Playing with Atoms
List of countries that obtained nuclear arsenals/capabilities:
1) United States of America-1945
2) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics-1949
3) Commonwealth of Canada-1950
4) Republic of Argentina-1951
5) United Kingdom of Great Britain-1951
6) Republic of Brazil-1953
7) Republic of France-1954
8) Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia-1954
9) Swiss Confederation-1955
10) Arab Republic of Egypt-1956
11) Kingdom of Belgium-1960
12) Republic of South Africa-1960
13) People's Republic of China-1961
14) Republic of India-1961
The Nuclear Craze did not start with Oppenheimer,Hiroshima or Saharov. It started with MacKenzie King,the mad God of Canadian politics. At the supposed advice of spirits,King ordered the creation of a Canadian nuclear arms program,so that Canada may be more secure against all threats and keep up with the modern world (and also stop the damn Yankies and Soviets from destroying the Commonwealth,as King now believed after said "spirtual cross dimensional dialogue" as spirit seeing is sometimes branded nowadays). He put mass resourses and time into it,with only a select few trusted Cabinet and military figures knowing of it-not even the Americans knew about it.
It was deliberate,King had become even more and more paranoic than usual,especially after the Gouzenko Affair. King believed none of Canada's allies were trust worthy after that,seeing more and more conspiracies by the minute. By the time the bomb was finally ready and tested near Eureka,the whole Liberal Party wanted him out. He had became too difficult,too hard to work,too willing to destroy his legacy. The outrage from the Yanks just made things easier.
Still,it wasn't hard to adjust to the idea of Canada having nukes-Truman was mostly angry because King kept everyone in the dark. Worse was yet to come.
To the surprise of everyone,it came from Argentina. Somehow,despite defying almost every law of science and logic and Ronald Richter being a third rate aircraft designer and con man,his fantasist theories not only became reality,but led to Argentina obtaining a nuclear arsenal. In the frenzy of the celebration,Perón and his ministers had forgotten all their moderation,all their hard work to sit on both sides and instead fell down on their arse,chanting among others with the crowd “Ni yanquis ni marxistas ¡Peronistas!” and proclaiming that Argentina shall never again obey anyone but herself. The aftermath was too big to describe it in a few words or even sentences. A Labour-Liberal Coalition in Britain after another hang parliament,failed coups brutally put down by Perón,international sanctions,shootouts between the CIA,NKVD and UDBA (long story,it was one of many dumbs moments of the Cold War that happened by accident),the “accidental” death of Herr Richter and other “German expats”-all can be traced back to 14th February 1951.
But the most important consequence was the brief normalization of nuclear proliferation. Because of Argentina,Brazil had to obtain nuclear weapons as well to protect itself and its neighbors (but mostly itself) and no one objected. Because of Brazil,France also felt it should obtain nukes quicker and no one objected. Because of Ustase influence in Argentina and Soviet imperialism,Tito entered the arms race and everyone still thought it was a normal thing. The Swiss simply didn’t care what the world thought,if they wanted nukes then by God they got them and that was that. It seemed like the world would just get used to this and its leaders be forced to accept it as normal.
Then the Egyptian Crisis happened.
Out of damned foolishness Colonel Nasser,wanting to show a stronger hand in making his dream of an United Arab Republic and later nationalizing the Suez Canal,hired certain German “advisors” that had “willingly” left Argentina and heavily funded a nuclear weapons program. On 27 July 1956,Egypt detonated its first nuclear bomb and Nasser held a massive rally in Cairo,almost identical to the one Perón held a couple of years back. Drunken by nationalist retoric,Nasser thought his grandiose plans for his vision of the Arab world would come reality. No one would dare fight he who mastered the power of the atom.
He was deadly wrong.
Everyone was outraged by these actions-especially the Soviets,who were kept in the dark about this and now feared,along with the rest of the world,that a new rouge state had come in being. The British,the French and the Israeli were more frighteted than delighted-sure,they now had a good reason to invade Egypt,but they did not expect Nasser to do such an act of wanton defiance. Nor of him to make all their fears come true. Anthony Eden now viewed himself as being on a mission,to stop another tyrant like others have failed with Perón. In an act that would serve as the beginning of a curious collaboration between the West and Moscow,he and Khrushchev agreed that the British-Franco-Israeli invasion force would be backed in the UN by the Soviets and,along with President Nixon,approve the removal of Nasser and his regime and getting rid of all weapons of mass distruction. Sure,this meant throwing Hungary under the bus but Eden reluctantly viewed as a necessary price in exchange for eliminating a threat to world peace. It did not mattered that Egypt was thrown into war and chaos for decades to come or that the Suez Canal was blown by Nasser in his last orders-the needs of the many outweighted the needs of the few in the minds of people back then.
But the Atomic Craze was not over. Many more nations desired the power of the atom,either to protect themselves or to conquer their enemies. The Belgians wanted to reafirm themselves as a worthy power. The South Africans and the Chinese Communists wanted to become independent from the world and no longer be hold back by the rules of the world. The Indians wanted protection from their neighboors,who they viewed as an eteral threat to their survival as a nation. The power of the atom now belonged to everyone.
And the world powers feared that. They hated that. Something had to be done.
By 21 September 1961,Prime Minister Eden,President Humphrey and Secretary General Kirichenko had come to a common solution. The Stockholm Treaty,signed (in many cases forcibly) by 150 nations,meant that no more nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons testing shall be built or done by those who signed after 1 January 1962. Anyone who did not sign the Treaty became labeled as a rouge state and thus sanctioned heavily by the international community. Some nations like West Germany even included this in the Constitution to show their commitment to creating a safer world for the future generations (and the Iron Curtain nations but they did it because Moscow forced them and threatened military action). In some ways,this was viewed,as if not the end or even the beginning of the end of the Cold War,then at least the end of the beginning. The fall of fascism in Spain in fact can be tied to this,as Franco fell from power in 1963 due to sanctions and democracy slowly returned in the penisula.
But it was one of the few benefits of this new consensus. In their desire to create a less dangerous world for their people,the leaders of the world had enleashed a world where they became even more depentent on fosil fuels and nations like Albania,South Africa,Argentina or China became isolated,impoverished states,prone to coups and civil wars in the years to come. Today,the unstopable growth of global warming can linked as a direct consequence of the Stockholm Treaty. Florida,London,Venice,Malvines,Sri Lanka,Netherlands,Belgium,Denmark-all gone,swept by the waters. By misusing the power of the atom and locking it afterwards in fear,Humphrey,Eden and Kirilenko had merely doomed the world to a slower,crueler death.
If only they learned....