Nuclear Disarmament: looking back and thinking in the now

Dear Future President,

How can we work together to not only minimize our stockpiles of nuclear weapons even further worldwide, and how do we keep them out of the hands of militant groups that might target smaller countries?

It’s known already that there are currently about 15,000 nuclear weapons within the whole world, a huge reduction compared to what we had let’s say 30 years ago but the problem in this is you have countries that can have them illegally so there might not be as much truth in that and what the intent of these countries are.

Since the weapon's birth I know we haven't seen actual use in combat since use on Japan, although the consideration was there a few times and the idea of a deter definitely explains well enough why we should have a decent sum of them on hand. With that being said and with all these groups trying to crack down and limit the amount around the world, wouldn't it be a good idea to get sniff around more (although that might be the case with these relevant conflicts that are spreading at the moment) and make sure as the super power we are that we don't start seeing these awful weapons used in combat by a militant group such as ISIS or any similar or affiliated group? Just the idea of countries illegally being in possession of nuclear weapons makes the idea of negative intent of great violence all the more real.

To distance from that thought while we are sophisticated overall, the progress we've made in limiting our stockpile, managing others and having other countries and our own call for bans and such on these kind of weapons brings my hopes up.Hopefully with the right leaders we could make even more progress that could bring this nuclear free world into fruition(That is if the times call for it i hope), It seems obvious that it won´t be close to happening within my lifetime but hopefully within the next century or two If we happen to survive that long as a species.

To defend my position on this I´ll provide two examples so i don´t give the impression of unorganized ranting. Post world war II the idea of communism spreading is our top priority but in the wake of that we found ourselves caught up in a war of patience and will known as the cold war, a time of extreme due to the stockpiles of the soviet union and the united states growing rapidly it was anyones guess when and how it would all be concluded. Thankfully peace prevailed at the end of the day but just knowing for about four decades that nuclear war was at its highest point of being a possibility it was probably an era many wouldn't seem to forget as its lessons not only brought bigger attention to disarmament but also the positives in taking these pre soviet dismantled nukes and reusing these nuclear cores (which somewhat led to the US and Russia limiting their countries stockpiles) to give us about 10% of the country's electricity.

Another instance would be the introduction of the INF treaty in 1986 which went hand in hand with that last example and while It didn't have the greatest luck gaining traction when it was first pitched in the early 80ś it is a huge historical step in limiting stockpiles but ultimately being one of many factors that led to the end of the cold war and brought upon modern ideals of wanting to maintain the peace. Although it lost itś meaning with violations of the treaty within the last 15 years, it still rings to this day for being revolutionary like the cold war in bringing even more public attention to these weapons.

To conclude, I've put together a timeline of events that I personally felt were more relevant and of greater importance than those that were similar at the time.

1939: The United States begins developing the atom bomb out of fear that Nazi Germany could get it before anyone else ever did.

1945: The United States becomes the first country to build a nuclear weapon beating out Nazi Germany and Japan in their goal to do so and drops the little boy and fat man on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1946: The United Nations calls for the abolishment of the nuclear bomb

1949: The Soviet Union conceives and tests its first atomic weapon

1955: Many scientists including Albert einstein ask that governments don’t turn to nuclear weapons and resolve differences in a peaceful sophisticated matter

1961-1962: The largest bomb recorded to be tested is a 58 megaton bomb conceived by the soviets and the Cuban missile crisis begins

1982: Over a million people protest for Disarmament within the final years of the cold war

1985: The IPP of nuclear warfare receives the nobel peace prize for looking at the cost and lost of life that could come if nuclear war became reality

1996: Africa becomes nuke free and the threat and use of nuclear weapons becomes illegal in world court

2007: ICAN or the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons iis establishing internationally

2014: A conference held in mexico goes on about how it’s finally time to ban Nuclear weapons for good

In all within the 77 years since the the the manhattan project's development, it is clear to see that while we've had a rocky road in some instances, this idea is as close to reality than what itś been ever up to this point. I would like to thank you for taking the time you spent viewing this letter out of thousands knowing very well there are more important matters to get to.

Sincerely yours,

Tyler Galicia