From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains.

Nuclear deterrence means using the threat of nuclear retaliation to convince your opponent

that using nuclear weapons would not be worth the cost.

You might be familiar with this strategy because it helped us win the Cold War.

Here's my favorite president, Ronald Reagan.

This nation's military objective has always been to maintain peace by preventing war.

This is neither a Democratic nor a Republican policy.

It's supported by our allies.

And most important of all, it's worked for nearly 40 years.

What do we mean when we speak of nuclear deterrence?

Certainly we don't want such weapons for their own sake.

We don't desire excessive forces or what some people have called overkill.

Basically, it's a matter of others knowing that starting a conflict

would be more costly to them than anything they might hope to gain.

And yes, it is sadly ironic that in these modern times, it still takes weapons to prevent war.

As much as I love those remarks, that speech was a long time ago.

And I just don't think that people have the same feelings about

nuclear war. The threat doesn't feel as real as it did back then. Generations ahead of me

don't remember or care about the well-known mantra of peace through strength. In fact, at the

beginning of 2022, the Biden administration actually said it would be their goal

to reduce the role of U.S. nuclear weapons in our strategy.

But our guest today says that makes no sense, because our adversaries, like Russia and China,

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