Introduction “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds,” (Oppenheimer, 1965, 0:47). So said Julius Robert Oppenheimer, one of the men credited with creating the atomic bomb, when describing the first test detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo Bomb Range in New Mexico ( Sublette, 1999), as he quotes the Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Vita. Nuclear weapons have only been used in warfare twice, both times by the United States during World War I, when the United States dropped the ‘Fat Man’ and ‘Little Boy’ bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945 (Sublette, 1999). In the 60 intervening years, a number of other nations have since developed nuclear weapons of their own. Because of nuclear proliferation, and the unparalleled destructive power of atomic weapons, nuclear non-proliferation has become an international concern, with the United States leading the charge. The past decade, however, has seen new nations try to enter the ‘nuclear club’ the most recent country being Iran. A nuclear armed Iran poses many concerns to the United States. In this paper, I will discuss the history of Iran’s nuclear program, what steps have been taken to curb the Iranians efforts, and where the two major political parties of the United States stand on the issue. Before I go any farther, I want to preface my paper with a disclaimer or two. First, I personally do not believe that Iran, as it currently stands, should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Iran’s rulers are religious extremists, and they pose a serious threat to the western world. However, I will strive to present an unbiased review of the issue. Secondly, this paper is not meant to be an exhaustive examination of the topic of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. I am a college freshman at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and I wrote this paper for my English 111 class. As such, I had a very limited time period in which I could research Iran and nuclear
