Episode notes
After the trauma of the 1971 war, Pakistan's leadership came to a stark conclusion: international alliances were useless. To guarantee their survival, they would have to build the ultimate deterrent themselves.
The solution was a secret two-pronged strategy: one well-known uranium program to create a deterrent on paper, and a second, more advanced plutonium program to secure absolute capability. This is the story of how Pakistan built its bomb, debunking the myths of foreign reliance and revealing a doctrine of calculated self-sufficiency.
We uncover the full history—from the first reactors to today's miniaturized warheads.