Trump fails the Hiroshima test

Presidents in the nuclear age must have the judgment and maturity to avoid catastrophic wars

When Barack Obama makes the first ever visit by an American president to Hiroshima this week, it will be a sobering reminder of the extraordinary power that comes with his office.

Since the day 71 years ago this August when President Harry Truman ordered the use of an atomic weapon to destroy the Japanese city during World War II, his successors in the White House have been custodians of the most powerful and destructive arsenal in human history. How fortunate we are that all of them, without exception, have shouldered stewardship of America’s nuclear weapons judiciously, wisely and in accordance with our most important values.

This is one reason why the presidential election this fall is so important and why Donald Trump’s candidacy is so troubling and potentially dangerous. It was Trump, after all, who in an early Republican debate appeared to lack even the most rudimentary knowledge of the U.S. nuclear triad — our capacity to launch nuclear weapons from aircraft, ground units and submarines.

Each American president must bring to the office a deep respect for these weapons that he or she alone may order to be deployed. And all of them must value the importance of restraint when dealing with history’s most destructive technology. In this sense, our presidents must also meet the most difficult test of modern diplomacy — how to contain and ultimately defeat our adversaries without unleashing a catastrophic war in the process. Trump has shown no such knowledge, sophistication or skill in his helter-skelter campaign this spring.

Obama’s visit to Japan also takes place against the backdrop of Trump’s accusation that the governments of Japan and South Korea, both vital military allies of the U.S., have failed to contribute adequate financial support for the stationing of American military forces in their countries. As is so often the case, Trump is wrong on the facts. But that has not stopped him from threatening to withdraw U.S. military and nuclear protection of Tokyo and Seoul, disband our alliance with them and even suggesting they develop their own nuclear weapons in an already brittle and unstable Asia.

Trump’s recommendation would repudiate 70 years of American policy supported by every Republican and Democratic President. It would cause America’s many friends and allies to question Washington’s credibility and seriousness. And it might lead to a Beijing-Tokyo arms race that could destabilize the region and weaken American influence in the process. Words matter in foreign policy. Trump’s are ill-considered and incendiary.

The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan might have been describing Trump when he remarked famously that “You are entitled to your opinion.  But you are not entitled to your own facts.” Here are the facts about Japan which Trump disregards. It is one of America’s most important and loyal allies in the world. The U.S.-Japan military alliance is central to our long-term strategic aim to limit China’s military reach in Asia and to maintain the U.S. as the region’s predominant power. And the Japanese have provided billions of dollars per year to support American forces on Okinawa and on other bases in the country.

Trump’s repeated verbal assaults on Japan, South Korea and our NATO allies raise another concern about his candidacy. He is consistently tougher on our friends than on our autocratic adversaries such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, of whom he has spoken admiringly.