When Israeli election front runner Benjamin Netanyahu told the World Economic Forum that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons ranks far above the global economic recession and other challenges facing leaders of the 21st century, he was dead wrong. It’s not about Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, but nuclear weapons in general-including Israel’s and America’s.
With all due respect, Mr. Netanyahu also failed to see a double standard in stating, and in reference to Iran, that what is not reversible is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a fanatic radical regime. With extreme views like this, it is easy to forget or dismiss how and why nuclear weapons developed in the first place.
It is well known that the U.S. was the first nation to develop and then use the atomic bomb. What is not well known is how it adversely affected President Harry Truman and America’s post war relationship with the Soviet Union. Until President Truman was notified of the successful test of the nuclear bomb, he was willing to discuss Russia’s security, war reparations, and an Open Door approach to Eastern Europe.
Secretary of State Stimson reported that once President Truman was notified of the effectiveness of the atomic bomb, he was immensely pleased and tremendously pepped up by it. (1) Prime Minster Winston Churchill claimed that he noticed Truman was much fortified by something that had happened and that he stood up to the Russians in a most emphatic and decisive manner, telling them as to certain demands that they absolutely could not have, and generally bossed the whole meeting. (2)
Even though Japan had formerly surrendered at the end of World War II, this new irresistible power-as Churchill called it-was dropped on Hiroshima obliterating four square miles and killing 160,000 Japanese. Three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing 120,000 human beings. While exposure to radiation would last for many generations and kill even more people, the perpetrator of this act was slowly malformed into the destructive nature of nuclear weaponry itself.
Secretary of State Stimson later admitted that the policy of developing and using nuclear weapons prevented America from becoming a benevolent empire. He too concluded that the U.S. was on the wrong path of history as it started to bully the Soviet Union (and other nations). Instead of reparations for the Russians who had been invaded by Germany and a large part of their nation destroyed, and instead of the Open Door Approach and helping Russia regain its security, President Truman initiated the Truman Doctrine.
In 1947, the Truman Doctrine militarily meddled in the political affairs of Turkey and Greece so as to establish American superiority and a nuclear base near Russia. In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed a mutual defense pact to counter Russia. When the National Security Council (68) stated that it was the goal of the U.S. to develop an Inter-American system and to foster the seeds of the destruction of the Soviet system, a greater rift and a deeper mistrust developed between the Cold War Super Powers.
While the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, the U.S. already had manufactured over 300. Far worse was how the U.S. behaved when major scientists and United Nations leaders called for the creation of an international atomic control regime. The Soviet Union also called for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. President Truman sent Bernard Baruch to the U.N. in order to prevent such bilateral talks from taking place and to make sure disarmament advocates were defeated. (3)
America’s initial monopoly on the atomic bomb was shortsighted and has unfortunately turned into Pandora‘s Box. It has caused an Arms Race with enormous psychological, social, economic, and environmental consequences. The U.S. has argued for Brinkmanship-the willingness to go to the brink of war to force the other side to back down; Massive Retaliation-if one nation attacks the other nation can still respond with considerable amount of destruction; and Mutual Assured Destruction-the rationale of building nuclear arsenals to the point that no one would dare use them because of the potential of complete annihilation.
Surely these ideas, policies and ways of thinking are the ultimate in fanaticism. One could also mention the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Ronald Reagan’s Nuclear Proliferation policies, and the numerous times the U.S. has come close in firing its Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at Russia or using nuclear weapons to defeat an opponent, such as North Korea and North Vietnam. The most fanatical and insane aspect of nuclear weapons, though, is there indiscriminate nature towards civilian populations, as was proven in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mr. Netanyahu claimed that he wants to “neutralize” the mother regime (Iran). He may instead, be better off and more secure by neutralizing ALL nuclear weapons, including those based in Israel and the U.S. Through open and reciprocal nuclear facility visits, and by prioritizing nuclear disarmament treaties, and by forming a fair and authentic U.N. committee dedicated to the complete abolishment of nuclear missiles, the “original sin” can once and for all be removed from the face of the Earth.
