Americans and many others throughout the world rejoiced in August of 1945 when U.S. nuclear weapons defeated aggressive Imperial Japan and brought an end to World War II.
Just consider what might have happened if Nazi Germany, or World War II Japan, or Communist China had developed nuclear weapons — and the United States had not!
Because the United States did have nukes and aggressors did not, the “hot war” quickly ended. Unfortunately, it was soon followed by the “cold war,” with the Soviet Union and Communist China developing nuclear weapons and threatening aggression.
Today, there unfortunately are several nations that have threatening nuclear weapons.
But President Barack Obama has correctly said that the top threat to the United States today is that some radical faction — such as al-Qaida terrorists, or the current rulers of Iran, or some other such group — might come into possession of nuclear weapons. If they did, they could threaten the world, and not be restrained to the degree that even the most potentially aggressive nations are.
The nations that have nuclear weapons and have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are the United States, Russia (successor to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the United Kingdom (generally known as Great Britain), France and Communist China.
Other nations known to have nukes include India and Pakistan, which unfortunately sometimes threaten each other.
And then possibly the most dangerous among nuclear weapons-possessing nations is Communist North Korea.
Israel almost surely has nuclear weapons, but won’t confirm or deny. It likely would use them only in a “life-or-death” last-ditch defense against its threatening neighbors.
South Africa uniquely developed nukes and then claims it has disassembled its capability.
Who else?
While Russia and Communist China have been threatening at times, neither seems to be an immediate nuclear danger. So possibly the most current potential threat is that some radical regime such as rulers today in Iran, or Communist North Korea, or a terrorist group such as al-Qaida might come to possess nuclear weapons and not be restrained from using them in some conceivable circumstances.
We deplore aggression by the use of “conventional” weapons. We must be on constant guard against the horrible possibly that some aggressor might possess and use nuclear weapons.