From 1945 to 1992, as part of the nuclear arms race, the U.S. conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests by official count, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests. The peak occurred between 1961-62, when 340 megatons were detonated in the atmosphere by the United States and Soviet Union. During the final stages of WWII, the U.S. detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.
Commenting on the unprecedented devastation, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury said: "After Hiroshima was bombed, I saw a photograph of the side of a house with the shadows of the people who had lived there burned into the wall from the intensity of the bomb. The people were gone, but their shadows remained."
With Bradbury's haunting words in mind, it would behoove the Trump administration to remember that the United States is the first and only nation to use a nuclear weapon on other humans.
As a political strategy, it is no mystery why the president ultimately abandoned the Iran nuclear deal: he wanted to assuage Israel, punish Iran, exert power in the Middle-East, send a message to North Korea, Russia, and Syria, embarrass Barack Obama, fulfill a campaign promise, renegotiate a deal that favors American interests, and more. But despite these justifications, Trump cannot erase the hypocrisy of history. Whereas Iran was at least willing to limit its nuclear program in return for a lifting of economic sanctions, the United States has more nukes than any other nation in the world; the U.S. has tested more nukes than any other nation; and the U.S. has actually used them on another country.
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