The Problem With Nuclear Zero A big, red, angry mushroom cloud...That’s what most of us have in mind when we think of nuclear weapons, however, nuclear weapons actually sustain international peace around the world. Many people dream of a nuke-free planet and want to scrap nuclear weapons from the surface of the world, however, practicality and efficiency of this proposal is often overlooked. To maintain the status quo of international peace and security, nuclear weapons should not be abolished because banning nuclear weapons isn’t feasible, the abolition would cause a horrible backlash and nuclear deterrence is still necessary. No matter how alluring the disarmament of nuclear warheads seems, it’s a deceptive notion that isn’t feasible to execute …show more content…
Nuclear deterrence had always been an issue of concern since the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings in 1945. The birth and development of nuclear weapons have single-handedly changed the course of history. People became seriously concerned about nations possessing nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Age anxieties affected literature too. In 1953, during the Cold War years, the book Fahrenheit 451 was published by Ray Bradbury. In this book, Bradbury re-creates the atmosphere of fear and anxiety that prevailed during the Cold War years and how people were paranoid about nuclear weapons resonated with Montag’s anxiety when he realized what’s happening around him. When the whole city got destroyed, Bradbury described the destructive nature of nuclear warfare, saying: “City looks like a heap of baking powder. It’s gone.” (Bradbury 155), which is also an allegory of post-World War II Japan. At the end of the book refers to “a tree of life” where “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations.” (Bradbury 158). Here, the remaining hope for nations to recover from the effects of World War II is pointed out. Thanks to nuclear deterrence, the hope of the people weren’t for vain, nuclear weapons haven’t been used since 1945 in combat. Nuclear deterrence is the notion that the possibility for a country to use the nuclear weapons it possesses in retaliation will prevent (deter) the enemy from attacking. During Cold War USSR and USA couldn’t risk attacking one another because, since both of them possessed nuclear weapons, if USSR were to bomb the US, US would bomb USSR back in retaliation. The threat of inflicting unacceptable damage on their countries simply meant suicide, no country wanted another “Nagasaki” to be destroyed. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) deterred countries from attacking, and it still deters