The

The The president is often called the most powerful man in the world, and that is due in no small part to his control over the United States nuclear arsenal.

Currently, America has about 3,700 nuclear warheads that can be delivered by submarines,

ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles and bombers.

America is the first country to create the nuclear weapon and the only one to use it.

And the bomb was something that hovered over the world during

the Cold War, a time when the threat of nuclear war was very real. And it was a weapon that

American presidents tried to manage as a tool to threaten our enemies, but also to control

so that the weapon didn't destroy the world. When the Cold War ended in the late

80s and early 90s, the specter of nuclear war faded. But the reality didn't really fade.

Nine countries possessed nuclear weapons. American presidents have initiated wars in Iraq and

recently in Iran, in part to prevent those countries from acquiring weapons

of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. So these weapons remain a big part of our reality.

Anyone trying to understand the modern presidency will have to understand the dilemmas inherent

in nuclear weapons. Our guest today is an expert on these issues.

His name is Professor Anthony Eames, Dr. Anthony Eames, and he is the director of scholarly initiatives

at the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. And he's the author of a voice in their own destiny, Reagan, Thatcher, and Public

Diplomacy in the nuclear 1980s, and a co-author with John Bayliss of the book Sharing Nuclear

Secrets. So, Anthony, thanks for being on our show.

Thanks for having me, Richard. Good to be here.

So President Franklin D. Roosevelt

was the first president who initiated the Manhattan Project. So let's just kind of dive into

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