There used to be a bipartisan consensus in favor of something called nuclear nonproliferation.
The basic thinking was that it was dangerous enough having major superpowers with nuclear weapons aimed at each other. What we absolutely could not tolerate was for nuclear weaponry to spread such that some lunatic would get his hands on them. We couldn't do anything about the fact that the Russians and the Chinese had them, and they couldn't do anything about the fact that we, the British, the French and the Israelis had them. Those ships had all sailed.
