Just a few months after the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it began trying to abolish these horrifying new weapons.

In 1946, the U.S. government proposed decommissioning all of its atomic bombs and putting the related technology under international control if other states would do the same. (The Soviets refused.) A few years later, President Dwight Eisenhower went to the United Nations to deliver his famous his “Atoms for Peace” speech, imploring other countries not to go down the nuclear road.

To strengthen its case, the United States offered its Cold War allies a deal: it would use its arsenal to deter their shared enemies, so that other members of what was then called the Free World wouldn’t need to build their own bombs. To sweeten the bargain, the U.S. offered to help friendly states develop civilian nuclear energy programs.

This arrangement was formalized in 1970 with the creation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Under that agreement, countries that already had nuclear weapons — the U.S., the USSR, the United Kingdom, France and China — got to keep them, but all other signatories pledged to give up their pursuit.

This U.S.-led system for preventing proliferation worked remarkably well. In the last six decades, only four additional countries (Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea) have developed full-fledged nuclear weapons, although a few others (notably Iran) have come close. Even more importantly, in the 80 years since the U.S.........

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