The Nuclear Button & US Presidents

It’s a devastating weapon of mass destruction, and in the United States the power to use it belongs to one person: the President. Since the Truman administration, there has been no requirement for the President to gain approval from Congress or even the Secretary of Defence before unleashing the nuclear arsenal. To learn more about the authority of Presidents Truman to Trump and now Biden, James welcomes William J. Perry, Secretary of Defence in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defence for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration, and Tom Z. Collina, the Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC. They discuss their experiences in Nuclear strategy and the prospect, or reality, of a Second Nuclear Arms Race and Cold War.

Their book can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692279/the-button-by-william-j-perry/9781948836999.

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