Chapter Sixty-Three
Nearly every seat within the U.N. General Assembly hall was occupied. A hundred-and-ninety-three-member countries were seated in alphabetical order throughout the amphitheater, including the five permanent members of the Security Counciclass="underline" China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States — all allies during World War II, and nuclear weapons states.
Congressman Peter Grzonkowski looked tired. He had been answering questions for an hour and forty-five minutes. The Chairman of the United Nations asked if the witness considering recent terrorist events in Washington D.C., wanted a short recess.
The Congressman shook his head. “No, sir. I’m ready to conclude.” Shoulders back, he sat up straight, so he could speak clearly into the microphone at the front of his desk. “In the morning of August 6, 1945,” he said, “the world changed forever when the Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear weapon on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.”
There was a lingering silence within the General Assembly. Nearly eight decades had passed, but memory of the horrific event came vividly to everyone’s mind.
Grzonkowski continued, “For the first time in history, we developed the power to destroy not just each other, but our entire species, through nuclear war.” He paused to let that concept sit there for a moment. “This was an evolutionary achievement that no other creature on earth had attained.”
His eyes swept the silent faces of those who filled the amphitheater. “It has been long considered that the innovation of the atomic bomb brought about a new era of peace, unseen in any other stage of humanity’s existence.”
Congressman Grzonkowski took a sip of water from the glass in front of him and swallowed. “Historians argue that the physicist Robert Oppenheimer, should have been given a Nobel Peace Prize for his work toward the development of a nuclear bomb. As I explained previously, that title should have gone to all four men involved in its propagation.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “In 1947 a German Physicist named Werner Heisenberg realized that the atom bomb was not enough to ensure peace now that the human race had the ability to destroy the entire world.”
Grzonkowski opened his eyes again. “Heisenberg felt there should be an opposing superpower, like two sides of the Earth’s magnetic poles, to maintain balance through nuclear deterrence. With this in mind, he gave the Soviet Union the key to the Genie, and the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project was born.
“Thus, the Cold War began.
“Yet wars, even cold wars, need fuel,” Grzonkowski said. “A World War II hero, Charles Finney, a good friend of the then United States Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, launched a clandestine plan. His idea was to promote perpetual war, and accordingly, from his point of view, obtain peace.
“Finney utilized the benefit of a young shipping owner, named Michael Reilly, to sell weapons grade uranium and armaments to the Soviet Union.
“Meanwhile, backed by a select group of people within the United States, Charles Finney continued to promote Cold War propaganda and the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. Powerful men became richer, while dissidents were silenced to ensure this secret remained forever hidden.
“Finney believed that humanity needed the ongoing threat of nuclear destruction.
“Yet with the development of the internet, free trade, and the global market, it’s not just nuclear threat that makes war unviable — its economics. Commerce is a game that everyone can win. We must make the price of war too expensive and the rewards too paltry. We need opposing superpowers to work together in financial trade.
"While the media would have you believe differently, deaths through war has been in decline since 1945. Today, despite Syria and Iraq, we are not anywhere near the levels seen during the Chinese Civil War, Korea, Vietnam, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, Iran-Iraq, USSR-Afghanistan, and many regions of Africa.
“As a species, we’ve come together. I think it’s time we address the possibility of a world without nuclear bombs. Has there been peace because of the nuclear deterrent, or because we have evolved?
“Today, we are living in the most nonviolent era in the existence of our species. I believe, in the not too distant future, the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction will not be necessary. Although Heisenberg was ahead of his time, there was one thing he got wrong, something he never could have predicted back in 1947. Something that would inevitably change the course of human evolution.”
Grzonkowski paused. “The innovation and rise of the Internet.”
He exhaled a deep breath. “This led to a world of globalization unimaginable back in 1947, where all countries are connected through communication and trade, rendering the price of war too expensive, and the rewards too meager. No one wants to harm their customers.
“Given time, I believe nuclear weapons will disarm, and the human race, having risen far from its humble beginnings as hunter gatherers, will finally enjoy peace on earth.”