40-Year Old Treaty Still Limits Nukes

In this July 1, 1968, photo U.S. Ambassador Llewellyn E. Thompson, left, signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in Moscow, Russia, as co-signer, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, right, watches.

(WASHINGTON) — A landmark treaty signed 40 years ago Tuesday by 61 countries is turning out to be more successful than predicted in keeping the nuclear weapons club small.

But as a State Department official cautioned at the time in a newly published memo, the United States has limited leverage to slow down the spread of bombs.

"I don't think we are reining in technology," said Richard Rosecrance, a Harvard adjunct professor who was on the State Department's policy planning staff in 1968 when he wrote the memo for Secretary of State Dean Rusk: "That's very difficult to do. But we may be able to rein in intentions."

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My Comment: The know-how to make a nuclear bomb ... even a crude one ... is now readily available. The secret to make a Hydrogen Bomb is fortunately still limited to only a few countries.

Will more countries develop nuclear weapons .... this is probably not going to be the case. Will terrorist groups develop a crude nuclear bomb for their own use .... this will probably be the case.

For the next 50 years, the biggest nuclear issue will no longer be the nuclear stockpiles of medium-super powers, but the stockpiles of rogue nations and groups. How to limit this is still an issue that needs the cooperation among all the nations of the world .... but what this cooperation be like is still something that needs to be ironed out.

Wikipedia's entry on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is here. The text of the treaty is here.