Past Attempts to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

The destructive power of the atom bomb was demonstrated for the first time in the Alamagordo test of July 1945. Even before that, scientists on the Manhattan Project, who foresaw the dire consequences of a nuclear arms race, pleaded for the setting up of an international authority to control, and subsequently abolish, nuclear weapons. After the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, such pleas became universal. The strong desire to rid the world of the nuclear monster was expressed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its first resolution, and repeated time and time again.