In the Spring of 2006, I went to the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was tested. Only open to visitors twice a year, there isn't much to see other than a great expanse of sky, fenced off desert and a replica of the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.

Most tourists seemed happy to be there. I overheard many people discuss the pride they felt visiting the source of America's technological superiority. Few made the connection between this history making test and humanity's capability to literally destroy the world.