It's been 40 years since the French sunk the Rainbow Warrior.

They wanted to stop the protests against nuclear testing at Mururoa.

The terrorist attack by an allied country on on our soil was outrageous.

Two years after the event, we cemented our nuclear free stance.
 
We're officially against nuclear weapons.

Testing is bad for the environment, no doubt.

But let me ask you a question. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have we had another world war?

The answer is no.

We've had decades of cold war between Russia and the West.
We've had plenty of conflict - Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East.
But nothing's escalated quite in the way it did in World Wars I and II.

I think you've got to ask yourself why?

Did we collectively realise the bloody cost of far away battles and drawing our friends into conflict?
Did we wake up after the second round and think, oh, world wars aren't that great.

Or we witness the power of atomic weapons in Japan and scare ourselves silly?

The theory of nuclear deterrence basically says that yes nukes are evil inventions, but their existence deters your enemies from attacking you for fear you'll hit back with a nuke.

Mutually assured destruction.

It's like schoolyard bullies. You don't pick on a guy who's got a bunch of older brothers who could then come beat you up.

The threat of getting totally annihilated deters you from picking on somebody with nukes, or, messing with their friends.

Nukes are bad. But does anybody think without them we'd have gone 80 years without a major world war?

It's been 40 years since the French sunk the Rainbow Warrior.
They wanted to stop the protests against nuclear testing at Mururoa.
The terrorist attack by an allied country on on our soil was outrageous.
Two years after the event, we cemented our nuclear free stance. &nbsp; We're officially against nuclear weapons.
Testing is bad for the environment, no doubt.
But let me ask you a question. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have we had another world war?
The answer is no.
We've had decades of cold war between Russia and the West. We've had plenty of conflict - Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East. But nothing's escalated quite in the way it did in World Wars I and II.
I think you've got to ask yourself why?
Did we collectively realise the bloody cost of far away battles and drawing our friends into conflict? Did we wake up after the second round and think, oh, world wars aren't that great.
Or we witness the power of atomic weapons in Japan and scare ourselves silly?
The theory of nuclear deterrence basically says that yes nukes are evil inventions, but their existence deters your enemies from attacking you for fear you'll hit back with a nuke.
Mutually assured destruction.
It's like schoolyard bullies. You don't pick on a guy who's got a bunch of older brothers who could then come beat you up.
The threat of getting totally annihilated deters you from picking on somebody with nukes, or, messing with their friends.
Nukes are bad. But does anybody think without them we'd have gone 80 years without a major world war?

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Nukes have prevented 80 years of major war

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/9b507acd-8626-4024-8202-b316008cae6c/transcript