The first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The civilian death toll was 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) took effect 48 years ago, yet the five NPT nuclear weapons states have not taken serious action on their treaty commitments to nuclear disarmament. In the meantime, four more states have acquired nuclear weapons and the risks of their use have only increased over time.

In 2017, the vast majority of non-nuclear states, under the auspices of the United Nations, adopted a new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The nine nuclear-armed states and their close allies boycotted the talks.

President Trump has unveiled a Nuclear Posture Review that for the first time declares that the U.S. might use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear threats. He has declared that the U.S. will withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and has made no preparations to ensure that the New START Treaty will be renewed in 2021. His administration is building dangerous new categories of nuclear weapons, including the Low Yield nuclear weapons that would make battlefield use of nuclear weapons more likely, and an air-launched cruise missile, and is continuing with a $1 trillion nuclear weapons escalation, which is already leading to a new nuclear arms race among the great powers.The United States’ 6,800 nuclear warheads, although with those of the other nuclear powers, pose an imminent threat to humanity. The president can launch a civilization-destroying nuclear war on his sole authority.

Today, military spending accounts for more than half of the federal government’s entire discretionary budget. Nuclear weapons spending alone accounts for over $40 billion annually, and is scheduled to increase. There is an obvious connection between the bloated Pentagon budget and the critical underfunding of education, health care, housing and infrastructure in communities across the country.

Few presidential candidates are discussing the danger of nuclear war. Without a powerful grassroots movement dedicated to nuclear disarmament, the world’s nuclear crisis is rapidly getting worse instead of better. Therefore, Waltham Concerned Citizens joins with peace groups, people of faith, youth, community groups, and human rights advocates who have organized events across Massachusetts on August 4-11, 2020, to call attention to the people’s demand for an end to the $1 trillion nuclear weapons escalation and the failure of the United States to support the nuclear ban treaty.

For more information, call (617) 548-6330 or email info@walthamconcernedcitizens.org.