Nuclear Deterrence is just a False Myth

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Nuclear Deterrence is just a False Myth

Nations with Atom bombs could be defeated:   There is a generally perceived myth that countries having Atom Bombs (A-bombs) cannot be defeated or their defense is impregnable. In fact, the history of the nuclear nations belies that. On 16 July 1945, the US Army Corps of Engineers, under the command of General Leslie Groves, directed by a professor of theoretical physics, J. Robert Oppenheimer, undertook ‘Trinity,’ the first-ever, human-engineered, controlled nuclear explosion. From 1959 till 1975, the US military with all its service branches, including the US Army, US Air Force, US Marine Corps and US Navy, fought with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam called the Vietcong. Vietcong suffered huge losses including a number anywhere from 3 million to 4 million Vietnamese; at least 2 million Cambodians and Laotians and more than 58,000 US soldiers. President Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, had the A-bomb but President Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, was beaten back by Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh and Pham Hung. America had the A-bomb but it was beaten by a hotchpotch, rag-tag Vietcong, Khmer Rouge and the North Vietnamese.   In August 1949, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under the administrative supervision of Lavrentii Beria, the head of People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, Russia’s secret police organization, and under the scientific supervision of physicist Igor Kurchatov, detonated its first nuclear device. From 1979 to 1989, KGB’s Independent Special-Purpose Motorized Brigade, Russia’s foreign military intelligence directorate along with the 40th Army of the Soviet Union’s Red Army fought with rag-tag Afghan militias. Josef Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, had the A-bomb and more than 40 years later, Sergei Leonidovich Sokolov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, General Valentin Varennikov, Commander-in-Chief of the land forces, and General Boris Gromov, Commander of the 40th Army, fought with Ahmad Shah Massod, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ismail Khan and Abdul Haq. Eventually, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, lost and the ragtag Afghans won. Once again, the A-bomb was beaten.   Countries with A-bomb could be attacked:  Medinat Yisra'el, or the State of Israel, began building the Negev Nuclear Research Center, with French help, back in 1958.  According to Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, Israel had built its first nuclear weapon in 1967-68. In 1973, Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat ordered General Saad El Shazly, the Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army (350,000 plus 400,000 reservists) to invade Sinai. The Egyptian Air Force with 200 of its low-flying aircraft, including MiG-21s, attacked Israeli airbases. The Egyptian land assault with some 30,000 soldiers captured each and every one of Israeli fortifications. Israel had the A-bomb but the Egyptian Army invaded Israeli-controlled territory. Israel had the A-bomb but Egyptian MiG-21s attacked Israeli airbases. In 1973, Hafez al-Assad ordered General Mustafa Tlass, the Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army (conscripted 400,000), to invade the Golan Heights. General Mustafa sent in 5 divisions along with 1,300 tanks to capture Mount Hermon, the Israeli stronghold. Remember, Israel had the A-bomb but the Syrian Army invaded the Golan Heights. General Moshe Dayan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, had the A-bomb but General Mustafa sent his soldiers into Israeli controlled terrain.   Country Active Warheads Total Warheads USA 4,075 5,400 Russia (USSR) 5,162 14,000 UK 160 145 France 300 300 China 180 240 India 60 60 Pakistan 60 60 North Korea 10 10 Israel 80 80   A-bomb nation invaded in recent past: Here’s the record: India had begun its nuclear program back in 1967 (the origin of the nuclear weapons program was the Bhabha Atomic Research Center). Seven years later, nuclear scientists led by Dr. Raja Ramana detonated the Smiling Buddha at Pokhran test range; plutonium for the detonation came from the Canada-India-Research-US, or CIRUS, research reactor while the implosion system was developed under the supervision of Dr Satish Kumar at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory in Chandigarh. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, India began work on a thermonuclear weapon in the 1980s. India has so far conducted a total of 6 nuclear tests the last one was conducted on 13 May 1998. Of the 6, the largest yield was 250 kilotons and that was for the test undertaken on 11 May 1998 (the ‘Little Boy’ that was dropped on Hiroshima was a 15 kiloton bomb). In May 1999, around 5 battalions of Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry (HQ: Skardu) along with Kashmiri guerrillas entered Indian-controlled territories and captured areas of lower Mushkoh Valley, Kaksar, Dras and Chorbatla. India’s inventory of A-bombs could not stop Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry.   A-bomb does not ensure lesser defense spending: India’s defense allocation when India didn’t have an A-bomb was around $5 billion. India’s defense budget has since reached a colossal $35 billion. Pakistan’s defense allocation when Pakistan didn’t have an A-bomb was under Rs. 100 billion. Pakistan’s defense budget has since reached a colossal Rs. 400 billion.   Time to trash the nuclear doctrine? The A-bomb’s 64-year history shows that the doctrine of nuclear deterrence belongs to the dustbin. Countries with large inventories of A-bombs have lost wars. And, A-bombs have failed to stop invading armies.   (Islamabad May 31, 2009)

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