On North Korea, clarify U.S. won’t initiate strike

In the column “Donald Trump,

North Korea and nuclear weapons: Should presidents alone decide?” Tom Nichols fails to address the broader, more important question: Should the United States adopt a policy of no first use, making clear to the world that our country will never launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike? The answer is yes.

The United States is the only country in history that has used nuclear weapons in combat, killing upwards of

100,000 people with a 15-kiloton bomb on Hiroshima and a

21-kiloton bomb at Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The weapons in today’s nuclear arsenal are many times stronger. One could level an entire city, killing untold millions.

Committing to a policy of no first use would help keep us safe by minimizing the very real risk that a foreign power — like North Korea — might misinterpret a benign rocket launch or a non-nuclear military action as a nuclear strike, leading to nuclear war.

There’s no such thing as a limited nuclear war, and adopting a policy of no first use is the best way to ratchet down tensions. Sen. Dianne Feinstein

D-Calif.