Nuclear Weapons Balance Sheet

摘要

Pakistan's quest for attaining nuclear weapons was solely driven by India. When 'Buddha smiled' in the Indian Pokhran in 1974, achieving nuclear weapons parity with its arch enemy for the beleaguered nation that had not yet fully recovered from the 1971 split became an obsession. There was across the board near unanimity among the country's populace that without a matching nuclear response the perceived Indian threat to the national existence could not be countered. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto set the ball rolling by establishing an autonomous and powerful body tasked to build the bomb at any cost and/or by any means. His ouster in 1977 did not impede the progress towards nuclear weaponization and by 1985 under the much maligned Zia ul Haq Pakistan had eventually crossed the nuclear threshold - it had successfully put together and clandestinely cold-tested a nuclear weapon based on the highly enriched Uranium fuel. Delivery means, however, remained one dimensional and not very reliable.