Who was President at the time of those tests...
Good ol LBJ - who was as expert a crook as Clinton and less weak-willed, though not nearly as lucky.
Which president authorized the detonation of the most recent combat special nuclear device* in a civilian area?
Hint: Yugoslavia
No one's defending it. Presidents do dumb things sometimes. During the 50's and 60's lots more times.
SDAI-Tech1
*(A device producing a very small nuclear reaction with miniscule quantities of fissile material used in order to generate a regional EMP.)