Why Do Only 10 Out of 195 Countries Have Nuclear Weapons? Part 1

In 1963, Israel was very close to building a nuclear bomb. But this deeply worried American President John F. Kennedy. He did not want Israel to develop nuclear weapons and create instability in the Arab world. Because if that happened, the Arab countries would seek help from Russia, America’s enemy. Kennedy tried every possible way to stop Israel. But what happened afterward was beyond anyone’s imagination.

Whether it was America, the UK, or Russia, powerful countries played extremely dangerous games to obtain nuclear weapons. Some used secret intelligence operations, some relied on honey traps, and even close allies openly betrayed each other in this race.

Today, we will look at the stories of the 10 countries that possess this terrifying power.

Out of the world’s 195 countries, only 10 managed to build nuclear weapons. Some helped each other, but most achieved it through secrecy, espionage, deadly rivalries, and betrayal.

The first country was the United States. Most people know America was the first nation to develop atomic weapons. But few know that the discovery behind it was first achieved by German scientists. In 1938, German scientists discovered nuclear fission — a way to split atoms and release enormous amounts of energy through a chain reaction.

At that time, the scientific community was small, and news of this discovery quickly reached Albert Einstein in America. He warned the American president that Adolf Hitler could use this discovery to build a devastating bomb.

As a result, during World War II, America launched the highly secretive Manhattan Project. Scientists from America, Britain, and Canada worked together, and huge amounts of money were invested to ensure Hitler would not win the race.

By 1945, Germany had surrendered and Hitler was dead. Around the same time, America successfully conducted the Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico. Soon afterward, America dropped Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Japan, forcing it to surrender.

Although the war ended, the race for nuclear weapons had just begun.

The second country was the Soviet Union (Russia). Ironically, America’s wartime ally became its greatest concern. During the war, Soviet spies infiltrated the Manhattan Project and secretly collected information about America’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, American intelligence turned some Soviet agents into double agents and fed them false information.

Despite this confusion, the Soviet Union continued its own research and successfully tested its first bomb, RDS-1, in Kazakhstan in 1949. America’s monopoly on nuclear weapons was over, and the Cold War had begun.

The third country was the United Kingdom. Britain had actually begun nuclear research before America under a project called Tube Alloys. Due to limited resources during World War II, Britain shared its research with America under the Quebec Agreement, expecting both nations to share nuclear technology equally.

But after America built the bomb, it refused to continue sharing information, effectively betraying Britain. This forced the UK to restart its own nuclear weapons program. In 1952, Britain successfully conducted its first nuclear test, called Operation Hurricane, near Australia.

Around the same time, America began developing something far more dangerous than the atomic bomb — the hydrogen bomb. Unlike atomic bombs, which use nuclear fission, hydrogen bombs use nuclear fusion, the same process that powers the Sun.

America tested the hydrogen bomb in 1952. Its power was around 450 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. Russia followed in 1955, and Britain in 1957.

The fourth country was France. Initially, France intended to use nuclear technology only for electricity generation. But the Suez Crisis changed everything.

When Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt. However, both America and the Soviet Union pressured them to retreat. Russia even threatened nuclear action.

Humiliated, France decided it needed its own nuclear weapons. Using uranium from its colonies, France successfully tested its first nuclear bomb in the Sahara Desert in 1960 and later developed hydrogen bombs as well.

The fifth country was China. During the Korean War, America threatened China with nuclear weapons. Chinese leader Mao Zedong realized China would never be respected without nuclear capability.