Nuclear weapons have alternately been blamed for making the world less safe and making it more safe. As a grad school major in national security, I am personally of the opinion that nuclear weapons have kept the great powers from fighting a third and even fourth world war, since those who have them know they cannot “win” an all-out war without sustaining unacceptable damage themselves.
Indeed, good or bad, nuclear weapons became a cornerstone of national security policy during the Cold War, waged between the democratic governments of the West, led by the United States, against the communist and authoritarian governments of the East, led by the former Soviet Union. But did they have to be? What if someone in our own government helped our Cold War rival develop them? Continue reading “History revisited: Top Roosevelt aide sent Stalin weapons-grade uranium to make bombs”