The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

by Fred Kaplan

Iran was working out very differently. Talks between Iran and the P5+1 group—the five permanent members of the Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France) plus Germany—were making slow but substantial progress. After two years of negotiations, they signed a meticulously detailed, 159-page accord with the most intrusive inspection procedures of any nuclear arms control pact in history, blocking all of Iran’s possible paths to a nuclear weapon. In exchange for dismantling its nuclear programs, the P5+1 nations would lift economic sanctions that they’d imposed on Iran after discovering its covert uranium enrichment plants, which were illegal under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Other sanctions, which the U.N Security Council had passed to penalize Iran for testing ballistic missiles and supporting terrorists, remained in place.) On August 5, 2015, as part of his campaign to promote the deal against strenuous opposition from the Israeli government (though not most Israeli security officers), from Sunni Arab leaders (who, like the Israeli political leaders, wanted to wage war on the Shiite government of Iran), and from most Republicans in the U.S. Congress (who opposed any diplomatic triumph for the young, black Democratic president), Obama delivered a speech at American University in Washington, D.C., drawing parallels with President Kennedy’s speech there fifty-two years earlier. Obama portrayed the Test Ban Treaty, which grew out of that earlier ...