Defense: The Atomic Arsenal

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Everyone knows—or should—that the U.S., with its nuclear arsenal, is the mightiest nation in human history. But few people really realize the staggering dimensions of that might. For one thing, facts about the arsenal have been shrouded by military secrecy. For another, the destructive power possessed by the U.S. simply beggars imagination.

Last week the world got its best glimpse yet of the size and condition of the U.S.'s nuclear nest egg. It came when Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara testified on behalf of the recently signed nuclear test ban...