10-02-2019, 12:10 PM
After the pride of accomplishment starts to wear off for leadership that gets the first atom, and in turn hydrogen, bomb, that leadership gets scared of other powers getting it. That could be an obvious rival (for India, Pakistan is obvious) or a current ally that has hurt feelings and a desire for a bit more independence.
If you want my idea of what got the Soviet Union to disarmament talks with the United States it was that the Soviet Union had as much fear of members of the Warsaw Pact getting their own nukes. The US and the USSR had a common interest in ensuring that the Soviet Union was the only country in the Warsaw Pact to have nukes.
I can just imagine the sort of conversation that a Soviet ambassador had with a puppet leader -- "If you know what is good for you you will sign this treaty".
Nukes are scary even to the powers that wield them. Sure, we can take out Nizhni Novograd, but they will take out Chicago... or vice-versa. The best defense against nukes could be that leaders recognize that they have far too much to lose in a nuclear exchange.
If you want my idea of what got the Soviet Union to disarmament talks with the United States it was that the Soviet Union had as much fear of members of the Warsaw Pact getting their own nukes. The US and the USSR had a common interest in ensuring that the Soviet Union was the only country in the Warsaw Pact to have nukes.
I can just imagine the sort of conversation that a Soviet ambassador had with a puppet leader -- "If you know what is good for you you will sign this treaty".
Nukes are scary even to the powers that wield them. Sure, we can take out Nizhni Novograd, but they will take out Chicago... or vice-versa. The best defense against nukes could be that leaders recognize that they have far too much to lose in a nuclear exchange.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
