failed to discriminate between civilians and combatants or create disproportionate harm to people or the environment. The United Nations Security Council enshrines five nuclear nations with a veto, which has assured that the United Nations does not declare nuclear weapons illegal.

Why are there so many nuclear nations?

Because governments have militarized their approaches to security between cultures and nations that have failed to negotiate mutual safety. Why can't we just get along?