I want to take this opportunity today to address one of the most controversial issues regarding foreign policy. That issue is what countries should be allowed to have nuclear weapons?
Most countries do not develop nuclear weapons with the intention to strike first. The weapons are usually developed for defensive purposes.
With so many countries developing nuclear weapons, we must ask why is there so much mistrust between countries? What is each country doing that scares other countries?
Americans usually address this issue in the wrong way. We ask why are so many little countries developing nuclear weapons?
Part of the reason is they want to use them against each other. But a bigger reason is to protect themselves from the United States. They have perceived us as eager to take over the world, or at least prevent them from governing themselves without American intimidation.
Is America justified when we intimidate other countries? No we are not. Can we justifiably complain when other countries seek or are developing nuclear weapons? No we can’t. Should America be concerned that so many countries are as eager to develop nuclear weapons as we have been to control the world? Yes we should.
But it is important for us to remember that now we know how they feel. We still have more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined. Yet we always worry that someone will have what we have, though we have plenty, or someone will take back what we’ve stolen, though we will still have plenty.
We should worry that these countries will use their weapons, if not against us, then against some other country. The environmental disaster would be great. There is the possibility that the United States would become involved.
They might start something that we will finish. Then there will be no world for anyone to govern.
We cannot say that only we have the right to have and use nuclear weapons. When we do, other countries fear us and do not appreciate having to live in fear of us.
America must admit that we have far more nuclear weapons than we need. I have begun a disarmament policy with the Pentagon. The United States will reduce its nuclear arsenal to 10% of what we have.
90% of our nuclear weapons will be dismantled and recycled. We will still have plenty of weapons to defend ourselves from any nation trying to invade us or trying to physically take over the world like we have tried to financially control the world.
This means we will also reduce research funding for weapons by the same amount. A lot of people claim that if we reduce funding for weapons research, we will be vulnerable to another more ambitious country.
Yet America is so rich and has so many first rate research facililties, we could reignite a weapons program if we have to. But we won’t have to.
We won’t have to because if we cut our arsenal and our research we will be showing that we are fearless and have good intentions. Other countries will not fear us.
They can forget their plans to attain nuclear arms or stop the expansion of their programs. Our country and theirs willl be able to direct money from weapons of death to useful things for life.
But death is only part of what the world’s lust for weapons is about. The other aspect is fear.
Building so many nuclear weapons breeds fear. The increase in fear means that people or goverments will want more weapons to compensate for their fear.
This fear building makes people afraid to speak out against government policy. When they do speak out, it spreads animosity among Americans – one group saying the other group is aching for a fight, the second group claiming the people in the first group are naive or cowards. People lose the trust in each other that democracies are supposed to encourage.
Though it isn’t the image Americans have of ourselves, we have traditionally been aching for a fight. Most of the times our actions were cowardly. We are naive to think other nations do not have the right to protect themselves from us.
What I have done with my disarmament program is show that America no longer aches for a fight, that we will take the chance that other powers and nations be allowed to develop as they see fit.
But most importantly, I want America to be happy to the extent we are wealthy. It would be nice to spend money on hospitals, railroads, public transit, airports and seaports that went to researching and constructing nuclear weapons.
Our prosperity will increase noticeably. What will increase drastically is the trust, openness and good will that have been dormant for so long in America.
Copyright © 2025 by David Vaszko
David Vaszko's Blog 