Eighty years ago today, the first of two atom bombs was used in anger. Hiroshima was vaporized. But one plane, one bomb, destroying a city was inconceivable.

The Japanese now could understand how massive B-29 raids could kill hundreds of thousands of people in Tokyo or Nagoya in a single night.

It took a second B-29 and a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later to shock and awe Japan into abandoning its insistence on suicidal resistance and surrender unconditionally to the allies.

Then came the H-bomb and thermonuclear weapons. The explosive power of nuclear weapons is measured in thousands of tons of TNT equivalents or kilotons, or KT. Thermonuclear weapons are measured in million-ton equivalents of TNT, or MT,

While at one time it was feasible to consider the tactical use of

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