Last week John Bolton remarked that the end game of the nuclear negotiations with North Korea was to replicate the “Libyan model.” Later, Bolton spelled out that what he meant was that all of North Korea’s nuclear devices should be turned over to us and “stored at Oak Ridge.” President Trump was unclear about whether he agreed or disagreed with this notion, or even if he understood what was being proposed. But let’s begin with a brief history of the Libyan nuclear program. (Much of this story can be found in the book Unclear Physics by Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer. The origin of this odd title for a book about the Iraqi nuclear program is that a secretary typing a memorandum had accidentally typed in the heading “Unclear” for “Nuclear.” Some of the participants in the program thought that this was an apt description.)

In thinking about Libya it is easy to forget that when Colonel Muammar Qaddafi took over the country on September 1, 1969, Libya (thanks to its oil revenues) was a wealthy country. As an example: In 1979 Libya gave the Pakistanis $133 million to help finance their nuclear weapons program.