The United States of America is the only nation on the planet to use a Nuclear Weapon against the advice of numbers of the nuclear physicists who helped develop it. They had worked on it strictly as a deterrent to possible development of the same weapon by Germany who had surrendered for months prior to Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9) cities in Japan, an adversary which did not possess the bomb. There is considerable evidence that the real reason for using the bomb was to demonstrate to the Soviet Union, which had entered the war against Japan only days before (August 1), they (USSR) had better not be tempted to use their superior conventional power in Europe in the post-war period. There is also considerable evidence that Japan surrendered quickly (they had been seeking terms of surrender since early Spring 1945) not because of the A-bombs (over 60% of Japanese cities had been devastated by US conventional bombing in the past 6 months of the war and real news of what a Nuclear Weapon had done differently had not had time to be evaluated by Tokyo) but that they preferred surrender to US rather than the USSR. (The Japanese had humiliated the Russian military in 1905.)
Following the Japanese surrender major Christian theologians in the US condemned the use of the Atomic Bomb. Scientist attempted to create a moral pressure (Moral Rearmament) against use of their knowledge for further development of the bomb. The US Government on the one hand made efforts to create within the UN an international system of control of the weapon. On the other it basked in its unilateral possession of the bomb up till Soviets also gained a weapon. It made use of that possession in its foreign policy decisions. Once the Soviets had the bombs (Atomic and later Thermonuclear) the US developed a deterrence strategy that was based on MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). If someone were to use Nuclear weapons vs. US the US would always be able to assure nuclear destruction of the perpetrator in return. (This kind of deterrence thinking was in the mind of Einstein when he urged the US to develop nuclear weapons–a thought process not included later in the US decision to first use the bomb vs. a non-nuclear Japan. The American Public was sold this arms race (a balance of terror) as a matter of national defense and over the next 50 years expended well over 6 Trillion dollars of national treasure developing the “Nuclear Triad” a land-sea-air capability that would be able to survive nuclear attack and assure devastating response. At the same time it accepted the Non-Proliferation Treaty with its prohibition on other nations developing a nuclear capability while Pinocchio-like professing to a quick abolition of its own capability. But so long as there was a nation out there that could threaten a serious nuclear attack vs. the US we were told we could not eliminate ours. In actual fact there was only one nation the USSR capable of coming close. When the Cold War ended any real deterrence no longer required our huge arsenal and some nations in the Soviet sphere of influence actually decided on their side to abolish their nuclear capabilities. (ie Ukraine…). Others not in the Soviet block followed suit (ie Brazil, South Africa…).
But now the US Congress has funded the planned “modernization” of the US nuclear weapons complex and it will include not just deterrence but uses of nuclear weapons on the battlefield. And our Government has oppose the ratification of the BAN Treaty developed by 122 member nations of the UN. It has pressured NATO nations not to sign or ratify the treaty (in the interests of “national security”). None of the Nuclear Armed nations (including Israel who does not acknowledge its nuclear arsenal of 80 to 200 weapons) do not support the treaty all maintaining that it is to “idealistic ” and that nuclear weapons have kept the peace over the past 60 years. Really? Lets ask Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, former Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc. about that peace. Check out their graveyards! Ask those who have died from exposure to nuclear weapons production and testing in the Marshall Islands, Utah, Vermont, Colorado, Washington. What a boon!