EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: India had just joined, in effect, the nuclear club after it had been detected that India had, in fact, conducted a test. And so Pakistan -- it was just inevitable that Pakistan would answer, because of their opinion that they had to show that they, too, had nuclear weapons in order to show a sort of mutually assured destruction capability against their enemy, India. And, of course, this is something that the Clinton administration, covering this from the White House, that the Clinton administration had really tried to prevent. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 28, 1998) WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By failing to exercise restraint and responding to the Indian test, Pakistan lost a truly priceless opportunity to strengthen its own security, to improve its own political standing in the eyes of the world. And although Pakistan was not the first to test, two wrongs don't make a right.</s>O'CONNOR: While the Clinton administration accepted the political realities for the Pakistani leaders, they really hoped that for the greater good of world peace and world stability that Pakistan would not conduct a test of its own and, in effect, join this nuclear club.
CNN 20: Pakistan Tests Nuclear Weapons, May 28, 1998