Officially, at least according to what the public knows, nine countries across the world

are recognized as having nuclear weapons.

You have the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, which has

never officially admitted to it, North Korea, India, as well as Pakistan.

Now, ever since these weapons were invented, never have two nuclear armed powers fought one

another directly, except India and Pakistan.

You see, in 1998, Pakistan officially became a nuclear power after they detonated five nuclear bombs

in an underground testing site. The next year, which was 1999, you saw the Cargill war

between India and Pakistan. This was a roughly three-month-long conflict in the disputed

Kashmir region. When all the dust settled, roughly 1,000 soldiers were dead and another

2,000 wounded with both sides sustaining heavy casualties. Now, during the conflict, the Pakistani

government sought out help from the Americans in order to de-escalate the situation. And it was

during this time that the BBC reported the following, citing Mr. Bruce

Riedel, who was then a high-level aid to President Bill Clinton. Quote, Pakistan deployed nuclear

weapons for a possible attack against India in 1999, but was persuaded by the U.S. not to launch them.

What happened was that in late June, successful Indian counterattacks on Pakistan-occupied

positions around Kargil in Kashmir and Islamabad's diplomatic isolation raised the possibility

of a Pakistani defeat.

According to Mr. Riedel, this is when the US became aware Pakistan was preparing to use

nuclear weapons and President Clinton intervened to prevent their launch.

Now, fortunately, this conflict ended in July of 1999 without nuclear weapons having been used.

But honestly, if what this White House aide said was true, that was pretty close.

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