Ward Wilson’s 5 Step Plan to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

by David Lambert (Internet links added by John M Repp)

At the September 10th 2026 monthly meeting of Northwest Against Nuclear Weapons, Program Manager Sean Arent introduced guest speaker Ward Wilson. I soon realized Wilson is the author of a book I had read a number of years ago: Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons (2013). Sean Arent works for WPSR, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility: https://www.wpsr.org/ (see also https://www.wpsr.org/why-we-work-on-nuclear-weapons)

This evening, Wilson presented a slide show he has named Realist Revolt; Practical 5-Step Plan. He began the presentation by sharing a powerful and sobering experience he had when he was six years old. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he extremely frightened when he saw his parent’s emotional response to the events. He was told by his mother that “bad men had put missiles on an island” and the missiles could be coming down on all of them “at any time.” He remembers waiting a long time outside his home that day for the missiles to come down.

Wilson told us about his study of nuclear weapons for over 40 years. At some point early on he came to the conclusion that these weapons could not be depended upon for nuclear deterrence. They were built during the cold war when fearful scientists built them, not realizing that these awful tools could not keep people safe over the long term. They “could not guarantee our safety.” He came to the conclusion that deterrence was “not a realistic” claim and the scientists who had built them were living under highly fearful conditions and lacking in clear thinking.

Wilson also shared that his first formal scholarly writing appeared in the Harvard International Security Journal in 2008 where he mentioned that Japan did not surrender as a result of the atomic bombings, going against the mainstream thinking. This was a “breakthrough approach” that caught on with top military leaders, including George Lee Butler, a 4-star Air Force General, who helped lead nuclear war drills. General Butler highly praised Wilson’s article. (In Wilson’s 2013 book referenced above, he devoted a lengthy section on reasons why the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being the cause of Japan’s surrender are a myth).

Wilson thinks and “knows” that nuclear deterrence is a “lie”. He shared numerous examples of armed conflicts and wars between nuclear and nonnuclear countries; that deterrence did not stop these conflicts from happening. He further stated that most people in the U.S. think it is impossible to get rid of nuclear weapons while also stating that 69% of people surveyed were fearful of these weapons. These reactions have been caused by 80 years of living “under a nuclear cloud”, a great amount of doomsday talk, resulting in “pessimism and resignation” among the people. He thinks much of this was caused by the scientists who built and tested the bomb and their statements of having developed a “supernatural power” which could lead to an “Armageddon” ending. He thinks this has led to a loss of optimism and hope in our society ever since. That one can actually see this in body language and facial expressions of people since the end of WWII. At some level it seems, most people don’t really believe that these awful weapons will keep them safe and cannot prevent nuclear war forever.

Despite all the fear and pessimism, Wilson thinks this fatalistic thinking, while understandable, is not warranted. He thinks nuclear weapons are not useful on a real battlefield and not helpful due to the extremely high degree of uncontrollability of these weapons if they were used. He sees much similarity between these weapons and biological and chemical weapons that have been banned for the same reason of high unpredictability once those weapons were used. All three of these weapon types are “lousy” and leaders of different countries knew that historically biologically and chemical weapons could not protect their own troops and citizens.

That is why two of them have been banned and reinforces his thinking nuclear weapons can be banned as well.

Wilson has a 5 – step plan and he started his discussion with the final step 5, a fully verifiable and strict treaty that no leader would want to try and break. It would be based on the already established Biological and Chemical Treaties framework which has been effective.

This would follow a worldwide “persuasion campaign” led by the U.S. This is  Step 4: A nation level open discussion in Congress about the high risks and uselessness of these weapons, that they have no military value at all. The U.S. could join the already 139 countries that have either signed or support a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. The U.S. President could talk before Congress and acknowledge that we highly exaggerated the military utility of these weapons and call for a world-wide discussion leading to a treaty banning these weapons.

Step 3: A Congressional resolution that would show support by the U.S. for this treaty. But how to do this since Congress has shown so many times it doesn’t want to do what it doesn’t want to do? Here is where Wilson provides impassioned commentary on the long march of the women’s movement eventually gaining the right to vote; how the Civil Rights movement pushed Congress to pass laws, and again, the Women’s movement in the 1970’s gained progress in women’s right to equal pay.

Step 2: Winning over State and Regional officials: strong grassroots pressure on these Representatives, Senators, and regional officials. Wilson calls for citizens to do what is necessary: petitions, meeting with officials, and other local pressure to make it clear by asking “What are you going to do if a nuclear bomb hits D.C.” There won’t be any national departments left to work with our state, so what will you do to handle the devastation and chaos.

(Actually, the first step) Step 1: Working together with neighbors, friends, co-workers, and others to get a strong enough force of people power in numbers to overcome resistance and the belief in deterrence by those in formal power. Since 67% of people surveyed want to abolish these weapons, we have the numbers on our side. He emphasized time and again that nuclear abolition is achievable if pushed hard enough by a large enough number of citizens.

Ward Wilson’s book is pictured below.

here is the link to Wilson’s talk on YouTube:
the myth about Hiroshima – YouTube