Nuclear weapons race could weaken US security

US president-elect Donald Trump twittered in late December that the United States "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes". Later, he declared: "Let it be an arms race," and asserted that the US would win it. It seems he is committing a major mistake.

Like any other country, the US deserves its legitimate national security. The US first developed nuclear weapons through the Manhattan Project. And since the program was aimed at both keeping pace with the feared nuclear weapons development program of Nazi Germany and to counter imperialist Japan's aggression, it gained legitimacy.

But the US has often abused its nuclear policy. By flexing its nuclear muscles, the US pushed the Soviet Union to expedite its nuclear weapons program in the late 1940s. By threatening China with a nuclear attack during the Korean War (1950-53), it forced Beijing to launch its own nuclear weapons program in the mid-1950s. And by waging an unjustified war in Iraq, the US taught the Democratic People's Republic of Korea the importance of possessing nuclear weapons.