Critics may wonder what happened to all the chapters in between. Presidential aides may hope that the visits to Prague and Hiroshima – at either end of his time in office – will look like bookends of a consistent, if admittedly so far inconclusive, strategy. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it,” he said, six months before receiving the Nobel peace prize, in part for the promise of disarmament. “As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. “The United States has a special responsibility to continue to lead in pursuit of that objective as we are the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon,” wrote his national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, on Tuesday in a statement accompanying news of Obama’s May visit.īut the most remarkable thing about such language is how closely it echoes the unmet promises of a fresher-faced Obama seven years ago in Prague when he first announced that his presidency would demonstrate “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. The White House hopes that his trip to Hiroshima – the first by a serving US president – will reaffirm a “personal commitment to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”.
