The Most Deadly Policy Blunder In Human History? Nuclear Proliferation Containment - A Lost Opportunity?

[Rampage]

The U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki marked the dawn of the atomic age. The U.S. nuclear monopoly stood for over four years, until the Soviets had a successful detonation, on 29 August 1949.

Saturday April 1st 2023 headline "High activity spotted at North Korea nuclear complex after Kim's bomb-fuel order-report". North Korea is rapidly developing intercontinental weapons delivery systems, reportedly including submarine-launched missiles.
Vladimir Putin's War in Ukraine is in its second year. Putin has been threatening nuclear escalation for most of the war. Russia also deliberately downed a U.S. remote pilot observation drones.

Topic question:
Should the U.S. have applied its nuclear supremacy to severely limit nuclear proliferation, while it had the once in all human history opportunity? If the U.S. had done so, would Putin or Kim be able to threaten the U.S. as they are now? Will many millions, potentially billions perish because an ignorant nuclear spark ignites an uncontrollable global nuclear escalation?

High activity spotted at North Korea nuclear complex after Kim's bomb-fuel order-report​

Reuters / Sat, April 1, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images show a high level of activity at North Korea's main nuclear site, a U.S. think tank reported on Saturday after the North Korean leader ordered an increase in production of bomb fuel to expand the country's nuclear arsenal.

High activity spotted at North Korea nuclear complex after Kim's bomb-fuel order-report

Satellite images show a high level of activity at North Korea's main nuclear site, a U.S. think tank reported on Saturday after the North Korean leader ordered an increase in production of bomb fuel to expand the country's nuclear arsenal. The Washington-based 38 North North Korea monitoring...

news.yahoo.com

 

[sear]

R #1
It may indeed have been a one-time opportunity. So the question becomes, why did the U.S. not do so.
Possible explanations:
- the policy makers of the era, President Truman included, didn't think it would come to this.
I hope that's not what actually happened. But if not that, why?
- Might they have been mindful of Lord Acton's insight: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? So they deliberately avoided having global military supremacy, expecting that it's too dangerous a concentration of power?

Not sure. But it does seem we're in quite a pickle now. You're right about Russia and North Korea. But we can't forget about Iran, and perhaps even Pakistan. We've got a tiger by the tail.

 

[sear]

The following article addresses a Russian nuclear weapon system designed to attack coastal cities and render them uninhabitable.
Instead of a sky-burst H-bomb delivered by ICBM this Russian nuclear torpedo is designed to detonate off-shore, creating a nuclear tsunami which then floods the targeted coastal city, drenching it with lethal radioactivity.

The destructive power of even a natural tsunami is bad enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1DNic2Lac
National seaports are essential for intercontinental commerce. Therefore only a few Russian Poseidon intercontinental-range nuclear drone-torpedoes could deny or severely limit U.S. access to either Atlantic or Pacific oceans, or both.
The following article uses the term "doomsday" to describe these new Russian nuclear weapons. The following article explains how Russia intends to construct & deploy them.

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Russia Is Building New Subs to Launch Its Terrifying Apocalypse Torpedoes​

Sébastien Roblin / Sun, April 9, 2023 at 11:00 AM EDT

Russia’s TASS state new agency reported on Monday that its Pacific Fleet was moving forward with plans to activate a new division of submarines specially designed to launch an intercontinental-range nuclear drone-torpedo called Poseidon, which could be used to attack coastal cities.
Not only does each Poseidon torpedo carry a big nuke—approximately a 2-megaton-yield—it’s propelled by a liquid metal nuclear reactor, giving it essentially inexhaustible range and endurance, and likely high sustainable speeds.

Russia has been happy to threaten the use of this weird weapon of mass destruction prior to its operational deployment. It has been showcased in prominent TV appearances by Putin, and a commentator on state TV eagerly suggested the torpedoes could be used to flood the entire United Kingdom in a radioactive tsunami.

... the Khabarovsk and Ulyanovsk. These are supposedly set to be for commissioned in 2024/2025 and 2027. Also designated Project 09851 submarines, they appear to be significantly shortened (down to 120-meters length) derivatives from Russia’s latest Borei-class ballistic missile submarine, and include that submarine’s quiet pump jet propulsion system. (For more, check out submarine expert H.I. Sutton’s well-illustrated article on this new submarine class.)

Russia Is Building New Subs to Launch Its Terrifying Apocalypse Torpedoes

Russia is building new submarines designed to launch an intercontinental-range nuclear drone-torpedo called Poseidon, which could attack coastal cities.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Rampage]

sear, Russia already had nuclear deterrence. These new long-range nuclear Russian torpedoes are an escalation which threaten a new arms race, Russia, and humanity.

 

[sear]

R #4
I've been thinking about that.
So what should the U.S. (& NATO) response be? Another expensive arms race?

There's no more extravagant waste than a 2nd rate military. Gen. Horner

Thus there's some incentive to maintain approximate parity with our prospective adversaries.
But isn't the U.S. nuclear triad already enough military deterrent?

"Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket that is fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children ..." President Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

[sear]

R #1,
The fable of Pandora's Box warns us.
U.S. foreign policy ostensibly opposes nuclear weapons proliferation, BUT !
in practice U.S. foreign policy rewards nuclear weapons proliferation, while simultaneously punishing denuclearization.

Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi reportedly had nuclear weapons, reportedly relinquished them as an act of good faith non-aggression.
Gaddafi paid the ultimate price for his olive branch approach.
Ukraine also surrendered nuclear weapons deterrence, albeit with guarantees its sovereignty would be defended. Ukraine was betrayed, not merely by an errant convicted felon in the white house, by all of Western Europe.

And now:

Belarus says it is looking at how to arm its missile systems with nuclear warheads​

By Reuters / August 21, 20257:04 AM GMT-5
Aug 21 (Reuters) - Belarus is assessing how best to ramp up domestic production of missiles, including exploring how to equip its Polonez rocket launcher systems with nuclear warheads, a senior Belarusian security official said on Thursday.
Belarus, a close ally of Russia, said this week it would deepen bilateral ties with Iran, and has also cooperated with China on weapons development. It does not possess its own nuclear weapons but hosts Russian tactical ones which remain under Moscow's control.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/belarus-says-it-is-looking-how-arm-its-missile-systems-with-nuclear-warheads-2025-08-21/

Though Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko may be assessing this during President Trump's tenure, this is one we can't blame on Trump alone. U.S. foreign policy has been working against its own ostensible interests for generations.

"The United States has great strength and patience. But if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." U.S. President Trump addressing for the first time the U.N. general assembly in NYC Tues. September 19, 2017

“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” President Trump 2018, after his poorly prepared summit w/ NK/KJU

Would you like a little optimism? Very well. We're doomed.
Prefer the pessimistic view? It's not pretty.