Atomic Proliferation

Archive Report

Threat of a Rapid Atomic Escalation

Communist China's second detonation of a nuclear device, May 14, gave added urgency to the unsolved problem of preventing the spread of atomic and hydrogen weapons of war. The specter of nuclear proliferation was a central concern of the 114 countries represented at recent deliberations of the United Nations Disarmament Commission in New York.1 It is generally assumed that widespread distribution of nuclear arms among the nations of the world would increase dangerously the possibility of nuclear war.

When the nuclear club was limited to the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, the world achieved an uneasy ability to live with the bomb. The three atomic powers showed increasing awareness of the horrors of nuclear warfare and increasing ...

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